Joe Mashburn, dean of the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, said he will resign effective Sept. 1 to pursue private design.
Mashburn said he takes great pride in the teaching traditions that have formed at the college within the 11 years he’s held the post.
"One of the things I’m proud of is that we have extended the traditions of the college and continued the traditions of designers teaching designers," he said.
The Burdette Keeland Jr. Design and Exploration Center, established in 2007 as a place for architecture students and professors to hone their craft, is a prime example of the college’s teaching philosophy, he said.
"We’ve built the Keeland building so that faculty and students can realize and make their designs," he said.
Mashburn said over time the design disciplines will converge, and he feels confident the College of Architecture will be well positioned for these changes.
Part of the job as dean is to handle the budgets of the college. Mashburn said in his time as dean he witnessed a substantial increase in private money to the school.
"I attribute the increased support to the success of the college," he said. "Success breeds more success."
Mashburn said this synthesis of interdisciplinary architecture and money will help the school expand.
"I think that in the future we will have a school that allows the walls between interior architecture, architecture and industrial design to be porous – because of changing means of production, especially if we consider digital fabrication and prefabrication, architects and designers will increasingly need to learn more from other design disciplines than they used to," Mashburn said.
The Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture has the only industrial design program in the four-state region of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico, and Mashburn sees this as a sign that UH is on its way toward becoming a flagship research institution.
"As we move toward becoming a ‘Tier 1’ research school, I hope that the University will remember and support what it has within its many programs and undergraduate programs," Mashburn said. "I don’t know of any major recognized university that doesn’t have excellent undergraduate programs."
After adding industrial product design curriculum to the college, Mashburn said he is ready to move toward more challenges and his personal designs.
"I’m looking forward to new opportunities and challenges. I’d like to be involved in design initiatives affecting the world and working more closely within design," Mashburn said. "I’m a UH graduate that’s always enjoyed drawing and architecture. I had very little time to do design while being a dean. Design has always been in my life plan, and I think it’s the time in my life that I do this, especially since I will be 68 years old next summer."
Mashburn said he will miss being dean.
"It’s been a period of personal and professional growth. In fact, sometimes it’s been a forced march toward personal growth. The college has come quite a distance in the last 10 years, and we have a great team in this architecture school," he said. There are many people and aspects of this position that I will miss."
