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As the University of Colorado celebrates 100 years of educating designers of the built environment, faculty from CU Boulder’s Department of Environmental Design and CU Denver’s College of Architecture and Planning will explore how a century of change has shaped design education and professional practice. Drawing on archival photographs, student work, and examples of historic and contemporary learning environments, the session will trace major shifts in design pedagogy, technology, sustainability, interdisciplinary collaboration, and professional expectations. Presenters will compare the distinct yet complementary approaches developed at the Boulder and Denver campuses and examine how current curricula are preparing students for an increasingly complex and rapidly changing profession. The session will also consider how educators can balance digital fluency and emerging technologies with foundational design thinking, creativity, adaptability, collaboration, and critical thinking. The presentation concludes with a discussion among educators, alumni, and practitioners about strengthening connections between academia and practice to prepare the next generation of designers for environmental, technological, and societal challenges.
DESIGN TRACK: 1 LU|HSW
Jade Polizzi, Teaching Professor, University of Colorado Boulder
With a belief that students learn best when they feel they are actively working on real life problems, Jade Polizzi’s teaching is primarily about service learning. An alumnus of the Environmental Design Program, Jade is a Teaching Professor at CU Boulder and has been teaching with ENVD since 2002. Before attending graduate school at CU Denver, Jade served atan Americorps VISTA member where she had the job of assistant project manager with Habitat for Humanity, it was then that Jade discovered her talent for teaching and her dedication to affordable housing. Jade is a licensed architect and teaches a variety of classes including History of the Built Environment, Color Theory, Techniques in ENVD, and all level of Architecture/Environmental Design Studios. Jade is devoted to running design-build classes where students to produce projects that provide a need to a local or regional community partner. Her research is focused on building tectonics and student confidence.
Mark Rukamathu, AIA – Teaching Associate Professor, CU Boulder Environmental Design Department
Mark Rukamathu, AIA, NCARB, is a Teaching Associate Professor at CU Boulder’s Environmental Design Program. As a half-Thai, half-American, he grew up in a multi-cultural environment across the U.S. East Coast, Bangkok Thailand, and Arkansas. Mark’s architectural journey started with drafting classes in high school, entering higher education at Northwest Arkansas Community College, receiving his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Arkansas cum laude, and Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design with distinction. Prior to his teaching position at CU Boulder’s Environmental Design Program, Mark served as Faculty and Director of Special Projects at the Boston Architectural College (BAC) and was an adjunct instructor at the Northeastern University, Roger Williams University, and Rhode Island School of Design. He spent three years as a full-time faculty and first-year coordinator at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. His practice experiences include Marlon Blackwell Architects (2020 AIA Gold Medal Recipient), Merge Architects, William Rawn Associates, ADD Inc. (now Stantec), Spann Architecture, and his own practice, RUKA Design. He is a licensed architect in the state of Massachusetts. Mark’s design and architectural interests include representation and fabrication through digital, manual, and hybridized processes. He is also dedicated to the study of design and architectural practice to advance and evolve the profession toward a more diverse, just, and equitable space for all. In support of this, he is actively involved and servers various past/present roles within professional design organizations — American Institute of Architects (AIA) Center for Practice Advisory Member (former co-chair), Boston Society for Architecture (BSA) Honors and Award Committee Member, BSA Rotch Travel Scholarship Committee Member, BSA Board of Directors 2020-2021, BSA Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Task Force Member 2020, National Council for Architectural Registration Board (NCARB) Scholar in Professional Practice 2022, and as a NCARB Architect Licensing Advisor.
Dora Epstein Jones – Chair of Architecture Department, CU Denver College of Architecture and Planning
Dora Epstein Jones, PhD, is a theorist and practitioner within architectural culture. Her work mainly focuses on the discipline of architecture and includes interrogations of the discipline’s boundaries and operations through examinations of tectonics, practice, and pedagogy. Her work is uniquely tuned to matters of design, as a former Principal with Jones, Partners: Architecture, and as a collaborative writer. Epstein Jones has been published in many compilations related to design including Possible Mediums, The Building, Speculative Coolness, and A Purple Architecture, as well as her doctoral work focused on the history of prefabrication. Her latest works have centered around collections for Morphosis and Stray Dog Cafe, notably Morphosis 6 and the Morphosis Model Monograph. Epstein Jones holds a Ph.D. in Architectural History, Theory and Criticism, and an M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA. Epstein Jones has served as the Coordinator of both General Studies and History & Theory at SCI- Arc, the Executive Director of the A+D Architecture and Design Museum, and the Chair of Architecture at Texas Tech University. She holds awards as an ACLS/Luce scholar, a Getty scholar, a Siff fellow, a Regents fellow, and an AIA scholar. She is currently the chair of the architecture department at CU-Denver.
Erik “Rick” Sommerfeld, AIA, is an Architect, Associate Professor, and Director of ColoradoBuildingWorkshop, the design-build program at the University of Colorado Denver. The program has become a leader in hands-on, community-focused architecture and, since 2009, has completed 15 community-driven projects, including notable works including the Colorado Outward Bound School Micro Cabins, Longs Peak Privies in Rocky Mountain National Park, and most recently, a research facility for NOAA Fisheries on Livingston Island in Antarctica.
The workshop’s design-build approach centers on integrated project delivery, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between students, clients, engineers, consultants, and community partners from the outset. This immersive process pushes students to test their designs against real-world constraints, blending architectural theory with hands-on skills, material exploration, and authentic learning experiences.
ColoradoBuildingWorkshop partners with non-profits, towns, governmental agencies, and communities in need, specializing in projects with tight budgets, short timelines, and complex site challenges. The firm embraces these constraints as opportunities to create innovative and thoughtful design solutions that enhance the built environment while addressing the needs of underserved communities.
The program’s work has earned over 40 design awards. It has been featured in 19 books and exhibitions in prestigious museums in Paris, Munich, Vienna, Vancouver, Budapest, the United States, and the 2025 Venice Biennale.