Professor, School of Architecture
2017
Bio:
The title of Distinguished Professor is bestowed upon a faculty member who exhibits outstanding teaching, scholarship, and service in support of the University mission. Individuals selected to serve as Distinguished Professors have demonstrated exceptional scholarly or creative work and instructional leadership. Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Pamela Zarkowski, in her congratulatory letter to Professor Stephen Vogel wrote “Your colleagues describe you as ‘one of the most important forces in architectural and urban design education in the Detroit region and beyond’ and ‘a dedicated and exceptional person, who is also dedicated and exceptional professor and scholar.’”
Stephen Vogel joined the University of Detroit, now University of Detroit Mercy, as a full-time School of Architecture Assistant Professor in 1974 serving as the Graduate Program Director from 1978-1980; from 1981-1987 Vogel taught as an Adjunct Professor; in 1993 he earned full Professorship and from 1993-2011 he served as Dean of the School of Architecture. In 1993 Vogel was the Cofounder/Senior Principal of Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC). After stepping down as Dean, from 2012-2013 Vogel served as Co-director, Master of Community Development.
In Professor Vogel’s vitae he writes: “Professor Vogel teaches by connecting architecture to disciplines well beyond the conventional knowledge base. He draws on anthropology, cultural politics and social responsibility. He helps students find creative ways to discuss and use this interdisciplinary knowledge in their design and thinking processes. His delivery of this material is accessible without sacrificing the complexity of the issues discussed, which makes the connections and learning opportunities come alive for students.” During his career at the university Vogel taught Cultural, Political and Architectural History of Detroit; Community Development Strategies; Historic Preservation; Master of Community Development Capstone; American Culture and Architecture; Design Studios; and History and Theory of Architecture. He also served as Graduate Thesis Advisor.
Professor Dan Pitera’s nomination letter spoke of Stephen Vogel as “An Inspiring Educator who Connects the Dots.” He wrote “In Professor Vogel’s teaching, I have observed his ability to connect architecture to disciplines well beyond the conventional knowledge base. He draws on anthropology, cultural politics and social responsibility. He helps students find creative ways to discuss and use this interdisciplinary knowledge in their design and thinking processes. His delivery of this material is accessible without sacrificing the complexity of the issues discussed. His expertise and teaching ground the students in the context of Detroit while illustrating the global implications of this learning. I have also witnessed Professor Vogel’s students become aware, through his instruction and by his own example, that the boundaries – though necessary – between disciplines and the ideas associated with these disciplines are permeable. They learn that this cross-pollination – the connection between the dots – greatly enriches one’s experience and understanding of the built environment and the people who engage it.”
In the School of Architecture Dean Will Wittig’s nomination support letter, he wrote “In the area of teaching, Professor Vogel has always maintained a very high level of service to our students. He is well versed in a variety of subject areas and has always excelled in the classroom by conveying important content while always ensuring that students are not just knowledgeable, but are prepared to lead and serve in their communities with the utmost integrity and passion for making their corner of the world a better place. Most recently he has taken on a key upper level studio that is very important step in our student’s preparation for the profession. The ‘Technical Integration Studio’ is a capstone project of sorts that demands the highest level of commitment from the faculty member, and Professor Vogel has demonstrated his skills by pushing the quality of work in this class to a level we have not achieved in the past.”
Professor Vogel’s research and urban design has focuses on cities with growing populations and cities with shrinking populations. His research has explored “methods of designing urban strategies that can adapt to change. Professor Vogel has been working on the issues of cities with shrinking populations for the past 40 years celebrating the Detroit context well before other universities and researchers viewed it as a place to work.” Titles of Professor Vogel’s writings and presentations include: The Regeneration of a Shrinking City: One Acre and Independence Revisited; Detroit [re] Turns of Nature Chapter in Handbook of Regenerative Landscape Design; Architectural Education in Shrinking Cities; Bloody Run Creek Greenway Redevelopment Project; Detroit/Windsor: Shared Histories, Cultures, Ecologies; Development in Detroit; Making Detroit: History and Mystery; The Eight Mile Divide; DIY Public Initiatives in the Shrinking Cities book of the German Cultural Foundation; Community Based Urban Initiatives; and The Harmonie Park Redevelopment Project.
Professor Vogel’s vitae references the Detroit/Volterra campus. “Professor Stephen Vogel initiated the process of securing and developing a permanent location/building to serve as the classrooms, studio space, residential spaces and offices for the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture’s 28-year running Volterra study abroad program. The uniqueness of the Volterra International Residential College in its relationship with the City of Volterra, its structural relationship with UDM, and its unique engagement with community living in Volterra has prompted many universities and municipalities to contact Professor Vogel for advice and insight.” Beyond Volterra, Professor Vogel initiated and instituted an architecture dual degree program with the University of Windsor, Windsor Ontario Canada.
“The nomination letter further notes “Professor Vogel’s contribution to design research and thinking focuses not only on content, but also on the context of where and how research and design practice occurs. Professor Vogel founded two initiatives at the School of Architecture that have been instrumental in altering how built environment professionals practice and engage communities – The Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) and the Master of Community Development (MCD) degree program. The DCDC is modeled after the teaching hospital. It is a unique hybrid of professional work, applied research, and educational development. Often the DCDC is called an alternative practice. It was Professor Vogel’s intention for the DCDC to not represent alternative work; he explicitly established it to alter how we work. The DCDC has become the model for many other centers around the country and has directly influenced the local and national urban design agenda for cities with shrinking populations. Professor Vogel also initiated the Master of Community Development degree program….the program provides a holistic approach to the theory and practice of community development. It is an interdisciplinary graduate program with a foundation rooted in service, social justice, and sustainability. The MCD program is recognized as a one-of-a-kind program nationally that alters how we think and practice community development.”
