Share Your Stories
Thanks to those of you who sent an alumni news update to us after seeing the new digital CFA Magazine. Although we know that many of you send your news directly to the academic program from which you graduated, we would love for you to fill out our alumni contact form so we can help to let your classmates know what you’ve been doing.
Here are the stories that came through last time!
Colin Brice is a 1994 graduate of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture. He is co-founder of Mapos, a design and architecture firm. Brice said that the firm focuses on “concepting and designing environments where people want to be. Whether it's a single-family residence or a mixed-use cultural development, all our projects start with understanding the needs of the people who will be living, working, learning, sleeping, eating and shopping in the finished project.”
Steve Chabassol, who goes by Steve Chab when performing, graduated from the BXA Intercollege Degree Programs in 2020 with a BHA in creative writing and music technology, with a minor in sound design. Steve Chab Band released an album in December 2024. In describing his work, Chab said “it’s an art+poetry chapbook, and (the band) perform songs from the book at concerts.”
The group released a music video, which blends performance with AI.
Outside of music/art, Chab works as a software engineer for Dell. He and his wife and four children live in Greenfield, Pa., near CMU’s campus. Chab hosts concerts at his home several times a year and they also host a weekly Shabbat gathering for friends and neighbors. Fans may find shirts and books on Bandcamp. In 2018, Hunt Library featured "Dot Rocks 4" as the main piece in Art of the Remix expo. In 2017, The Oakland Review featured one of Chab’s pieces on the cover of Volume XLII [PDF].
Danielle Dulchinos, a 2024 alumna of the MFA Costume Production program in the School of Drama, received the 2024 Patterns of Fashion Award from The Costume Society of the UK at The Fashion and Textile Museum of London. She was the first finalist from the United States and the first U.S. winner of this prestigious award.
Some see bridges as a way to get from one point to another. CMU School of Architecture alumnus Frederick Gottemoeller sees bridges as works of art. He should know; he has made designing bridges his life’s work.
“It is gratifying to see the College of Fine Arts taking pride in the work of all its alumni. Being a ’63 and ’65 graduate of CFA’s School of Architecture, I thought you would be interested in a development in the bridge world: the increasing focus on bridges as works of art.”
Gottemoeller said that bridges as art is the continuation of a trend that extends back centuries. It even affected the career of Henry Hornbostel, who designed much of CMU’s campus. Gottemoeller referenced the mural above the main entrance of CFA that depicts New York’s Hell Gate Bridge. Hornbostel was architectural adviser to Gustave Lillienthall, the engineer of that major structure and all of the viaducts attached to it.
With the additional benefit of a civil engineering degree from the College of Engineering, Gottemoeller had a 60-year career in this field; in the last 35 years, he provided architectural guidance for more than 30 bridges. In his retirement, he said he has decided to “try to foster and extend the focus on bridges as works of art” and illustrates that focus through Bridge Art.
“The site is aimed at publicizing the notion of bridges as works of art, as well as encouraging higher levels of design by practitioners and providing support to community advocates seeking to secure works of bridge art for their communities. The site includes a few of my own bridges, but also bridges by many others,” he said.
Now retired and living in England, where he’s resided since 1965, Daniel Quall King taught sculpture, industrial design and drawing for 26 years, including an innovative joint course in mechanical engineering and industrial design in the 1970s. King was born in 1938 and grew up in Arkansas.
He said his artistic sensibility “was formed early in life by an appreciation of two complementary worlds, the Ouachita forests and the unfolding possibilities of the architecture of the mid-20th century.” He trained as a sculptor and industrial designer at what was then called Carnegie Institute of Technology from 1955 to 1959 (BFA Hons) and 1961-1962 (MFA), and received the Porter Prize for Sculpture and, later, a Heinz Graduate Scholarship.
Michael Armentrout Roosevelt graduated from the Carnegie Mellon School of Art in 1970. His career path was unique; he worked for the Caledonia County, Vt., State’s Attorney’s Office as a sexual violence and domestic violence investigator and, at the same time, taught visual arts.
He retired from his role at the State’s Attorney’s Office but continued his work as an adjunct professor in the Visual Arts Department, Vermont State University-Lyndon, teaching drawing, life drawing and sculpture. Roosevelt continues to make prints and exhibit his work.
Ed Szylinski graduated from the CMU School of Design in 1968. After a lengthy career in package and brand design, Szylinski retired in 2019.
He did not forget his time at Carnegie Mellon and within the College of Fine Arts. Several years ago, he established the Szylinski Blue Sky Thinking Award, which annually gives $2,750 to a communications design third-year student in the School of Design.
“It is my way of staying connected to CMU,” Szylinski said. “I treasure my experiences at CMU. I'm so grateful I was accepted and so happy I chose to attend.”
These days, Szylinski said he stays busy helping family and friends and investing in the stock market. And, as if that weren’t enough to keep him busy, Szylinski said he began to study acting a few years ago — almost as a second career.
Find out what alumni are doing across the School of Architecture, School of Art, School of Design, School of Drama, School of Music and BXA Intercollege Degree Programs.
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