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LSU Design Week 2021 an International Challenge

Art & Design, Students, Landscape Architecture, Events,

The LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture held Design Week January 11-15, 2021, in which landscape architecture students tackle a contemporary design challenge. Guest experts visited in-person and virtually to give final critiques of student work. Critics joined the event virtually from Tokyo, Denver, NYC, and Cairo.

Landscape architecture students from all years, from first year BLA candidates up to third year MLA graduate students, participated in LSU Design Week 2021. There were six teams of 18 students each and two faculty advisors for each team. The hybrid model of socially distant, masked meetings, and virtual communications, was an additional challenge compared to Design Weeks of previous years.

Kona Gray, FASLA, PLA, EDSA principal and 2021 Marie M. Bickham Chair in Landscape Architecture at LSU, led the Design Week challenge, said Nicholas Serrano, assistant professor of landscape architecture and Design Week faculty organizer. “Kona Gray brought the problem, gave daily critiques to each team, and organized to have critics from all over the world join for the final review.”

​This year teams were tasked with designing a central park for a new city and governmental center of Egypt. The challenge is for the park to function as a global destination while also serving local residents, also important because of critical lack of open space in Cairo.

Design Week 2021 was inherently different than in previous years, Serrano said. “Fewer teams with more students allowed for teams to dive deeper into the problem,” he said.

Lake Douglas, associate dean of research and development, said he was impressed with how the students collaborated well despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. “To me this was one of the most successful of recent Design Weeks because each team worked out its own way of working – in person (socially distanced) and remotely.  This is the future of office practice, even post-COVID, apparently.”

Teams collaborated remotely using Miro and Discord, then 2-3 members of each team came to campus every day for in-person critiques with Gray. Students agreed that it was a rewarding experience.

“Design Week was unique and memorable this year, as Kona Gray introduced us to a city-scale project near Cairo, Egypt,” said Joshua Crawford, BLA candidate. “This gave us a design problem that not only broadened our design scales, but also opened us up to a completely different landscape, creating striking designs and conversations!”

“It’s amazing how all the students have responded to COVID-19 restrictions and adapted to remote design/studio working together, through various new platforms,” Douglas said.

“The best part of design week this year was being able to take part in our studio culture once again,” said Taylor Lasorsa. “This week reminds me how important communication and collaboration can be in taking big ideas to the next level.”

About Kona Gray

As an EDSA studio leader with a 27-year career and experience in 30+ countries, Kona Gray’s global management sense has positively shaped the outcomes of many environments. Gray’s heritage originates from Liberia, West Africa, which has influenced his sense of community based design and place making. His portfolio ranges from large-scale planning to detailed site design, with emphasis on communities, parks, hospitality, urban public realms, healthcare and campus spaces.

Domestically, his work includes parks and public realm experiences in rural and urban communities. His international experience encompasses the design for mixed-use destinations, resort communities, and large-scale parks in the Caribbean, North Africa, and the Middle East including a 5,000-acre Central Park in Cairo, Egypt. He leads a team of designers and landscape architects on projects in Florida, Georgia, California, Virginia, Arkansas, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas, China, Dubai (UAE), Egypt, India, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Antigua and St. Lucia.

About LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture

The Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture has an established international reputation as one of America’s leading and consistently top-ranked programs. The school offers programs leading to the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and the Master of Landscape Architecture. For more than 60 years, the program has produced landscape architects who practice all over the world and participate in the full spectrum of the discipline.

Alumni Spotlight: Christine Cangelosi Redmon

Interior Design, Alumni, Architecture, Alumni Profiles
Christine Cangelosi Redmon

Christine Cangelosi Redmon, EskewDumezRipple. Photography by Craig Mulcahy.

As part of the “Design in a Pandemic” series, Christine Cangelosi Redmon, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, architect at EskewDumezRipple in New Orleans, shares about her experiences in the time of COVID-19 and beyond.

How has the way you work and operate changed due to the pandemic?

As a design team, we have all learned how to utilize our online platforms to collaborate better and grown in our communication styles. Early in lockdown, Steve Dumez advised us all to “over communicate” at this time. We take for granted all the casual conversations in our shared spaces so when we lost the ability to all be together, we had to learn quickly how to make sure everyone was communicating effectively. Being more facile in the online collaboration mediums has allowed us to still work as a team, harvesting the best ideas from everyone, while following safety guidelines.

