2024 Continuing Education
Meet the Speakers
Sam Culpepper
As a Program Manager, Sam provides design review and consultation to outside clients and projects in the Earthcraft Multifamily program, performs energy modeling for programs across Southface and is working on his Home Energy Rating System (HERS) rater certification. Sam is a registered architect and has a background in commercial, multifamily and hospitality architecture, and an undergrad degree from Georgia Tech. Outside of the office, he can often be found pedaling his two children around town in a cargo bike and tinkering away on various home improvement projects.
Mike Barcik
Mike Barcik is a Technical Principal at Southface and has been with the organization since 1995. With B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech, Mike is the author of numerous technical resources and has developed and led thousands of trainings for RESNET, BPI, LEED, DOE, EPA and other programs. He’s active in energy code development and often leads workshops on the latest code changes.
Since 1999, Mike has trained over 1,500 individuals in RESNET’s Home Energy Rating System (HERS) program, and in 2010 he helped create the Duct and Envelope Tightness (DET) Verifier program to certify over a thousand individuals for blower door and duct leakage testing, as required by the 2009 and later energy codes. Mike served as LEED Faculty for BD+C, EB O&M and Homes, as well as helped develop and teach the EarthCraft family of sustainable programs.
Mike co-authored Decatur, Georgia’s High Performance Building Ordinance which requires third-party certification for new and substantially renovated single-family, multi-family and commercial projects. During the second week of January, he loves leading MLK Volunteers to weatherize homes for low-income seniors. Mike lives with his much-smarter architect wife and two daughters in a 1920 Craftsman bungalow that they are lovingly restoring and making more efficient. Thanks to efficiency improvements and a 4kW photovoltaic array, they’ve offset 95% of their electricity consumption and use only a third of the gas originally consumed.
James Youngston, IALD, LC
Prior to forming Gabler-Youngston Architectural Lighting Design with Morgan Gabler in 2005, Jim was a Senior Designer with the Lighting Design Group at Newcomb & Boyd in Atlanta and with Bos Lighting Design in Houston. His past theatrical work includes serving as guest Lighting Designer for the Tamarind Theatre in Los Angeles, Lighting and Technical Director for the West-Mon Repertory Theatre in Houston, lighting technician for the Houston Grand Opera, and electrician and pyrotechnician for the Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and technical theatre from the University of Texas at Austin.
Jim is a Professional Member of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) and Lighting Certified (LC) by the National Council for Qualifications for the Lighting Professional (NCQLP). He served on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) from 2000–2007 and as Section President from 2004–2005. He served on the Membership Committee of the IALD from 2007–2009 and on the IALD Board of Directors as Membership Chair from 2010-2013. He currently serves as a juror for the Certified Lighting Designer credentialing program.
Jim has been recognized with thirteen International and Sectional Illumination Design Awards and has seen his work and articles in a wide variety of publications such as Architectural Record, Professional Lighting Design, Mondo Arc, Metropolitan Home, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution. He has received an Edison Award of Merit and an Edison Award for Sustainable Design. Jim has also presented at various trade shows, professional society meetings, and at Savannah College of Art and Design, Texas Christian University, University of Houston, and The University of Colorado Boulder, among others.
In his off time, he enjoys his family, pets, food and wine and travels frequently to Andalucía, Spain, where he maintains a country home.
Eilís Finnegan
Eilís Finnegan is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Design in the Auburn University School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. Eilís’s creative work and research explores hybrid project generation methods, namely through Artificial Intelligence and digital modeling, speculative programming, and collaborations with adjacent and divergent fields to create “sites” for working.
Eilís’s research and collaborations are often represented as exhibitions and exercises in scenography. Her current work includes “gifting, ghosting, and gigabytes” a collaboration with Perry Kulper at the Chicago Architecture Biennial, CAB5: This is a Rehearsal – 2023; and, “1000000 in 0.001: microseasons, MEGATRENDS, and Maintenance, a project exploring digital waste programming in physical “fast-fashion(ed)” waste sites.
Eilís also continues to collaborate with Project Sleep, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about sleep health, sleep equity, and sleep disorders. Her public speaking engagements for the organization include Creighton University Medical School + Neuroscience Club, Rush University Medical Center, and other panel opportunities.
Eilís feels that the crossbreed of AI Neural Networks, their propensity for encouraging machine hallucination in architecture, design, and construction, and human neural networks, neuro-typical and divergent, can generate work which is generous to the kinds of dexterity required to navigate our digital, physical, and cultural feeds.
Frank Hu
Frank Hu is Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture in the Auburn University School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture, where he teaches studio in addition to courses in construction and graphic studies. His teaching and research explore advanced technologies in landscape visualization, digital media, and GIS. Prior to joining Auburn, Frank practiced for 8 years at Lamar Johnson Collaborative, based in St. Louis, Missouri, focusing on large scale urban design and public greenways.
Robert Sproull
Robert Sproull is a Senior Design Architect with Goodwyn Mills Cawood and an Assistant Professor of Environmental Design and Architecture in the Auburn University School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. He has over fifteen years of design, construction and engineering experience on a range of award-winning projects. Much of his professional focus has been on large scale cultural buildings that he completed while working with the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. In addition to focusing on buildings, Sproull has designed much larger planning projects in the U.S. and South America including the recently opened Parque Bicentenario in Quito, Ecuador. He has given keynote speeches on design and sustainability topics at conferences in the United States and abroad and was an invited panelist at the USGBC’s 2013 Conference on Healthy Building Materials in Washington D.C. Robert holds bachelor’s degrees in architecture and civil engineering from Auburn University, and a master’s degree in architecture from Rice University.
David Frazier
David Frazier is an architectural and interior designer with a design aesthetic formed in his beloved South and honed in his adopted home of New York City, where he now operates his eponymous firm. After earning a degree in Architecture from Auburn University and receiving the 2013 Arch Daily Building of the Year award while attending the internationally acclaimed Rural Studio, David began his design career at Meyer Davis in New York. While there, he worked on many award-winning projects of various scales around the world before becoming studio director at a residential interior design firm.
With a discerning eye for detail and a firm belief in the importance of place-based architecture, David creates interiors that are reflective of his clients and their lifestyles. While specializing in the creation of curated environments with an emphasis on warm modernism, David and his team have designed and completed a broad mix of projects in New York City, the Hamptons, Connecticut, Denver, Vail Valley, California’s Napa Valley, Mexico, Alys Beach, Palm Beach, and throughout the South.
His work has been featured by Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Veranda, Town & Country, Milieu, Frederic, House Beautiful, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Traditional Home, Luxe, Rue, Domino, and Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles. David has been honored as part of Frederic magazine’s inaugural “It List,” House Beautiful’s Next Wave, Traditional Home magazine’s “Rising Stars” designer list, and was named the 2024 Southeast Designer of the Year by Atlanta Decorative Arts Center and Veranda magazine.
Christian Dagg
Christian Dagg is an Associate Professor of Architecture in the Auburn University School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. Although not a historian, his research focuses on the history of architectural practice. The recent history of architect-led design-build, especially as seen in the work of faculty from the 1970s, has been a source for exhibitions and publications.
As an educator still involved in creative work, he is a principal of Hinson + Dagg Architects, a firm recognized at the local and state level for their attention to typology, materials and innovative response to context.