Lynne was already an architect when she arrived as a student at the UO in the early 90s. She came to further her research into affordable housing and CDCs, and I accepted her as a research advisee, as she was one of very few applicants I’d seen who had a clear idea of what she wanted to do, and seemed quite capable of doing it.  It was a pleasure having her in Eugene for a few years, as she did a great job balancing the demands of simultaneously being a grad student, a teacher, and a mom.  Lynne was more of a colleague than a student, and we were always in agreement on the shortcomings of the housing production system (and the profession).

Lynne decided to continue her research at UW Milwaukee, where she received her PhD, and she then joined the faculty at the University of Illinois – where she has taught quite a number of students who later came to the UO as grad students (and one current UO faculty member).  Her work has always involved social issues in architecture, and in recent years it has brought her to many remote and interesting places around the globe (so she hasn’t felt quite the same need to travel around in a trailer for a year).

the architecture building at UIUC

We had a brief visit but thorough tour of the campus (but still could not find out why what I always knew as Champaign-Urbana became Urbana-Champaign).  Certainly the highlight of the visit was meeting her new (to us) husband, John Stallmeyer, who is also on the architecture faculty.  I inquired how long they had worked together before they became an item, and ascertained that they came nowhere near the record held by me and Linda.  We had a very interesting discussion about the current state of academic architecture, finding that the issues which concerned us were almost identical;  I think this will become a continuing theme in this blog.

Champaign struck us as quite a nice town, and as always, it was great to see an old friend living a happy, meaningful and productive life