College of Arts + Architecture

Shawn Smith, UNC Charlotte director of bands, conducted a performance that was broadcast to a worldwide audience on Nov. 20 on the American Public Radio syndicated show “Performance Today.” The program, available on 237 stations nationwide and streamed online, is the most listened to daily classical music radio show in the United States.

E/Ye Design (Ellinger Yehia Architects, LLC), founded in 2002 by Associate Professor of Architecture Jefferson Ellinger and Nona Yehia, has designed one of the first vertical greenhouses in the United States. The 13,500-square foot “Vertical Harvest” greenhouse, currently under construction in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has an innovative three-story design that will allow the production equivalent of a five-acre farm. Construction is scheduled to be complete in January 2016.

E.E. Balcos, associate professor of dance, and Shawn Smith, director of bands, will be the guests on the Nov.13 edition of “The Live Wire,” Inside UNC Charlotte’s streaming webcast. Starting at noon, they will discuss the upcoming Fall Dance (Nov. 19-22) and Wind Ensemble concerts (Nov. 23).

Department of Dance students will perform a Fall Dance Concert Thursday through Sunday, Nov. 19-22, in the Belk Theater of the Robinson Hall for the Performing Arts. The five works on the program, choreographed by UNC Charlotte dance faculty, will reflect the rich diversity in contemporary dance with a wide range of styles.

The Department of Music Faculty and Friends Concert Series will honor composer Walter Hartley on Tuesday, Nov. 17. Hartley, whose daughter Carol Hartley is a business services coordinator in the Department of Languages and Culture Studies, has composed nearly 300 works and is most revered for his music for saxophones, brass instruments and wind ensembles. The concert will be at 7:30 p.m. in Rowe Recital Hall.

The UNC Charlotte Shakespeare in Action initiative has entered the final year of a six-year project to address all of Shakespeare’s plays before the 400th anniversary of the bard’s death in April 2016. Tackling six plays a year in formats ranging from lectures to full-blown theatrical productions, the “36 in 6” project has left for this final season the play that many consider to be Shakespeare’s best “The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.” The Department of Theatre will present “Hamlet” Wednesday, Nov. 4, through Sunday, Nov. 15, in the Black Box Theater in the Robinson Hall for the Performing Arts.

The National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD), the national accrediting agency for dance and dance-related activities, has granted full membership to UNC Charlotte, making the University one of its 79 accredited institutions. Gained through an intensive peer review process, membership is granted only to institutions that meet all of the standards of NASD.

The Vickie and Gene Johnson Marching Band Center was officially dedicated on Wednesday, Oct. 21. For Chancellor Philip L. Dubois, the new building represents one more important step in the formation of a reputable football program at UNC Charlotte.

In his remarks, Dubois recalled feeling something was amiss at the first home game three years ago — even though the 49ers came away with a 52-7 victory over the Campbell Fighting Camels before a packed crowd in Jerry Richardson Stadium.

Fourth-year architecture student and Levine Scholar Isabel Fee recently completed a community project funded through the Levine Scholars program. She designed and assisted in the construction of a special community garden at Brookdale Charlotte East, a senior living community near Albemarle Road.

The culmination of a three-year process, the raised-bed garden is designed for wheelchair accessibility, allowing Brookdale residents to actively participate in the gardening and to be physically closer to the plants and flowers to see, smell and enjoy.

“Diversity and Design: Understanding Hidden Consequences,” being released this month by Routledge Press, features work by two professors in the UNC Charlotte School of Architecture. Edited by Assistant Professor Charles Davis II, with Beth Tauke and Korydon Smith, it includes chapters by Davis and by Associate Professor Peter Wong.