Lewis May, one of America’s leading planners, urban designers, and landscape architects, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in landscape architecture at LSU, and his five-decade career has earned him nearly 200 international awards of excellence for his global design practice.
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Art & Design 2020 LSU Distinguished Communicators
During the May 2020 graduation celebration, eight College of Art & Design graduates received the LSU Distinguished Communicator Medal. LSU Communication across the Curriculum, or CxC honored 44 graduates across six colleges with the medal in 2020.
Recipients of this honor are outstanding writers and speakers, with a strong command of visual literacy and technological communication. They have earned high GPAs in their communication-intensive courses throughout their baccalaureate years, sought 1-1 mentorships with faculty and have built websites that display their communication competencies and professional talents, both in and beyond the classroom.
This distinction is the first of its kind in the nation and is sponsored by CxC, a program founded in 2004 and recognized nationally for its excellence in enhancing learning experiences and improving students’ communication skills across all disciplines.
The 2020 College of Art & Design Distinguished Communicator Medalists are:
Sarah Alexander, Studio Art
Advisor: Luisa Restrepo
Louise Charbonnet, Interior Design
Advisor: Marsha Cuddeback
Madison Harrison, Interior Design
Advisor: Marsha Cuddeback
Chunfeng Lu, Landscape Architecture
Advisor: Bruce Sharky
Kim Nguyen, Interior Design
Advisor: Marsha Cuddeback
Olivia Ott, Studio Art
Advisor: Lynne Baggett
Kelsey Ralph, Interior Design
Advisor: Marsha Cuddeback
Pei Yu, Architecture
Advisor: Traci Birch
BFA Senior Studio Art Virtual Exhibition
BFA Student Designs Hearts From Home
BFA student Brynn Finney, graphic design concentration, is using art to contribute to the Baton Rouge community in an unexpected way.
In the midst of stay-at-home orders and social distancing, the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge invites the community to join in a creative endeavor to support local healthcare workers struggling to help others hit by COVID-19. The Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge launched the Hearts From Home campaign by encouraging the community to display blue hearts on the windows of homes or businesses to let healthcare workers know they are appreciated as they fight the coronavirus on the frontlines.
Finney designed the logo for the Hearts From Home campaign. “When the Arts Council came to me and asked if I could help them with this campaign, I was excited to help show support for healthcare professionals since my mom is a nurse practitioner and is currently working in the hospital!”
Then Finney designed three different hearts with the intention that people could print them out at home and color them in before putting them in their windows. She said it felt great to engage in the creative endeavor while finishing the LSU semester from home, and contribute to her hometown community.
“The goal is for our healthcare workers to see them as they drive by and be encouraged,” Rebecca Rainey with the Arts Council of GBR, said to WBRZ. “Our healthcare workers have asked us to stay home and they are going to work for us and so we want to show our support by putting hearts in our windows so that they know we are home for them.
To increase visibility, the Arts Council has created the hashtag #HeartsFromHomeBR and invites participants to post photos of their windows on social media using this hashtag. This way, even if medical professionals do not see the hearts while they are driving, they will see photos on social media. Finney designed social media posts for them using the Hearts From Home branding, which is being used to spread the uplifting message online.
“It’s important we all stay at home, but it’s nice to show support for those hard at work [virtually] and from our windows!” Finney said.
Check out her senior thesis portfolio online.
LSU Graduate’s Art Gives Thanks to Essential Workers
Artwork created by LSU graduate Thomas Wimberly is displayed on NYU Langone Hospital. Photo Credit: Thomas Wimberly
LSU art graduate Thomas Wimberly’s art work recently found a new, larger home when it was displayed on the side of a New York City hospital. Wimberly said the piece, called “Global Forefront,” gives thanks to the world’s essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
LSU Design Faculty Create Face Shields to Combat COVID-19
In response to the global shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) due to the COVID-19 pandemic, LSU faculty, staff, and students are joining the worldwide effort to create PPE to donate to those in need.
Chris Simon, digital fabrication laboratory manager and professor of architecture, has been 3D printing parts for face shields at home, and laser cutting parts using digital fabrication technology (while safely social distancing) to donate in Louisiana.
He has been coordinating with Dr. Dimitris E Nikitopoulos, professor of engineering, who is working with faculty on campus to construct the face shields. LSU faculty, staff, and students have organized a PPE assembly line effort in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center (PMAC), converting the space into a production facility. The interdisciplinary team created 1,600 PPE gowns in the first week, bringing together experts in different areas across campus to work on a number of projects.