Gloria Albrecht, Professor of Religious Studies and Professor of Community Development nomination support letter describes Professor Vogel’s holistic vision of the MCD program. “As Dean of the School of Architecture, Professor Vogel had already promoted a community-oriented, community-responsive vision of the architect. Now, however, his vision had broadened to acknowledge the limitations of a singular focus on the built environment. Gathering together an interdisciplinary group of faculty, he outlined a vision that embraced the importance of the build environment as only one of the key ingredients of a healthy community. To that, he and this new committee added three more components: organizational development, human development, and economic development. And so a unique program was born: not urban planning or urban design, but holistic community development engaging interdisciplinary teams working in partnership with local communities to identify threats and assets and to strategize the marshalling of community strengths and opportunities. The Master of Community Development program, begun 2008, now with almost 60 alumni working in the Detroit metropolitan area, is a unique program preparing students to work with communities facing the most serious issues.”
“Even more extraordinary to me, given my background in religious ethics, was the overt articulation of three basic value that would shape this program’s approach to these diverse disciplines: service, sustainability, and social justice. These three terms have specific meaning within the social justice tradition of the Catholic Church, meanings that shape the charisms of the Jesuit and Sisters of Mercy traditions, meanings which often challenge the cultural understanding of ‘development.’ In the MCD program, as envisioned by professor Vogel, and now embodied by its students and faculty, service is a door through which issues of justice are revealed creating an experience of solidarity among diverse people working together toward a more just and sustainable society. This this visionary program has developed a unique blending of intellectual, ethical and spiritual growth for its students as they engage with community-based wisdom in pursuit of the fullness of life for all.”
Vogel was the Founding Principal of Stephen Vogel Architect (1973-1978) and Founding Principal of Schervish Vogel Merz, PC (1978-1993). Among his many award winning projects is the Harmonie Park/Madison Avenue Redevelopment project in downtown Detroit. This project received a national American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design and national Merit Award for Urban Design from the American Society of Landscape Architects. Professor Vogel was also the Consulting Principal-in-Charge in the interior restoration of the Detroit Opera House, which received a national American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Design.
As a continuing active member and leader of the architect community, Professor Vogel served as President, AIA Michigan (1993); Commissioner, Mackinac Island State Park Commission (1993-2003); Founder/Principal Schervish Vogel Consulting Architects (1995-present); Board of Directors, EcoWorks (2003-2007); Board of Directors, AIA National Board of Directors (2014); ALA Richard Upjohn Fellow, American Institute of Architects (2014); and Michigan Region Representative, AIA National Strategic Council (2014-2016). Vogel served as a jury member for the AIA Alaska Honor Awards, AIA Florida Honor Awards, and AIA National Honor Awards.
Professor Vogel’s participation in Exhibitions on Shrinking Cities and Urban Design include Beyond Building, Venice Biennale, Italy; Everyville, Venice Biennale, Italy; Talking Cities: Germany; FireBreak: Harvard University; Shrinking Cities: Germany; and Archilab, France.
Honored for his contributions to the architecture community, Professor Vogel received: AIA Detroit Gold Medal (1996), AIA Detroit Charles A. Blessing Award for Urban Design (2000), AIA Michigan Robert F. Hastings Award for Urban Design (2001), National NCARB Prize (2002 Gold Medal), AIA Michigan President’s Award for Education (2003 Highest Honor given to a Michigan architect in education), AIA Michigan Gold Medal (2004 Highest Honor given to a Michigan architect), AIA Richard Upjohn Fellowship, and inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1994 an honor given to only 3% of American architects.
Beyond the personal recognitions, Professor Vogel’s projects have also received numerous awards. The St. Joseph Rebuild Center, Homeless Day Center, New Orleans received nine different awards: Dedalo Minosse International Design Award (Italy), SEED Award for Design Excellence, Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence, NCARB Prize 8: Creative Integration of Practice & Education, AIA Detroit Honor Award, AIA Michigan Honor Award, AIA New Orleans Honor Award, AIA Louisiana Honor Award, and AIA Gulf States Honor Award. Restoration of an abandoned printing facility as the Homeboy Industries Main Offices and Training Center in Los Angeles received the Dedalo Minosse International Design Award (Italy). Historic Restoration of the Detroit Opera House Interior Restoration received the American Institute of Architects National Award.
In the Distinguished Professor nomination letter closing paragraph, Professor Dan Pitera, expressed the following “I would like to end with some general observations. Professor Vogel embraces and engages others and their approaches whether or not they are immediately or necessarily compatible with his own. This guarantees a critical discourse necessary for UDM to embrace multiple perspectives, controversial viewpoints and creative investigation. This also ensures UDM will remain vibrant and dynamic. Professor Vogel is a dedicated and exceptional person, who is also a dedicated and exceptional scholar and professor."
Professor Vogel’s nomination for Distinguished Professor was conferred by Dr. Antoine M. Garibaldi, President of University of Detroit Mercy, on August 16, 2017.