Fellowship Celebration & Auction

Friday, June 15th, from 6 to 10 pm at NBBJ

NIAUSI invites everyone to a great evening of Italian culture, food, and wine at NBBJ's new offices on June 15th. We will be celebrating the return of our 2006-7 Fellows as well as the announcement of our new Fellows for 2007-8.

The returning fellows will give us a firsthand account of the projects they worked on while making the most of the opportunity to become fully immersed in Italian life. Cultural exchange is at the core of NIAUSI’s 30 year legacy –and each year our Fellows return to teach us something new. This event will also give us the opportunity to introduce our upcoming fellowship recipients. 

During the evening, we'll be having a silent auction, so be prepared for some heated bidding on items which will include incredible getaways to regional hotels, spectacular private vacation properties, and a week's stay in the Italian hilltown of Civita di Bagnoregio. Hors d’oeuvres will be provided by local Italian restaurants, Italian wines will be flowing, and Italian music will fill the air.

Bellissimo!

Friday, June 15th, 2007 6pm–10pm
NBBJ, 223 Yale Avenue North, Seattle WA 98109
Map & Directions

NIAUSI Announces 2007 Fellows

NIAUSI is pleased to announce the selection of our 2007 Fellows. The Fellowship program, now in its 24th year, has provided the opportunity for more than thirty design professionals from the Pacific Northwest to explore a research topic in Italy's rich cultural and historical environment. Thanks to the generosity of Astra Zarina and Tony Heywood, two of the original NIAUSI founders, our fellows will stay in the historic hilltown of Civita di Bagnoregio about 40 miles north of Rome.

The Fellows this year are William Hook, Ann Hirschi, and Kristian Kofoed. All three of the 2007 Fellows intend to be in Civita this autumn.

For many years Bill Hook has been perhaps the foremost architectural illustrator in the Northwest. His work has been indispensable in allowing architects, planners, and public officials to envision projects at an early stage. He plans to spend his two months in Civita sketching, drawing, and documenting the town and surrounding region.

Anne Hirschi, a graduate of UW's Architecture in Rome and Hilltown programs, has been working as an arborist in the Seattle area, with a particular interest in implementing community garden programs. She intends to study the ancient Chestnut grove in the valley adjacent to Civita, looking at its history, its meaning to the residents, and how community stewardship of the grove has evolved over time.

Kristian Kofoed, a Senior Urban Planner with the City of Seattle, will be exploring transitional edges - the interfaces between the older built environment and newer interventions, between inhabited space and uninhabited space, as well as the physical edge conditions at Civita itself and their implications for the town and its future.

NIAUSI to Forego 2008 Fellowships

NIAUSI is pursuing several exciting new initiatives. In order to concentrate on these opportunities, the Board has decided to put the NIAUSI Fellowship program on hiatus for calendar year 2008, with the intention of resuming it for 2009.

World Monuments Watch Update

Over halfway through Civita di Bagnoregio's two-year inclusion on the World Monuments Watch 2006 list of 100 Most Endangered Sites, NIAUSI continues to work with the World Monuments Fund's Paris office to convene an international symposium at Civita. The symposium will address the myriad challenges facing historic Italian hilltowns, among them geological instability, physical decay, economic obsolescence, and cultural dissipation.

To maximize effectiveness of the effort, the symposium will take a regional approach; while still based in Civita, participants will study successful conservation efforts at nearby Orvieto, as well as the 2004 World Monuments Watch sites Pitigliano, Sorano and Manciano (located east of Lake Bolsena).

Under the current plan, two distinct groups of participants will attend the symposium: (1) scientists, engineers, and conservators focused on physical preservation, and (2) politicians, planners, economists, and sociologists addressing implementation.

Walking through Civita

Consistent with NIAUSI's commitment to facilitate local efforts at solution, as many particpants as possible will be Italian. The WMF is leading the symposium planning, while NIAUSI and sponsors of the 2004 sites assist with logistics. NIAUSI is honored to be working with Dr. Gaetano Palumbo at WMF Paris, and looks forward to success in 2007.