Blog Archives

Education

• Master of Structural Engineering, University of California San Diego
• Bachelor of Science in Structural Engineering, University of California San Diego

About Steve

Steve Merritt is a licensed Structural Engineer and Project Manager at KPFF Consulting Engineers in San Diego. He has 15 years of design experience collaborating with architects, engineers, stakeholders, and builders. Steve attended UCSD for his undergraduate and graduate studies in Structural Engineering and has since been involved in notable high rise, university, industrial, and bridge projects.

Steve’s career has been complemented with an ongoing interest in academic mentoring and lecturing at UCSD, New School of Architecture, Woodbury University, and the ACE high school program. He has also been a guest professor for courses at UCSD and SDSU.

Outside of the United States, Steve has been a leader in post-disaster and development efforts in countries including Haiti and Sierra Leone. He also lived in Melbourne, Australia where he was part of the bridge construction team on a $1 billion Integrated Project Delivery freeway project.

Project Highlights

• Project Manager (2015-Present): San Diego Zoo Bridge – San Diego, California:
  Managing the design and construction of a 300-foot steel pedestrian bridge and elevated walkway ($12 million).
• Project Manager (2013-2016): Marriott Residence Inn – Anaheim, California:
  Managing the design and construction of a 9-story concrete hotel building ($50 million, 240,000 square feet).
• Site Engineer (2010-2011): Western Ring Road Expansion – Melbourne, Australia:
  Performed construction planning, procurement, scheduling, budgeting, and staffing for the construction of an 8-span concrete bridge ($50 million) and a single span steel bridge ($2 million). Entire project budget was $800 million for 10 miles of freeway including 16 bridges.
• Project Manager (2006-2008): Sony Electronics North American Headquarters – San Diego, California:
  Managed the design and construction of an 11-story steel office building with a pedestrian bridge and underground parking ($170 Million, 500,000 square feet). This project was awarded “Best new office building in the United States in 2009” by the leading U.S. construction publication, Engineering News Record.
• Project Manager (2004-2006): Diamond View Tower – San Diego, California:
  Managed the design and construction of a 15-story steel office building with underground parking ($60 million, 325,000 square feet).
• Project Engineer (2003-2004): San Diego State University Arts & Letters Building – San Diego, California:
  Performed design, analysis, and construction administration for a 6-storey steel classroom and office building ($19 million, 110,000 square feet).

Education

• Ph.D. in Building Science, METU in Turkey
• Master of Architecture
• Bachelor of Architecture, METU

About Vuslat

Vuslat is a long-time member of the NewSchool faculty. Raised in Germany, studied, licensed, practiced in Turkey, Vuslat made a shift from practice to academia in her early career years. She earned her Ph.D. from Middle East Technical University and taught architecture at this top-ranking university until she moved to the US. She continues her academic career in the United States at NewSchool since 2003.

Vuslat has been teaching architecture and design for over 30 years in multiple countries and the composition of her experiences span almost every area of design. Throughout her academic career she has developed and taught courses with an emphasis on instructional strategies and methodologies applicable to design studies, ranging from product and furniture design to regional planning including interior, building, neighborhood, urban, and city scale. Over the last 16 years at NewSchool, Vuslat taught courses in the areas of communication (graphic, oral, written), research methodology, building construction technology, construction history, professional practice, and thesis studio in graduate and undergraduate Architecture Program.

In her mid-career years, architectural pedagogy appeared as another major interest for Vuslat and as a subject matter expert in this area she has been assigned the ambassador by Architectural Schools in Turkey and participated in national and international professional organizations and commissions. She has presented several papers on pedagogy at conferences, symposia, and panels at European Association on Architectural Education EAAE, and ENHSA. These include the 2nd Workshop on Construction Teaching Methods, France in 2003, 19th International Conference on Re-integrating Theory & Design in Architectural Education, and 2nd International Conference on Changing Cities, Greece in 2015. She has been an active member of the Chamber of Architects in the development of curriculum basics towards the architectural registration process in Turkey.

The wide range of courses she teaches and her international/multicultural life and work experience bridging the two completely different parts of the world has shaped her personality for a life-long commitment as an avid learner. She is passionate to spread her inspiration to her students, whether those in their early years or those who are late in their journey, looking for new paths for themselves.

Vuslat has supervised around 150 graduate thesis studies in the past 16 years, both in teaching thesis seminar and design studio. Some of the graduates continue their thesis topics in doctoral programs, several thesis studies have been awarded by AIA- American Institute of Architects, San Diego Chapter and by other organizations, and others work in related fields. Her pedagogy prioritizes a trans-disciplinary approach and thorough analysis of a complex problem in its minor components and provides a learning experience by new ways of creative and critical thinking towards appropriate solutions through experimentation and developing an intellectual and innovative world vision.

Her scholarship includes journal publications, public lectures, conference presentations, edited books, book reviews, and contributions as a reviewer to peer-reviewed journals and international conferences. Vuslat was an invited juror, guest speaker, and keynote speaker at several schools in Turkey and in the US.

Vuslat was recognized with the prestigious President’s Award for her exceptional work in organizing and participating in the first ever Laureate Global Architecture and Design Summit.

Another path in her career -since 2011- is managing at a larger scale. In the past several years she served in many different capacities, among these were the positions of Acting Chair of Graduate Architecture Program, Chair of NCAP-Faculty Governance Council, Assessment Leader, Thesis Coordinator for Graduate Architecture Program, and Area Coordinator of Research for Undergraduate and Graduate Architecture. This exposure allowed her to investigate the intricacies of various programs.

She worked as a project designer and technical consultant in Turkey on national and international projects. Among those were the German Embassy Campus historic preservation project, German School, Goethe Library renovation project, residential, office, retail projects in Turkey, and residential remodeling projects in the US.

Vuslat speaks Turkish, German, and English fluently.

Awards

• NewSchool President’s Award