Archives: Faculties

Genesis Okken

Genesis Okken

Department of Interior Design
Instructional Assistant Professor
AH 346
gokken@dcp.ufl.edu

Master of Interior Design, University of Florida
Bachelor of Interior Design, University of Florida

Genesis Okken, NCIDQ received both her Bachelor of Design and Master of Interior Design at the University of Florida. While completing her graduate work, she served as an editorial assistant for the Journal of Interior Design as well as gained design experience at Sarah Cain Design.  She then went on to practice design at Walt Disney Imagineering and the Kessler Collection in Orlando, FL before returning to UF as a lecturer in the Department of Interior Design.    

Her research interests include exploring how design practitioners develop appropriate color designs across different market sectors and how color planning strategies evolve throughout an individuals’ career. Specifically, she has explored color planning and design within corporate office, healthcare, hospitality, residential and pop-up retail using qualitative methods. She also investigates how professional practice can inform better ways to incorporate critical color knowledge and understanding into design pedagogy.   

Genesis enjoys mentoring students through independent studies in color theory and undergraduate research projects as well as through her role as the faculty advisor for the UF ASID/IIDA student chapter.  She also has taught a wide spectrum of courses within the program including Design Innovation, Interior Design Communication Systems, Computer Applications for 3D Design, Professional Practice of Interior Design, Design Field Experience, Architectural Interiors II, and Advanced Architectural Interiors II. For students in the summer program, she teaches Design Innovation and History of Interior Design I.  

 

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Eileen Pesantes-Taveres

Eileen Pesantes-Taveres

M.E Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management
Instructional Assistant Professor
RINKER 313
eileen.pesantes@ufl.edu

B.S. in Civil Engineering, University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez
M.S. in Engineering with concentration on Structural Engineering Mechanics and Materials, University of California at Berkeley
M.S. in Civil Engineering with concentration on Construction Engineering and Management, Stanford University
Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with concentration on Construction Engineering and Management, University of Florida

Eileen Pesantes-Tavares, PhD, graduated with a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez in 1994. She earned a M.E. in Structural Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in 1995. After working as a structural engineer, she decided to pursue a construction degree and went back to school. She earned a MS in Construction Engineering and Management from Stanford University in 1998. While teaching at her Alma Mater, she decided to pursue a PhD in Construction Engineering and Management at the University of Florida. She graduated in 2011.

Pesantes worked as a research engineer with the US Army Corp of Engineers at their Engineer Research and Development Center before graduate school. After completing two Master’s degrees, she worked in two different construction companies in the San Francisco Bay Area in projects that ranged from a small office remodeling up to a complete new campus for a major Hi-tech Company. When she moved back to Puerto Rico, she was offered a teaching position at her Alma Mater. Teaching was something that Pesantes always contemplated as a career path. After six years of teaching, she went back to graduate school. After finishing her PhD, she taught as an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at UF, as a lecturer and academic advisor at the School of Engineering at UNF and, currently as a lecturer at the Rinker School of Construction Management at UF.

The courses Pesantes teaches are varied. Construction Materials and Temporary Structures focus on the design and materials side of construction. International Sustainable Design focuses in key concepts related to sustainable development worldwide. Introduction to Construction presents first year students the different types of work they can do in construction through weekly guest lectures that include professionals from the construction industry.

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Daniel Downing

Daniel Downing

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Assistant Scholar, GeoPlan Center
AH 131
Dadowning@ufl.edu

M.A., Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 2016
B.S., Liberal Studies, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, 2000

Areas of specialization: GIS Programming Data and GIS web service development

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Reginald Pierre-Jean

Reginald Pierre-Jean

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
GeoPlan Center
AH 131
reginald@ufl.edu

M.A., Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 2011
B.A., Geography, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 2008

Areas of specialization: GIS development Programming and customization Web development

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Laura Dedenbach

Laura Dedenbach

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Instructional Assistant Professor // Graduate Coordinator,
(352) 294-1493
AH 466
laurajd@ufl.edu

Ph.D., Design, Construction and Planning, University of Florida, 2016
•Concentration: Urban and Regional Planning
•Graduate Minor: Anthropology
Master of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida, 1999
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, University of Florida, 1996

Download C.V.

Areas of Focus:
Sustainability
Social equity, or people, is one of the pillars of sustainability. My research focuses on dimensions of social equity, community resilience, and empowerment at the neighborhood level, particularly related to place-based narratives and the interface with public policy and neighborhood planning.

Bio:
Dr. Dedenbach received her master’s in urban and regional planning and doctorate in urban and regional planning, with a graduate minor in anthropology, from UF. Her research interests include crime prevention and the built environment, urban resilience, neighborhood planning, empowerment, effects of gentrification on neighborhood culture and stability, land use and comprehensive planning, and issues of land use compatibility. Dr. Dedenbach is currently engaged in research and service-learning projects in Gainesville and Atlanta. 

Dr. Dedenbach teaches classes in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, including:

  • URP 4000, Preview to Urban and Regional Planning
  • URP 4740, Housing and Urban Development
  • URP 4882, Defensible Space and CPTED in Urban Design
  • URP 4905, Neighborhood Planning

She also teaches a Quest 1 course: IDS 2935, “This Must Be the Place”: Place-based Narratives and Community Identity.

Prior to joining the URP Faculty in 2019 as a Lecturer and Undergraduate and Graduate Coordinator, Dr. Dedenbach was a practicing planner with over 23 years of experience, specializing in comprehensive planning, policy and development planning, and small town and rural planning, as well as being a recognized expert witness on planning and zoning issues by local governments, the Florida Department of Administrative Hearings, and Circuit, Appeals, and Federal courts. She has been a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) since 2001. 

