Architecture Professor James T. Tice has been selected for the 2013 UO Outstanding Research Career Award, sponsored by the Office for Research, Innovation and Graduate Education. The award highlights outstanding research activities at the UO.

Significant among his research endeavors are those devoted to the cartography of Rome and especially their intersection with the digital humanities. Tice developed the interactive Nolli Map Website, in collaboration with Erik Steiner of the UO InfoGraphics Lab and Alan Ceen of Studium Urbis in Rome. This project attracted attention from the Christian Science Monitor, The Times of London, and Corriere delle Sera in Milan. The award winning website has been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Dumbarton Oaks among other institutions. It will be permanently housed in the Bavarian State Library archive, one of the largest research libraries in Europe.

Above: Professor James T. Tice

With a J. Paul Getty Foundation Grant, Tice expanded his Rome studies by examining the work of eighteenth century artist, Giuseppe Vasi. The urban landscapes Vasi recorded include over 240 views of Rome that were geo-referenced by Tice into the Nolli map along with original photographs paralleling each view. The result is the website Imago Urbis: Giuseppe Vasi’s Grand Tour of Rome, co-authored with Steiner and Ceen. Following this research initiative that won notice from BBC television, he cocurated and coauthored the exhibition and accompanying catalogue “Giuseppe Vasi’s Rome: Lasting Impressions from the Age of the Grand Tour” with James Harper, associate professor of Art and Architecture History. Tice designed the gallery installation for the JSMA exhibition which then traveled to the Princeton University Art Museum.

Continuing this avenue of study, Tice recently received a Digital Implementation Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies for “The GIS Forma Urbis Romae Project: Creating a Layered History of Rome.” The Spatial History Project at Stanford University joined Tice in this, his latest, collaborative research project.

In addition to his Italian studies, Tice has also explored American research themes. He has coauthored a monograph on Frank Lloyd Wright with Paul Laseau entitled, Frank Lloyd Wright: Between Principle and Form. He is also interested in the typological significance and social implications of housing form, coauthoring Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles with Roger Sherwood and Stephanos Polyzodies. Following the publication of this research in the United States and Japan, he has been active in promoting historic preservation initiatives for this housing type in West Hollywood and Santa Monica.

Tice combines his interest in historical research with his endeavors as an architect, as an urban designer and as an educator. He has received national and international awards for his work in this vein. These include a First Prize Award for his entry in the Shinkenchiku International Residential Design Competition and a Design Excellence Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture for his traveling exhibition “On Common Ground: Four Housing Projects by James Tice.” Along with devoting time to research, design and teaching he serves as a board member for the Frank Lloyd Wright Gordon House Conservancy in Silverton.

The UO Outstanding Research Career Award goes to tenured associate or full professors. Each winner will participate as a keynote speaker in the Presidential Research Lecture Series in 2014 to share his outstanding work with campus colleagues.

The winners will be honored at an awards ceremony May 28. Awardees receive commendation, including $1,000 in research support; a recognition memento; formal highlighting of their work; and inclusion in the 2013 Research, Innovation and Graduate Education Annual Report. Department of English Professor Gordon M. Sayre also won the 2013 Outstanding Research Career Award.

“We congratulate these award recipients who continue to inspire us with their commitment to research excellence,” said Kimberly Andrews Espy, vice president for research and innovation, and dean of the Graduate School.