Bloomer was in residence as a CIAU fellow at the Charnley House and the Chicago Institute for Architecture and Urbanism in the autumn of 1988, and sporadically thereafter. The title of her CIAU Fellowship project is “Tabbles of Bower.” It is impossible to overstate the importance of the support, and the extended support, of the CIAU and the SOM Foundation, as well as its bringing together a group of scholars whose input and criticism were substantial, and helped make possible the consequent experiment in materiality and language that was the focus of Bloomer’s graduate studio teaching and written production for the following fourteen years.
Bloomer was also supported by the generosity of The University of Florida (UF) and Iowa State University. At UF, Dean Anthony Catanese granted her access to working space, a materials lab, and the estimable partnership of graduate research assistant, Adeline (Nina) Hofer (now Associate Professor of Architecture at UF). UF students Mikesch Muecke (Ph.D., Princeton), Bob Heilmann, Dave Karpook, and Jimmy Harrison also played significant parts in the production. At Iowa State, Dean Thomas Galloway supported the move of the large, hefty project-in-progress from Florida to Iowa, and provided a spacious seed barn as a work space for its completion. Dr. Muecke, then a graduate student, and now an Associate Professor at Iowa State, became her research assistant and indispensable partner during the 1991–92 academic year.