Work is everywhere and anywhere opening new possibilities for how you can craft your work environment. However, it also had drawbacks of having your work life and home life collide. It has been important in this time, on our team, to make sure we are checking in with each other personally. Everyone is experiencing this life changing pandemic differently and burnout is much less visible through a computer screen. Taking the time to check in helps everyone feel more whole in a world of uncertainty.

How would you say has the role of an architect changed, or not changed?

As advocates for healthy environments, the pandemic helped make our case to many clients. We often push for higher ventilation rates, operable windows, access to nature and fresh air as well as environmentally responsible finishes that can be easily disinfected, but it was not always a priority for each job. Now it is the first thing most clients want to discuss which is refreshing and exciting for all end users. I think the future is full of healthier environments because of this pandemic.

The pandemic has made us all more aware of the range of personal comfort around health and safety. More than ever, architects are being called upon to be advocates for the human experience in the built environment. Before the pandemic, the conversation was limited to user experience, whereas now we are talking about user experience within the context of a range of health and safety protocols. The broadening of this discussion is leading to more inclusive, diverse and rich conversations about the environments around us.

Anything else you would like to share?

Our firm has a standing “Friday Forum” tradition where we gather each Friday at the last hour of the week to share a drink, some refreshments, and hear about important initiatives, opportunities, or creative outlets in our city. When we went into quarantine, we really missed this chance to just hang out with each other. Our Culture and Operations team came up with a plan one Friday to deliver care packages to every staff member (even those who live way outside the city center) following all city guidelines. A masked and gloved team member dropped a package of snacks, libations, toys for kids at home and treats for staff pets at each staff members front porch. We all got together on Zoom that day to share our surprise goodies with everyone and it was such a wonderful pandemic memory.

One of our principals and fellow LSU alum Mark Ripple went the extra mile to bring joy to our faces by dressing as Caution Man. His 6’ of separation cape brought many laughs and smiles. When I asked Mark about Caution Man he reminded me that it is the role of design leadership to make people feel safe so they can create. He knew we would be okay despite the pandemic; after all, the firm did survive Katrina.

Man wrapped in yellow caution tape

Mark Ripple as “Caution Man”

Living in Louisiana means learning to be resilient. We know how to pick ourselves up from unfathomable situations, help each other out and ultimately find the joy in our way of life. Being educated in Louisiana means learning how to pull from the creative resilient energy around you to deliver a future full of amazing possibilities.

Studio Arts Building Renovation Underway

Art, Ceramics, Painting & Drawing, Printmaking, Sculpture, ,

Renovations of the LSU Studio Arts Building are underway. The renovations were approved for Priority I funding in the state’s capital outlay budget during the 2019–20 legislative session.

 

Formerly called the Old Engineering Shops, the Studio Arts Building began its life circa 1924, along with nine other buildings designed by architect Theo C. Link as part of the original master plan for Louisiana State University. It is speculated that one of the initial uses of the building was that of a fabrication shop for the construction of the original campus buildings. Because the existing building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a complete historic renovation will be undertaken to meet the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Rehabilitation of Historic Structures.

Renovation plans were drawn by Holly & Smith Architects (hollyandsmith.com) and have been ready for implementation since 2013. Holly & Smith Architects specializes in historic renovation and adaptive reuse as well as master planning and interiors. Industrial hygienist Monona Rossol, founder of ACTS (Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety), served as a consultant to the architects to ensure the renovation meets all health, safety, industrial, and OSHA standards.

The building was used by the LSU School of Art for studio arts and, once renovated, will house modernized facilities for the foundations, ceramics, printmaking, and sculpture programs as well as offices. In addition to a total interior reorganization to meet the needs of the school, the renovation will provide significant upgrades to air conditioning and ventilation systems as well as a complete interior finish upgrade.

