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Exhibition “A. Hays Town and the Architectural Image of Louisiana” Features Student Work

Art & Design, Students, Events, Architecture, Exhibitions, Publicity, , ,

Architecture students from three universities contributed to an exhibition celebrating Louisiana architecture. The Hilliard Museum is pleased to present an exhibition that marks the legacy of its designer, famed Louisiana architect A. Hays Town. A highly collaborative project, the exhibition brings together faculty and students from the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and Tulane University in New Orleans, providing an opportunity for students to gain experience in exhibition research, design, and production.

The LSU School of Architecture students who participated in the exhibition design were studying the iconic Louisiana architect. “The students took a course all semester learning about A. Hays Town and his homes and studying his drawings. They then digitized them and built exhibit models for the exhibit retrospective,” said Ursula Emery McClure, A. Hays Town Professor of Architecture.

“It was an honor to be a part of this beautiful exhibit!” said BArch candidate Brooke Strevig, who took the course.

The architecture students engaged in an extensive process to create models of A. Hays Town’s work for the exhibition. The project was arranged in a six step process: researching A. Hays Town, model building trials testing craft and precision, analysis of Town’s hand drawings and reproduction through digital drafting, laser cutting and handing cutting, physically building the model, and lastly painting – lots of painting, Brooke said.

“Each process had to be completed with perfection. If something went wrong during one step, we found ourselves repeating the task prior to that. This is an iterative process we, as designers, are always practicing.”

For the students, the project was a reminder of the fundamentals of design: form, space, color, hierarchy, and level of detail. “We were able to uncover what each house was fundamentally transpiring to be or to do by studying the basic elements of A. Hays Town,” Brooke said.

“Without the students, there would not be a show,” said Emery McClure to The Advocate. “I told them, ‘This has to be perfect. It’s going in a world-class museum in the main gallery. They all have to be an ‘A.'”

“The project was more than creating a model,” Brooke said. “To me, these models were just a piece of the story that would be told during the exhibition. Each striking bold color, each different form told its own story – a story about the client, the landscape, architecture, but most of all, a story about A. Hays Town. It was important that the work we produced would showcase A. Hays Town in a way that reflected him and his passion for architecture.”

“The students’ work is fundamental to the exhibit. It is quite a show,” said Emery McClure.

The exhibition is on display at the Hilliard Museum through December 29, 2018.

Designing for Open Space Equity in New Orleans

Landscape Architecture, ,

MLA students in LA 7041 Urban Systems Studio in the spring 2018 semester assessed the public parks and open spaces of the city of New Orleans, and collaborated with nonpofit Parks for All on an initiative to develop a report card to grade parks and open spaces to create a guide that will help promote a beautified and accessible park system.

The students created NolaParksStudio.org to share the project with the public.

“As a native to New Orleans, this studio affected me on a personal level,” said Sophie Lott, MLA ’19 candidate. “I had the opportunity to rediscover the place that I thought I knew so well on a new level. History, nature, and culture have molded this city, and through research and design, I was able to explore how water management and open spaces can be utilized to highlight a neighborhood’s unique personality while playing a role in mitigating flood and subsidence related issues.”

The objectives of the LA 7041 Urban Systems studio course are to expose students to urban issues related to the contemporary practice of landscape architecture based on the following: the premise of the city as a system of numerous overlapping and intersecting systems, both natural and human-made; and therefore an effective strategy for dealing with such complex issues is rooted in understanding relevant components of these systems and devising metrics that will inform design initiatives.

“This studio class was a fantastic introduction to urban parks and urban planning,” said Joshua Black, MLA ’19 candidate. “By first researching examples of how other cities and projects have engaged with clients in urban settings, we then were able to experience first hand with greater expertise their operations in several public meetings in New Orleans. In addition, by researching and redesigning several parks in New Orleans, we gained a good understanding of the public park system in the city.”

Students researched public spaces across the city a proposed designs to rejuvenate the areas, keeping in mind issues such as cultural and historical meaning and functions, stormwater management, emphasis on green infrastructures, utility for the public, promoting health and wellness, and expanding public welfare and providing framework for future city growth.

The variety of projects can be seen on the website. The ultimate goal: designing for the future of open spaces.

Architecture Meets Literature: Professor Angeliki Sioli Co-Edited Book Reading Architecture

Art & Design, Research, Publications, Architecture, Faculty, Publicity, Doctor of Design, , ,

Reading Architecture, edited by Angeliki Sioli

Angeliki Sioli, assistant professor of architecture, co-edited Reading Architecture; Literary Imagination and Architectural Experience, a collection of essays on architecture and literature published by Routledge in 2018.

