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5/11/2006 12:07:00 AM Duncan Award goes to architecture’s Jimenez BY DAWN DORSEY Carlos Jimenez, professor of architecture at Rice University and an internationally known architect, has combined a distinctive style of teaching and research into an award-winning blend. He is the recipient of the 2006 Charles W. Duncan Jr. Achievement Award for Outstanding Faculty, which recognizes accomplishment in scholarship and teaching.
Jimenez said architecture research doesn’t take place in a controlled environment or a sterile lab; it converges and combines with academics until it’s difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. “What’s different about architecture and a science like biochemistry is that the academic and research sides are intertwined into the built work,” he said. “Every architecture project by nature requires a great deal of research focused toward an optimum solution. Whether in my studio or in one of my studios at Rice, we conduct singularly focused research, and the building is evidence of that research. The level and quality of research is another measure of a project’s success or shortcomings.” But research is only part of the reason Jimenez received the award. “His dedication to teaching and to students is legendary,” said Lars Lerup, dean of architecture and the William Ward Watkin Professor of Architecture. “Carlos is one of the most revered studio teachers in the school. His reputation as considerate and respectful and his interest in our community go far beyond the call of duty and make him an outstanding colleague.” For Jimenez, instruction on the subject of architecture is filled with contradictions. “I try to teach my students to be highly agile and positive in their pursuit of architecture, free and respectful of the discipline’s vast built legacy, intrepid and cautious, citizens of their precise locality and of the world, ” he said. Jimenez, who was born in Costa Rica, came to the U.S. in the 1970s and graduated from the University of Houston in 1981. After a brief partnership, he started his own studio in 1982. He became a visiting professor at Rice in 1987, and in 1996 he started teaching full time at the university. By that time, he was well-known with a substantial portfolio of work and many publications. “Carlos Jimenez’s story is an American story, showing how vital immigrants are to our culture,” Lerup said. “We are truly privileged to have him among us.” |
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