At the end of the three existing exterior courtyard spaces, breezeway connector additions will allow a new circulation spine across the four extending wings and provide exterior stair access to the basement spaces and second floors. The steel grillage treatment on the connecting additions references the industrial character of the steel truss framework throughout the high volume spaces of the interior. It also allows the additions to remain transparent and provides a view to the historic structures. The center courtyard connector addition is treated with particular prominence to announce a new south building entry sequence toward a new galley/critique space. The entry will be accessed by a new pedestrian bridge from South Campus Drive.

School of Art Director Rod Parker said the completion of the renovation will make a huge difference in the school’s recruitment efforts to attract even greater numbers of outstandingly talented students and faculty. It will also allow the Studio Arts Building to operate during the summer, creating opportunities for continuing education and offering students more access to the facilities they need to work.

“When finished, the building will also help further integrate the college,” commented LSU College of Art & Design Dean Alkis Tsolakis. “The building will become the gateway to the historic part of campus, connecting the old campus to the new and a greater public building will promote arts to the community and make the LSU Sculpture Quad more accessible,” he added.

See renovation updates.

 

Alumni Spotlight: Ivan O’Garro (BArch 2012) on Society’s Cage Team

Art & Design, Alumni, Architecture, Alumni Profiles,
View of Capitol building in Washington, DC. illuminated at night, through bars. Black man stands in cage.

Society’s Cage on National Mall. Photo Courtesy @dani_photogram.

Peering through the bars of the cage on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., onlookers are greeted with a powerful message: white society has oppressed people of color for centuries and continues to do so today. This is Society’s Cage.

LSU architecture alum Ivan O’Garro (BArch 2012) was a member of the team that designed Society’s Cage, an art installation created in the aftermath of the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor murders in 2020. It was installed on the National Mall in fall 2020.

Cage with dark night sky in background.

Photo Courtesy @dani_photogram.

The installation features a bold interpretive pavilion sculpted to symbolize the historical forces of racialized state violence. The experience educates visitors and functions as a sanctuary to reflect, record, and share personal thoughts. It is conceived in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement as a mechanism for building empathy and healing, according to Smithgroup. Listen to Society’s Cage Soundscape.

The goal of the design team, led by Dayton Schroeter and Julian Arrington, was to use the art piece to spark open and truthful dialogue around systemic racism in America by presenting the harsh truths of the continuum of racial injustice beautifully, O’Garro said.

The installation is designed to evoke strong emotions, to impact the viewer, and make one think about the complex history of the United States, culminating to where we are today. “Ideally, the work will continue to travel the country and help different communities have real discussions centered on facts.”

Society’s Cage‘s design process was fast-paced, decisive, collaborative, and, in many ways, came naturally, he said.

“One of our strengths was the level of trust among team members,” O’Garro said. “Each person had a specific role to play. We held each other to a high standard of excellence and accountability. That trust remained paramount because of the heaviness of the vessel’s message; we had to acknowledge that we were simply messengers delivering the truth.”

O’Garro focused on research, data analytics, and interpretive text aggregation. He poured over volumes of historical data related to the four aspects of institutionalized racial violence depicted by the cube’s sides: lynching, mass incarceration, death by police, and capital punishment.

4 graphs with red data trends

The piece uses the interpolated data (four trend graphs) to form the pavilion canopy, which allows the visitor to experience the “weight of oppression” from above. On the pavilion floor, the names of almost 10,000 victims of lynching, capital punishment, and death by police officers create a texture that is broken only by quotes of Black scholars and luminaries.

Society’s Cage tells a gut-wrenching story of the plight of generations of Americans.

O’Garro has his own story to tell, of a passion that brought him to the United States to study architecture. He grew up in Trinidad & Tobago, carrying an international viewpoint that adds to his design perspective and a lifelong desire to give back to others.

 

Ivan O'Garro. Man in black shirt with glasses.

Ivan O’Garro. Image by Mark Finkenstaedt.

“My wife says I’m one of those lucky people that has found their passion in life and gets to pursue it every day. I’ve wanted to be an architect since I was nine years old,” said O’Garro.

“That was the year my mom gave me a copy of AutoCad to play around with as a gift,” he said. “I loved the idea of being able to imagine a space, build it, and have someone walk through my creation. To this day, the most fulfilling part of my job is observing how people interact with places that once existed only in my head.”