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Peter Sprowls

Peter Sprowls

School of Architecture, CityLab-Orlando
Instructional Assistant Professor
352-294-1457
AH 232
peter26@ufl.edu

Areas of Focus:
Sustainability (Built Environment Resilience, Sustainable Architecture and Design)
My work and teaching focuses on the use and nature of public space in the contemporary city. This impacts/intersects with sustainability by identifying and designing the organization of urban spaces – their use and their resiliency is critical to social structures, community equity and engagement, as well as energy use (i.e. transportation, passive systems, distances between points of activity).

Bio:
Peter Sprowls is a lecturer at the University of Florida School of Architecture and CityLab-Orlando as well as a founding principal of House Champagne – an architectural design and research firm focusing on public space in urban and sub-urban contexts. He was educated at the University of Florida and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and
is pursuing his professional licensure as an architect.

Sprowls teaches design, history and theory. Through this and his professional work, he explores the contemporary boundary between the natural and the built worlds; the anterior and posterior spaces of modern human life. This exploration can describe new forms of public space in developer-driven markets and how our vast, built landscape can be measured again by nature. Leading to this interest in modern public space is a history of research, investigating potential forms of public space that could evolve with the growth of autonomous vehicle technology and future forms of transportation. Sprowls has worked with MIT Media Lab in the City Sciences group on the CityCar, studying the behavior of autonomous vehicles in urban spaces and has used this research to propose a series of potential public spaces mixing modes of transportation with technology of the near future.

He has worked within the profession on institutional, multi-family housing and commercial spaces at NADAAA, Preston Scott Cohen, and Merge Architects in Boston, MA. His practice, House Champagne, is completing a series of residential projects focused on natural phenomena, specifically the volumetric quality of light in humid environments.

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John Maze

John Maze

School of Architecture
Associate Professor
352-294-1476
AH 264
maze@ufl.edu

Master of Architecture, Arizona State University, Highest Distinction
Bachelor of Science, University of Virginia

John Maze is an Associate Professor and former Assistant Director of the University of Florida School of Architecture where he teaches design and humanities. During his twenty years at the University of Florida and previous time at The University of Virginia, he has authored four required digital architecture and design courses, two University Humanities courses – ARC1000 Architecture + Humanity and IDS2935 Places and Spaces – which is also a University International Quest 1 course. Maze served on the development and oversight team responsible for another University Humanities Quest 1 freshman course: What is the Good Life. He has taught design studios at all levels as well as collaborated in interdisciplinary graduate seminars as affiliate faculty with the Digital Worlds Institute.

His research focuses on the digital interface and its role in the architectural design process. He has written numerous publications on the relationship between architecture and music, a common theme throughout his pedagogy. He has funded research studying Building Information Modeling technology, advanced modeling and animation, and has developed an online database of texture maps with the help of the Office of Academic Technology. In 2004 through 2006, Maze collaborated with Dr. Robert Ferl and Dr. Anna-Lisa Paul of the NASA-sponsored center at the University of Florida, Space Agriculture and Biotechnology Research and Education to model and visualize modular greenhouse prototypes for lunar and Martian exploration. John Maze is also an award-winning multi-instrumentalist currently playing with Irish recording artists An Triur, acoustic Americana quartet Lucky Us, and formerly In Crisis who performed three times at Gator Growl. John has performed twice as a guest of the Chieftains during their visits to the Phillips Center, and for over a decade has led Commencement exercises for the College of Design, Construction & Planning as the bagpiper. In the fall of 2019, Maze soloed with the Pride of the Sunshine State, Fighting Gators Marching Band at halftime during the Vanderbilt Game’s Veteran’s Day tribute.

His professional work includes PA Award winning projects with Eisenman Architects and Roto Architects, as well as projects with Taliesin Architects. He was instrumental in integrating
architectural computing and design both at Eisenman Architects and Roto, who previously did the majority of their work with traditional media types. John Maze received his Bachelor of
Science in architecture from The University of Virginia, and his Master of Architecture with Highest Distinction from Arizona State University. His research with the Pima Maricopa tribes of Arizona won him the thesis prize in 1996.

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Andrew Wehle

Andrew Wehle

M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management
Instructional Assistant Professor
352-294-0527
RINKER 312
wehleaj@ufl.edu

Ph.D. Construction Management, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Master’s of Cultural Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Bachelor’s of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

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Erin Cunningham

Erin Cunningham

Department of Interior Design
Associate Professor
352-294-1433
AH 344
ekc@ufl.edu

Ph.D., College of Design Construction & Planning, University of Florida.
M.I.D., University of Manitoba
B.A., University of Victoria

Erin Cunningham’s research examines intersections between social justice and the interior environment. Her scholarship, published in both peer-reviewed articles and invited chapters, can be broken down into three main categories. The first examines the history and preservation of the interior environment. The second examines the development of social welfare priorities in interior design. The third, and newly emerging track, examines issues of health in the lived environment. Across these topics, Erin takes a social historical approach to the study of interiors, emphasizing issues of gender, race, and class.

One of Erin’s principal responsibilities at the University of Florida is to teach the History of Interior Design, which is a two-part required sequence. Since taking responsibility for these courses she has worked to break the strict lecture style of the course, engaging students in multiple formats, including lecture, class discussion, and digital humanities methods. Alongside her history courses, she teaches interior design studio at all levels, from sophomore to senior. These studios have touched on a range of topics, including hospitality, corporate design, and housing.

With a doctoral degree in Design, Construction in Planning, a certificate in historic preservation, a professional master’s degree in interior design, and a Bachelor of Arts, Erin’s educational background is diverse, and interdisciplinary. Prior to joining the Interior Design Department at the University of Florida, she was a faculty member in the Interior Architecture Program at the University of Oregon.

 

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