Ursula Emery McClure, FAAR, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C, NCIDQ, co-founded emerymcclure architecture with Michael A. McClure in New York City. emerymcclure architecture’s design research practice explores the intersection of seemingly contrary systems, aiming to develop tectonics that configure their futures. This mission unfolds through design works, research writings, and teaching.

The firm’s built works, writings, and design speculations have gained acclaim, with publications spanning professional, academic, and popular press. Recognitions include design awards and recognition from the AIA and Architectural Record. Their sustainable urbanism projects have earned awards, been featured in Places Magazine, and included in the Interior Architecture Theory Reader (Routledge 2018) and Writing Urbanisms: A Design Reader (Routledge 2008). The firm has been included in three Venice Biennales (2006, 2009, and 2022), including the recent “A South 40” exhibit, featuring the 40 most unique design voices of the contemporary south. The firm was also honored with the Gorham P. Stevens Rome Prize in Architecture 2008-09 by the American Academy of Rome.

Among their most recent accolades, the American Institute of Building Design recognized the BSL2 (2017), GATOR house (2019), GEODE, and Jeeve’s House (2021) with American Residential Design Awards. In 2018, emerymcclure architecture was named Boutique Residential Firm of the Year by London’s Corporate Live Wire. In 2023, the firm received the AIA Southwest Design award for the GEODE project and their recent research on water reclamation and adaptive reuse of Gulf oil rigs was published internationally. Beyond their design pursuits, emerymcclure architecture actively engages in lectures at conferences and universities, They often find themselves caught between the global petro-chemical infrastructure and an alligator and now some buffalo.

Ursula Emery McClure graduated with a BA from Washington University in St. Louis, majoring in architecture with a minor in History. She earned her M.Arch from the GSAPP at Columbia University, NYC. In 2018, she was recognized as one of ArchDaily’s Most Innovative Practitioners, (https://www.archdaily.com/891501/let-us-celebrate-the-women-who-are-shaping-architectural-practices-around-the-world) and in 2022 she was elevated to Fellow in the AIA for her research practice focusing on climate resiliency and adaptive preservation. This is the highest credential the AIA bestows to those who “make significant contributions to the profession and society and exemplify architectural excellence.” In 2024 she received the Award of Distinction from the Sam Fox School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Ursula is also a Professor previously teaching in the School of Architecture at LSU (1999-2019). She has also served as the Ralph Hawkins Visiting Professorship of Architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington (2020-2023). Currently she teaches interdisciplinary courses in design, ethics, and climate resiliency at Kansas State in the G.E. Johnson Department of Architectural Engineering and Construction Science and the Staley School of Leadership.

Brad Bell is the former Director of the School of Architecture (2016-2023) and an Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Arlington. Before arriving at UT Arlington in 2005, he held teaching positions at the University of Colorado and Tulane University. Since 2014, he has directed the Digital Architecture Research Consortium (DARC) at UT Arlington, which is a group of industry and academic partners working on integrating advanced digital technologies and material applications into innovative building solutions. He has lectured, taught, and written on computational design and fabrication uses for the past two decades. Most recently, he co-authored the book “The Evolution of Computation in Architecture” with Michael Fox. This book provides one of the first comprehensive examinations of the six stages of computational integration in the architecture design process.

From 2008 to 2018, he founded and co-directed TEX-FAB, an organization committed to providing a platform for digital fabrication and parametric modeling education to the professional, academic, and manufacturing communities in Texas.

Professor Bell was awarded the UT Arlington President’s Medal for Teaching Excellence in 2015, and from the Texas Society of Architects, he was awarded the Outstanding Educational Contribution in Honor of Edward J. Romieniec FAIA (2021) and the Citation of Honor for his leadership in helping to establish the nationally recognized Design-Build Program at UT Arlington (2023).

Brad has participated in a number of regional and national boards over the past decade.  These include the AIA Ft. Worth (2016 – 2023), the AIA Dallas (2017-2023), ACADIA (2013-2015), and the Dallas Architecture Forum (2016 to present), where he also serves as lecture programming chair.

Over the past 20 years, his design practice has built innovative residential houses in Texas, Colorado, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. He holds a Bachelor of Environmental Design from Texas A&M and a Master of Architecture degree from the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia University.

In an era of ever-increasing specialization, Gregory Ibañez practices architecture as a generalist. A 1980 graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology, he has developed an approach that is driven by program and characterized by formal restraint, frank and inventive detailing, and an abiding reverence for the experience of the occupants. Greg is a recognized design leader and a passionate advocate of progressive architecture within the profession and the community.

The recipient of 31 AIA local and state Design Awards, Greg was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in 2012. He was previously Chair of the Fort Worth Public Art Commission and is a long-time Board member of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. He has served on numerous AIA Design Award juries and is a board member of the Texas Architecture Foundation. He is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Architecture and has been a guest speaker for the Dallas Architecture Forum, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Texas Society of Architects convention

Professor Joshua M. Nason is Dean of Hammons School of Architecture at Drury University and Director of the collaborative design practice Iterative Studio. He has been on the K-Rob Competition Committee for nine years and a frequent moderator of the awards event. Previously, he was Assistant Director for the School of Architecture at UTA where he taught for 12 years following three at Texas Tech.

Teaching is his passion, he teaches design studio and classes on theory, drawing, and making. For him, it’s cultivating a series of experiences that help students realize their authentic potential to impact the built world. As an educator he emphasizes quality instruction and curricular innovation to imbue students with skills and confidence to advance architecture.

Josh approaches everything as a design project. He works across mediums including writing, drawing, and building, all which he considers acts of architecture that mediate between people and places.