His path to LSU was circumstantial, he admits. “I wish I could say I followed some profound process picking where to study architecture, but I didn’t,” he said. “I was an international student at Tulane with a high GPA and no money. LSU had a far better academic scholarship package for students like me, so I transferred and moved to Baton Rouge.”

“That was one of the best decisions I could have made as a college student. I met some of my closest friends at LSU, folks that I collaborate with to this day. Moreover, I now had a winning football team to support.”

He was able to work at one of the nation’s top design firms while he matriculated. The LSU School of Architecture’s consortium fellowship also enabled him to spend a year in Washington, D.C., studying architecture in an urban context.

“Studying architecture at LSU opened my horizons.”

Since graduating, he has lived in Boston and D.C. and worked on projects on five continents. He currently works in the nation’s capital at Smithgroup as a lead designer in the cultural studio. His practice group focuses on museums and other cultural edifices.

He also runs SamanHaus, a social architecture nonprofit he launched in 2015 to provide pro bono architecture services to children’s institutions in Haiti.

“In many ways, creating the nonprofit was the logical progression in a series of volunteer efforts that started for me in 2010 after the devastating earthquake of 2010. It was also a way to work with my close friends Mike Johnson and Robin Bankert on projects that used our skills and training to give others happiness.”

O’Garro’s passion for design and youth development helped him identify the need to couple the two to create better living conditions for society’s most vulnerable members. He believes that “designing beautiful, safe spaces for Haiti’s orphans creates positive ripple effects on their life trajectories.”

Projects include the renovation & expansion of the Clermont Foundation Center for Homeless Youth in Jacmel, Haiti. The center provides food, shelter, healthcare, and education to homeless boys in Jacmel.

“Ivan and I were in the same class at LSU SoA, and we’ve been close friends ever since,” said Mike Johnson (BArch 2012), Harvard Graduate School of Design graduate and SamanHaus lead designer.

“In 2015, when we were both living in Boston, he offered me an amazing opportunity to join him in a nonprofit that he just started,” Johnson said.

SamanHaus’s first project was to renovate and expand the orphanage building at no cost to the orphanage. Johnson said they think of this project as a prototype for new construction in Haiti for many reasons:

  • An innovative CEB structural system is safe for seismic loads and hurricanes.
  • A bamboo facade encourages bamboo forestry to fight deforestation.
  • A rainwater collection system provides free, safe drinking water.
  • Solar panels produce continuous, stable power and sustainability.

“Beautifully designed spaces significantly enhance the orphans’ experiences and lives,” Johnson said. “This nonprofit and this project epitomize Ivan as a person and as an architect. He is a good friend, from those closest to him to people in need in another country.”

“He cares deeply about everyone, from fighting for safety in Haitian construction to fighting for racial justice at home. He advocates for sustainable design, from fighting climate change with renewable energy to designing healthy environments for those in need.

Ivan is constantly innovating, he has tremendous design skills, and he has an extraordinary ability to connect with people – all people. I am so fortunate to be able to call Ivan a close friend and colleague, and I look forward to seeing what the next chapter brings us.”

The ultimate goal: to use design as a means of making life better for all.

Learn more about SamanHaus.

Learn more about Society’s Cage.

Learn more about the LSU School of Architecture.

Society’s Cage Soundscape 8:46.

Jeremiah Ariaz Debuts We Hold These Truths

Art & Design, Research, Art, Photography, Faculty,
photographs on white wall

We Hold These Truths, installation view, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN. By Jeremiah Ariaz.

Jeremiah Ariaz, professor of photography, debuted his exhibition We Hold These Truths, a selection of photographs he made across the U.S. during the Trump presidency, on display October – November, 2020, at Zeitgeist, in Nashville, Tennessee.

lsu school of art faculty jeremiah ariaz

Jeremiah Ariaz

“We Hold These Truths is a selection of photographs made across the U.S. during the Trump presidency,” Ariaz said.

“The photographs reveal the anxiety felt across the nation and speak to this historic moment, as tensions run increasingly high in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.”

“Drawn from the Declaration of Independence, the title implicates ‘We’ the viewer as an active participant, acknowledging the collective responsibility shared in our democracy,” he said.

Along with the images he made extended captions for select photographs that relate the people and places to this political moment.

