Randall Kober
Master Lecturer
McEwen School of Architecture
Science, Engineering and Architecture
Biography
Randall Kober is founding faculty at the McEwen School of Architecture. Appointed as a Master Lecturer in 2013 he has deployed his training as an architect, carpenter, and historian to develop and deliver several classes and programs: integrating conceptual development with design build and tectonics in undergraduate and graduate Design Studio; experiencing structural theory through hands on making with First Nations, colonial, and contemporary timber building typologies as Structures 1: Wood's foundation; placing the material history of exemplary buildings within their larger cultural, social, and political contexts in Building Case Studies; making students' thought physical in Fabrication 2 as a complimentary course to their thesis work; establishing with the coordinators the undergraduate and graduate coop programs; accompanying the Laurentian teams to the Bergen International Wood Festival in Norway; leading the spring semester European travel, design build program centered within the medieval heavy timber building fabric of Dinkelsbühl, Germany.
Kober serves as Architecture Academic Advisor to the Board of the Canadian Wood Council for whom he is providing research for a new national timber architecture text book. He organized the International Wood Educators Conference held at McEwen in fall 2019. He has lectured nationally and internationally on his academic and professional work as well as wood architecture.
Randall holds a Master of Architecture from University of Illinois at Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in history, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He worked as a carpenter, design builder in the USA and Germany between degrees. After his studies he interned as an architect with Thomas Hammer in Munich, Ken Schroeder and Douglas Garofalo, his graduate school mentor, in Chicago. At Garofalo Architects they created extremely contemporary, internationally published, award winning works. He has taught in Chicago, Rome and Paris for UIC, IIT, and Archeworks. Kober's professional design build practice is anarchitectures in Dinkelsbühl, where a project was recognized with a Middle Franconia Historic Preservation Award.
Education
Master of Architecture, University of Illinois at Chicago
Bachelor of Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Academic Appointments
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Visting Assistant Professor 2004-08
Archeworks, Chicago, Facillitator, 2004-07
University of Illinois at Chicago, Adjunct Assistant Professor, 2000-04
On The Web
Research
Experimental Structures
Wood
Social, Cultural, and Material History
Awards
ACSA Here + Now 2019, housing competition, 2nd place: A Millennial Housing type, thesis student project of Theodore Wong, faculty advisor
Middle Franconia Historic Preservation Award, renovation and restoration of ensemble at Kapuzinerweg 9, Dinkelsbühl, Germany, March 2017
Bergen International Wood Festival, Laurentian students awarded 1st place, accompanying consulting timber construction expert, May 2016
Jerome Fellowship, for design and construction of housing “intern crates” at Franconia Sculpture Park, Schafer MN, with Christine Tarkowski, March 2004
Unbuilt Design Award, Chicago Chapter American Institute of Architects; Chicago Housing Authority/ National Endowment for the Arts Design Competition; Garofalo Architects, Chicago, 2002.
Guth Illumination Design Award, Illinois Engineering Society of North America; Time Exhibit, Museum of Science and Industry; Garofalo Architects with Charter Sills Lighting; Chicago, 2002.
AIA Chicago Design Award, Offices of Thornton Tomasetti Engineers; Garofalo Architects, Chicago, 2001.
Honorable Mention, Chicago Housing Authority/ National Endowment for the Arts Design Competition; Chicago, 2001.
Gold Medal, Bienal 2001 Miami+Beach E-Competition; Florida International university & Miami Chapter AIA; Garofalo Architects/Michael McInturf Architects, Miami, 2001.
Chicago Architecture Club, Chicago Evolution Competition, 1st prize, Stolon project w/ Doug Garofalo and Julie Flohr, July 1999.
Swanke, Hayden, Connell, Ltd. Award for excellence in interior design, UIC, May 1995
Helen Hano Morgante Award for outstanding academic achievement, UIC, May 1994
Parnham School for Workers in Wood Program Scholarship, UIC, March 1994
American Institute of Architects Scholastic Pursuit Award, UIC, May 1994
School of Architecture Archivist tuition waiver and stipend, UIC, May 1993-May 1999
Teaching
ARCH 2316: Structures 1: Wood
ARCH 4006: Building Case Studies
ARCH 5326: Fabrication II
ARCH 5505: Grad Craft Studio
ARCH 5915 & 5925: Grad Coop
Dinkesbühl Spring Program
Publications
Building community on frozen lakes, Architecture Connects Proceedings, UK, 2017
Teaching structures 1: wood, hands on in Northern Ontario, World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE 2016) Proceedings, TU Verlag, Vienna, Austria
Research terrain; text, 2d, 3d ,4d, 1:1. Working Out: Thinking While Building: Project Proceedings. Ted Cavanagh, Ursula Hartig & Sergio Palleroni editors, 2014.
Garofalo Architects in Wisconsin, The Plan Magazine-Architecture and Technologies in Detail, Issue 41, Bologna, Italy, 2010
Don’t you forget about me: Chicago’s anonymous buildings, Proximity Magazine, Issue Number One, 2008