UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Three longtime members of the Stuckeman School faculty will retire in June after serving Penn State for a combined 87 years.
Timothy Johnson and Neil Korostoff, both associate professors of landscape architecture, and James Wines, professor of architecture, are wrapping up their careers at Penn State this semester and will officially enter retirement on July 1.
Johnson came to Happy Valley and the Department of Landscape Architecture in 1983 after earning a master’s degree in landscape architecture from Ohio State. He was a 2011 recipient of the prestigious Milton S. Eisenhower Award for Distinguished Teaching at Penn State, which is issued to just two faculty members, University-wide, per year. The award recognizes those who, in addition to being outstanding teachers themselves, have provided some kind of support or mentoring to others.
Johnson is highly regarded by his students and peers as an expert on the application of computer technologies in the practice of landscape design and visualization. In 1992 he received the Joe Wyatt Challenge Award, sponsored by Educom IT, which recognized 101 success stories of the implementation of information technologies in higher education nationwide. In 1999, a CD-ROM that teaches sustainable land-use practices that he helped create received a National Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), and in 2004, another multimedia tool he helped build — called PennSCAPEs — received a special recognition from the Pennsylvania-Delaware Chapter of ASLA.
Johnson has been a frequent speaker at premier landscape architecture events over the years, including the annual meetings of the ASLA and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. He also maintained a consulting business with fellow landscape architecture faculty member (and interim director of the Stuckeman School) Kelleann Foster.
Korostoff joined the faculty of the Department of Landscape Architecture in 1988 and has been a devoted teacher and the leader of the department’s study abroad program. He recently was recognized as the 2019 recipient of the Advancing a Global Penn State: Outstanding Leadership in Education Abroad Award by the University’s Office of Global Programs. He received the honor for his work teaching in Barcelona, Spain, as well as for the support he provides to landscape architecture students who take part in the one-semester program in Bonn, Germany.
Korostoff’s research areas include urban design and planning for cities in developing countries, urban and regional planning in Turkey, informal urban settlements in developing countries, post-mining reclamation and development, and sustainable design. His “Plants, People, and Place” course became revered by students and alumni who recognize Korostoff’s deep knowledge and spirited commitment to native plant communities.
In addition to his role within the Stuckeman School, Korostoff has worked as a landscape architect with Sere Ltd. In State College, Pennsylvania, since 1987.
Wines joined Penn State in 1999 and established himself as a celebrated architect and instructor since that time. He served as the head of the Department of Architecture from 1999 to 2003 and was named the 2003 Penn State Faculty Scholar in the arts and humanities.
The winner of more than 25 art and design awards, Wines was the recipient of the Smithsonian Institution’s 2013 National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement. His drawings and models can be found in numerous collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum, Centre Pompidou, FRAC Centre, Louvre, Victoria and Albert Museum, Australian National Gallery, Tokyo National Gallery, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.
Wines founded SITE, a New York City-based design and architecture practice, in 1970 and has designed and built more than 150 architectural projects in 12 different countries as the firm’s president and creative director. The main focus of his work is on aesthetic, sociological and environmental concerns in the building arts, and his research interests include green architecture, drawing, environmental art, landscape design, and production design.