 

“Over the past month I have expanded the images with photographs in some of the most contentious battle ground states,” he said. He traveled around the country via motorcycle, documenting Americans in small towns across the United States.

 

View a selection of the images online.

Additionally, Ariaz exhibited his work Louisiana Trail Riders, January – March 2020 at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. For Louisiana Trail Riders Ariaz was the recipient of a 2018 ATLAS grant, the Michael P. Smith Award for Documentary Photography from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Southern Arts Finalist Prize from South Arts, and was named the 2018 Louisiana State Fellow. The photographs have been exhibited nationally.  A monograph of the work is available from UL Press (2018).

His artworks “explore the West as both a physical space and a terrain for the imagination.”

LSU Art Students “Get Out the Vote”

Art & Design, Students, Galleries, Events, Art, Graphic Design, Exhibitions, , ,
Virtually art gallery with posters on wall

Get Out the Vote exhibition in virtual art gallery via ArtSteps.

With the November 2020 U.S. election looming, LSU art students are engaging potential voters through an online exhibition with an empowering message: Get Out the Vote.

Art students in Applied Topography: ART 4527 designed posters for the AIGA Get Out the Vote Campaign, which debuted as a virtual exhibition in October 2020. Taught by professor of art/graphic design Courtney Barr and graphic design instructor Meghan Saas, the course focuses on gaining an understanding of typography in terms of its history, application, and aesthetic considerations.

In fall 2020, students were tasked with the challenge to design nonpartisan posters for the Get Out the Vote campaign, exhibited in an online gallery on view to the public. The art students displayed a wide variety of design concepts to appeal to different voter demographics, incorporating themes from current events and graphic design techniques to catch the eye.

Since 2000, The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) has activated its community of designers across the U.S. and beyond to Get Out the Vote. The campaign is part of Design for Democracy, an AIGA initiative to increase civic participation through design. This civic engagement initiative “wields the power of design to motivate the American public to register and turn out to vote in the 2020 general election, as well as local elections to come.”

Additionally, 2020 marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted American women the right to vote. The Get Out the Vote: Empowering the Women’s Vote campaign, in partnership with the League of Women Voters, invites AIGA members to design nonpartisan posters to commemorate 100 years of voting.

Examples of the LSU art students’ poster design concepts include: quotes from Susan B. Anthony and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, patriotic appeals, humorous puns, and themes targeting specific voter groups such as Asian Americans, young people, and disenfranchised Americans.

Virtual posters on wall

Get Out the Vote virtual exhibition.

“My idea for this project was to break the mold of formality that prevents a lot of onlookers from internalizing political media such as posters,” said BFA candidate Morgan Growden.

“My target demographic for this poster was punks and hardcore kids, so naturally I decided to mimic the aesthetic of flyers that one may see promoting a local hardcore show,” Growden said. “This meant Xerox art, catchy phrasing, and a call to action. This is the sort of printed media that has motivated me to get out of my house before, so I figured it may work for other people as well.”

Election Day Go Vote posters

Poster designs. Growden’s project is second from left.

BFA candidate Julia Lesage used a clever design concept to capture viewers. “For my poster I wanted to evoke a need for change in an unbiased manor,” she said. “I decided to make my poster appear as a consumer receipt, displaying statistics about the current status of our country, complete with a satisfaction survey at the bottom to promote action.”

Go Vote poster designs

Get Out the Vote poster designs by LSU art students.

“This is great student work,” said Rod Parker, director of the School of Art, upon visiting the virtual art gallery. “Some clever and effective design solutions. Great initiative.”

The poster designs employ different strategies to communicate the Get Out the Vote message, which is an important civic duty, the students agreed. “Regardless of how much anybody’s individual vote will impact the actual election, these posters are getting people to complete the simple task of going to the polls,” Growden said.

“Voting is often easily pushed aside or dismissed as unimportant,” Lesage said. “I think the Get Out the Vote campaign serves as the perfect reminder that it is our duty as citizens to use our voice and demand change.”

“A motivational message, if applied correctly, can bridge the gap between the art, the viewer, and the world in which they both exist,” Growden said. “I personally think that’s a beautiful thing.”

View online exhibition via ArtSteps.