Simon is a daily follower of numerous design blogs and websites, and frequently visits sites were people can upload 3D models for others to print. “A few weeks ago I started seeing a lot of talk about ways to make PPE in all those places,” he said. “Fortunately a lot of people with access to printers, lasers and CNC equipment in various departments were thinking about creating these pieces to help [across the world.]”
The shields consists of a 3D printed headband, a bottom brace, a sheet of clear plastic and a headband. “It has been adjusted subtly every day by various makers on the internet as is an open source design,” Simon explained. “We are still trying out some options so that we can decide what works best with the resources and materials we can find, and then we will start producing one kind.” Mark Shumake, Design Shop manager, has also assisted with the research and design efforts, and with laser cutting pieces using the shop’s technology.
“This is an example of the many ways faculty and staff are working together to find solutions to this global problem, and contribute here to our own community,” said Alkis Tsolakis, College of Art & Design Dean. “Think globally, act locally and vice versa.”
Simon’s research interests lie at the intersection of art, design, architecture, digital fabrication methods and how those techniques integrate into novel methods of construction.
Learn more about LSU’s response to the COVID-19.
Learn more about the College of Art & Design’s technology & facilities.
LSU Interior Design Students Thank Louisiana Healthcare Workers
The LSU School of Interior Design works with Louisiana healthcare facilities regularly, as part of the healthcare design curriculum in which students design facility improvements for local hospitals, partnering with the staff there to learn about their needs. So when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Louisiana in spring 2020, the students wanted to do something to say thank you to the many healthcare workers providing care to the community.
“Our students were interested in contributing to our local crisis. Sophomores during a design studio class suggested we send healthcare workers energy bars and thank you notes,” said Marsha Cuddeback, School of Interior Design director. Soon the school’s entire study body wanted to get involved, and two students who work at Highland Coffee suggested to purchase energy bars from the coffeeshop near campus to support a local business as well.
LSU staff safely delivered the thank you packages to Our Lady of the Lake and Ochsner hospitals to be distributed. Linda Lee at OLOL said, “tell the students how much all of the healthcare workers will appreciate the gift; it provides a ‘shot in the arm’ during these challenging times.”
BID student Noah Adams, wrote the note on behalf of the interior design students:
“How can we thank you? In this time of crisis as we face a global threat, we have all witnessed that it has not been the rich and famous to step up. It has been our healthcare and essential workers. Every one of you is working tirelessly, risking your own health, to help end this threat to our community. We cannot thank you enough.
We are the LSU School of Interior Design and we want to truly thank you for your hard work. We have included some Clif bars and Taos energy bars from our local Highland Coffee to show a small token of our gratitude. We hope you all grab one to help fuel your work.”
“I feel so fortunate to be a part of our amazing school with students who care deeply about our community and are anxious to help where there is need,” Cuddeback said.
Lake Douglas Receives Faculty Award for Outstanding Communication
Lake Douglas
Lake Douglas, the LSU College of Art & Design’s associate dean of research and development and professor of the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture, has been awarded the 2020 Faculty Award for Outstanding Communication by Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) “for truly outstanding, innovative, and noteworthy work through communication.”
The annual award honors an individual’s or an organization’s innovative communication work that has achieved high impact in and beyond landscape architecture and demonstrated high quality benefit to landscape architecture and/or the public at large.
The award honors “thought-provoking, innovative, insightful and considered communication and discussion of landscape architecture issues,” according to CELA.
A licensed landscape architect, Douglas has published numerous articles; books and book chapters; critical essays; and reviews in national and international anthologies, professional journals, and popular publications about diverse topics within the design disciplines, and his writings have received national and regional recognition. Public Spaces, Private Gardens: A History of Designed Landscapes in New Orleans (2011) received honor awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects and its Louisiana chapter, together with the Williams Award from the Louisiana Historical Association. Recently published books include Steward of the Land: Selected Writings of Nineteenth-Century Horticulturist Thomas Affleck (2014) and Buildings of New Orleans (2018). Douglas is also series editor of Reading the American Landscape for LSU Press.
The Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture is composed of virtually all the programs of higher learning in landscape architecture in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. CELA publishes the highest quality research conducted in the profession through its refereed publication, Landscape Journal.
Novel Coronavirus Updates
Visit www.lsu.edu/coronavirus for the latest information for the LSU community.
John Campbell Remembered
Recently retired LSU interior design faculty member John Campbell, 74, passed away Feb. 19, 2020.