About the Event
Samuels has taught at Rice since 1977, including the freshman studio from 1991 to 2012. In 1996, Dean Lars Lerup charged Samuels to start the Rice Building Workshop to get students out of the studio and engaged in the larger community, where their design ideas could be challenged in real situations. Samuels’ work over twenty-six years through the Rice Building Workshop with Associate Director Nonya Grenader has resulted in a stream of realized projects: nearly eight hundred students have designed and built projects at various scales in the Houston community, from furniture to affordable houses. For the long-term collaborative work with Project Row Houses, the Workshop received the 2004 NCARB Prize for the “Integration of Practice and Education” from the National Council of Registration Boards, in 2005, the “Collaborative Practice Award” from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, and in 2015–16 it was the subject of exhibitions at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, the American Institute of Architects, New York, and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
