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June 23, 2009, 01:29 PM ET
Buffalo Architecture Students Take on Small Projects for Real-World Training
Bar code: Students drew inspiration from UPC symbols in designing shelving in the architecture school at the State U. of New York at Buffalo. (Photo by Doug Levere)
I took a recent trip to upstate New York to visit a few colleges, and I made a stop at the architecture school at the State University of New York at Buffalo. There, Brian Carter, the dean, has students working on what he calls “small projects” — efforts to redesign much-used public spaces, both to enliven the surroundings and to give students real training.
Light tables in the visual-resources center hang off the wall.
Mr. Carter, who is British, says there are many opportunities in Europe for young architects to participate in competitions and get their names out there. One of the difficulties of being a young architect in America is that there are too few opportunities to break into the field and show one’s work, he says.
The small projects offer those opportunities. “We have a timetable and a budget,” he says. The prospect of designing work that will be lived in by peers is “likely harrowing,” he says.
Two projects designed and built by students stood out. One was a desk and shelving in the School of Architecture’s library. It was designed and built out of maple plywood by three students, Michael Baillie, Ernest Ng, and Dan Stripp; the inspiration for the vertical lines in the design came from UPC symbols seen on the dust jackets of books everywhere.
The other is a futuristic design for the school’s visual-resources center, which houses the college’s films, photos, and slides. The doors on the shelving along one wall are translucent, illuminated with different colors from within. The light tables are a striking element: They are made of steel and hung on a curved remnant of a wall that has been cut to open up the room. It was designed by a team of students, led by Mehrdad Hadighi, the chairman of the architecture program.
Shelving in the visual-resources center is painted and illuminated from within. (Photo courtesy State U. of New York at Buffalo)
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