This summer, SALA is excited to welcome three new faculty members to our Master of Architecture program:
Joanne Gates
Lecturer
Joanne is a registered architect and an educator. She has a strong interest in design, materials and assemblies which she has brought to her extensive teaching at SALA since 2011 including the introductory core studio, comprehensive design studio, option studios and technical support courses.
Joanne maintains a small practice, Gates-Suter Architects Inc. that engages in varied project types, new construction and renovation. Her work has been recognized, most recently featured in the book Reside, an anthology of west coast homes, and as the 2018 Western Living Arthur Erickson Memorial Award recipient. Prior to establishing her own firm in 2001, she worked at a number of local firms including Patkau Architects, Marshall Fisher Architects, James KM Cheng Architects, Henriquez Partner Architects, and William Rhone Architects.
In term 1, Joanne will be leading a section of ARCH 500: Architectural Design Studio I, and teaching ARCH 511: Architectural Technology I. In term 2, Joanne will teach DES 232: Material Culture, and lead a section of our comprehensive studio, ARCH 521: Architectural Design Studio IV. Joanne will also lead an elective, ARCH 571: Technology Seminar, next summer.
James Huemoeller
Assistant Professor
James runs JIM, a studio focused on designing structures within an urbanizing, post-anthropocene landscape. JIM is a member of the Field Collective, a coalition of small BC architectural firms sharing resources and knowledge to address our communities’ challenges, such as social injustice and climate change. Before starting his firm, James practiced across North America on projects ranging from Alaska’s North Slope schools to pro-bono community projects in Philadelphia’s inner city. He has also worked as a project manager for several contractors and fabricators.
Beyond practice, James has taught graduate studios at SALA since 2016. He also remains involved in archaeological projects throughout the Mediterranean, including studying Morgantina in central Sicily since 2008. There, he collaborates on both a legacy project looking at the Central Sanctuary and newly excavated material in a suburban district.
Born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, James grew up on the ancestorial territories of the Apsáalooke, Lakota, Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Nations and forty-eight other Tribal Nations that were tied to the lands for trade, hunting, gathering, and healing.
James will lead a section of ARCH 520: Architectural Design Studio III in term 1. In term 2, James will teach ARCH 531: Architectural Technology II and a section of ARCH 521: Architectural Design Studio IV. In the summer 2025 term, he will teach ARCH 551: Communicating Construction.
Thena Jean-hee Tak
Assistant Professor
Thena Jean-hee Tak is a first generation South Korean American born on the ancestral homelands of the Plains Tribes, including the Lipan Apache, Comanche and Tonkawa, or what is also called today Austin, Texas. She is a designer, researcher, and founder of LILO: Little Office, a design practice that privileges alternative ways of seeing, thinking, and making. Her work involves planetary care and theories of ecological-enactment through stories of kinship and reciprocity that support healing relationships between land and culture.
Prior to SALA, Thena was an Assistant Professor of Architectural Studies at Bard College in New York where she contributed to rethinking pedagogical conventions through interdisciplinary experimentation. She was also previously a Lecturer at SALA, leading option studios, research methods, advanced digital media, and supervising theses and independent studies in our Master of Architecture program. Additionally, she has taught at the University of Minneapolis College of Design and Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning.
Thena has previously worked at award-winning firms including Vincent James Associates Architects in Minneapolis, Barkow Leibinger Architects in Berlin, and Höweler + Yoon Architecture in Boston. She serves as a JAE Fellows Advocate, offering support and mentorship for the recipients of the JAE Fellowship.
In term one, Thena will teach a section of ARCH 500: Architectural Design Studio I. In term two, she will offer an option studio for ARCH 501: Architectural Design Studio II, as well as a to-be-announced elective during the summer 2025 term.