OSU school of architecture students are presenting their ideas for OSU’s future residential halls as part of a course project.

Thirty-two architecture students and eight architectural engineering students are participating in a jury review of the projects.

The project for this semester’s comprehensive design studio course, Architecture 4216, is designing a residential hall for 900 occupants and a dining building to hold 1,500 people.

Max Underwood, an Arizona State University professor, reviewed the students’ presentations as a guest juror and spoke Thursday night to the architecture students and faculty.

The presentations will continue this morning from 10 to 6:30 this evening in the Architecture building.

Tom Spector, an architecture professor, teaches the course with Jeanne Homer, a course coordinator and assistant professor; Khaled Mansy, assistant professor; and John Phillips, associate professor.

Spector said the students met with Residential Life director Bob Huss and discussed their ideas for the residential halls to be built in the OSU Master Plan for 2025 on the southwest corner of Monroe and Farm Road.

“(Huss) met with the students the first week and brought a representative from residential life with him,” Spector said. “ Students are demanding more innovation and choices. It’s kind of contradictory; students want more comforts in their rooms but also want more community interaction. So how do you do that?”

Spector said the average student in the course will spend 1,000 hours working on the project by the end of the semester.

During the jury process, architects and engineers from various parts of Oklahoma will review the students’ ideas and ask questions about construction material and design.

Bruce Nguyen, an architecture senior, said dealing with questions from professionals was a bit intimidating.

“I was nervous, you know, standing up in front of people you’ve never seen before, trying to defend your ideas,” Nguyen said.

The students can show 3-D models of their building plans, use computer-generated graphics or hand draw the wall-size, brightly colored plans they use in their presentations.

Kelli Abbott, an architectural engineering senior, worked on the detailed plans for her residential/dining building and garden area since Saturday morning by hand.

“I drew it by hand for a couple of reasons,” Abbott said. “ You always get a schematic feel with drawing, but a computer graphic feels so set in stone and you get these hard lines. I’m an engineer, and so I didn’t have the graphics course the architecture students used.”

Abbott’s plan fits OSU’s Georgian architecture style. The building she designed opens onto a large courtyard and has reading rooms with large windows on each floor.

“I wanted it to work with campus, rather than something that doesn’t fit in. I like the outdoor area the best,” Abbott said.

Architecture students who have lived on campus have a different perspective on their designs, said Justin Mitchell, an architecture senior.

“I lived in Willham North,” Mitchell said. “I wanted to have the same sense of community of the larger dorms.”

Nguyen presented a dramatic, contemporary building nine stories tall and shaped like a diamond.

“I like the fact that my design looks like nothing else on campus,” Nguyen said. “Since school started, we’ve worked day and night. It’s going to be a long semester.”

source : www.ocolly.com