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STEM

Students Meld Creativity, Community Needs in Field House Redesign

Monday, August 4, 2014, By Kathleen Haley
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School of Architecture
A rendering of the site for the redesigned field house at Skiddy Park.

A rendering of the site for the redesigned field house at Skiddy Park

The Near West Side of 黑料不打烊 became a familiar haunt for a team of architecture, engineering and industrial design students last spring.

They met with neighbors, shopped at local stores and visited its art galleries and green spaces.

They were there to absorb the neighborhood鈥檚 environs and imagine what a renovation of the current Skiddy Park field house might look like.

Architecture student Julian Curry 鈥15 remembers first visiting the windowless, concrete structure at the start of the semester and thinking it was pretty bleak鈥攂ut with possibilities. 鈥淲e were all excited about the location,鈥 Curry says. 鈥淚t seemed like it had a lot of potential.鈥

Four months later, the students had produced a design for the field house that bridged community needs and the creative concepts of architects and calculations of engineers.

The new design, set to be implemented by the City of 黑料不打烊 Parks Department in 2015 and possibly at other field houses in the city, showcases a broad skylight, inviting entrances and new materials that add texture.

Not the typical studio

Unlike the typical studio project, the challenge for students was working within the parameters of an actual budget, various opinions of community members and the constraints of city officials.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a different perspective when you know your work is going to affect people鈥檚 lives,鈥 Curry says. 鈥淭he most rewarding part was engaging with the community and seeing how design can make an impact.鈥

The project came about through Marc Norman, director of UPSTATE: A Center for Design, Research and Real Estate at the School of Architecture, who had heard from city and nonprofit officials about needed renovations to the park.

鈥淭hey wanted to see a building that would be more open and could be used for special events, with better lighting, increasing the sense of safety, and more seating,鈥 Norman says.

Norman then reached out to Associate Professor Larry Bowne, who has an ARC 409 Studio class.

School of Architecture design students visit the existing structure at Skiddy Park.

Students visit the existing structure at Skiddy Park with Associate Professor Larry Bowne, at left, early in the semester.

鈥淭he hallmark course in any architecture program in America is the design studio. It鈥檚 standard practice that studio deals with projects that are not thought of as real projects and don鈥檛 have real clients,鈥 Bowne says. 鈥淔rom the very beginning of the Skiddy Park project, the students understood there was a real client and site, and a real budget. They had to think about what they were doing, who they were doing it for, how much it was going to cost and how it might get realized based on methods of construction.鈥

The 16 architecture students in Bowne鈥檚 class also worked with an independent student in industrial design and Assistant Professor Sin茅ad C. Mac Namara鈥檚 class, ARC 500, which blends engineering and architecture. The 15 architecture and engineering students in McNamara鈥檚 class focused on testing the designs in theory and with computer models, using such calculations as those that test the snow load under New York State codes.

鈥淭he idea was to test how well we could integrate the technical rigor with the open design process of an architecture class,鈥 Mac Namara says.

BIKE_BOX_WINTER_RENDERING

A rendering of the bike box to be situated near the Skiddy Park field house

Mac Namara鈥檚 students offered recommendations on the shape, number and various kinds of materials, when they were presented with the various designs. 鈥淲e were trying to model typical practice for students, giving them an idea of the back and forth that goes on among those involved in a project,鈥 Mac Namara says.

Calculated moves

Civil engineering student Stephanie Sanchez 鈥14 provided input on such calculations as the distance between supports on the side of the field house and finding beams that would better benefit the designs as respect to weight and sizing.

鈥淚t was an eye-opening experience to see how much we actually do know how to do,鈥 Sanchez says. 鈥淲e got the chance to visually see and apply what we know and it makes聽so much more sense聽when you聽see聽it in front of you.鈥

Sanchez found the challenge in blending the more structured expectations of a typical engineering course with that of the freedom that is found in architecture courses.

鈥淥ur professors emphasized that the lack of coordination is actually a huge issue in reality between architects and engineers, and we were able to see exactly that in our short time of working with the studio,鈥 Sanchez says. 鈥淲henever I do enter the working field, I will already have in mind what it will be like or what to expect.鈥

An architecture student in Mac Namara鈥檚 class, Steven O鈥橦ara 鈥15, had to meld both the skills of an architecture and engineer student.

鈥淭his involved learning how to work with designers from the other side of the table, how to give appropriate information and options, and how to move toward engineering conclusions while maintaining design intentions,鈥 says O鈥橦ara, who was involved in creating a model and drawings of the existing park, among other tasks.聽鈥淭hese are typical challenges that professionals experience, so I found it valuable to experience this聽in an academic setting.鈥

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Students review ideas for redesigning the Skiddy Park field house.

To get a variety of experiences, Bowne鈥檚 class worked in groups on different aspects of the project, such as marketing, budget or a specific design component.

Tiffany Monta帽ez 鈥15, who worked on meeting logistics, learned the importance of collaboration鈥攁nd to find one鈥檚 own voice while making compromises. 鈥淎fter we got a better understanding of the restraints, like budget or the opinions and needs of the community, it was a bit intimidating,鈥 Monta帽ez says. 鈥淗owever, we used these restraints to help us produce a compelling and effective design.鈥

They also worked with UPSTATE, the Near West Side Initiative and two Imagining America engagement fellows on developing community outreach.

Hearing from the community

Students met with community and Parks Department representatives in various meetings to hear about the needs of the community and present different components of the designs to community members to get feedback.

鈥淲e opened up walls on the streetside and the playground side, to create a pass through, a breezeway to the building. We designed a skylight that would sit on the existing roof,鈥 Bowne says. 鈥淭he engineers were amazing in figuring out how to carry the weight of a new skylight on top of existing wall and timber framing that was there.鈥

It also includes a storage unit for a nonprofit group that lends bikes and offers programs around cycling for children.

The students, who won a Chancellor鈥檚 Award for Public Engagement and Scholarship in the category of Innovation in Academic Engagement, made a final presentation to the community, which will have a renovated field house with a $35,000 grant from UPSTATE and matching funds from the city Parks Department.

鈥淓veryone crowded around the model, and they were generally happy. That felt like success,鈥 Monta帽ez says. 鈥淚t was a tough semester but I wouldn鈥檛 take it back for anything.鈥

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黑料不打烊 community members gather to see the design work done by the students on a redesign of the Skiddy Park field house.

 

 

 

 

  • Author

Kathleen Haley

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