The volume is comprised of 18 compiled compelling essays on the interconnections between architecture and literature. Sioli authored the article “Discovering ‘Paris and its Folds, Paris and its Faces’,” part of the collection. An international body of academics, architects and theoreticians develop a dialogue that relates fiction — novels in specific — to research, teaching and current architectural practices.

“Why write instead of draw when it comes to architecture?” The editors ask. “Why rely on literary pieces instead of architectural treatises and writings when it comes to the of study buildings and urban environments?”

“Why rely on literary techniques and accounts instead of architectural practices and analysis when it comes to academic research and educational projects? Why trust authors and writers instead of sociologists or scientists when it comes to planning for the future of cities?”

This book builds on the existing interdisciplinary bibliography on architecture and literature, but prioritizes literature’s capacity to talk about the lived experience of place and the premise that literary language can often express the inexpressible. It sheds light on the importance of a literary instead of a pictorial imagination for architects and it looks into four contemporary architectural subjects through a wide variety of literary works. Drawing on novels that engage cities from around the world, the book reveals aspects of urban space to which other means of architectural representation are blind.

Whether through novels that employ historical buildings or sites interpreted through specific literary methods, it suggests a range of methodologies for contemporary architectural academic research. By exploring the power of narrative language in conveying the experience of lived space, it discusses its potential for architectural design and pedagogy.

Questioning the massive architectural production of today’s globalized capital-driven world, Reading Architecture turns to literature for ways to understand, resist or suggest alternative paths for architectural practice. Despite literature’s fictional character, the essays of this volume reveal true dimensions of and for places beyond their historical, social and political reality; dimensions of utmost importance for architects, urban planners, historians and theoreticians nowadays.

angeliki sioli

Professor Angeliki Sioli

Sioli is a licensed architect in Greece. She obtained her professional diploma in architecture from the University of Thessaly, Greece, and was granted a post-professional master’s in architectural theory and history by the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. She completed her PhD in history and theory of architecture at McGill University, Canada in 2015. She has worked as a professional architect and designer on projects ranging from residential and office buildings to the design of small-scale objects and books. She has also taught both undergraduate and graduate courses at McGill University in Canada and University Tec de Monterrey in Mexico.

Her research seeks connections between architecture and literature in the public realm of the early 20th-century European city, focusing on aspects of embodied perception of place in the urban environment. Her research on architecture, literature, and pedagogy has been published in a number of books and presented at interdisciplinary conferences. She co-organized the International Architectural Symposium Reading Architecture; literary imagination and architectural experience in Athens in June 2015.

The volume is co-edited by Yoonchun Jung, currently assistant professor at the Department of Architecture of Kwangwoon University in South Korea.

Art History Professor Darius Spieth Presents Research at Louvre

Art & Design, Research, Publications, Events, Art History, Art, Lectures, Faculty, Doctor of Design, , ,
Professor Darius Spieth speaks at the Louvre

Professor Spieth speaks at the Louvre Museum

Upon invitation by the Amis du Louvre, LSU art history professor Darius A. Spieth presented his research, on 18th-century art merchant Jean-Baptiste Pierre Lebrun, at the world-renowned Louvre Museum in Paris, France on May 28. The talk was followed by a round-table discussion with Louvre curator Blaise Ducos and the Director of the Fondation Custodia, Ger Luijten.

Based on the findings revealed in Spieth’s recently published book, Revolutionary Paris and the Market for Netherlandish Art (Brill, 2018), his lecture retraced Jean-Baptiste Pierre Lebrun’s career. The event was held in the Great Auditorium of the Louvre, under the I. M. Pei pyramid, with a full, standing-room only attendance.

“The line between the commercial art world of galleries and auction houses, on the one side, and that of non-profit, public museums, on the other, is a rigid one today,” professor Spieth said. “Surprisingly, however, as my latest research reveals, an over-ambitious art dealer played a vital role in the organization of the world’s very first public art museum, the Louvre in Paris, upon its inauguration in 1793. Jean-Baptiste Pierre Lebrun was not only the leading art dealer of the Old Regime and the 1790s, but he was also the husband of the most important female artist of the eighteenth century, Mme Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, painter to the Queen Marie-Antoinette.”

Spieth’s research examines the art world of the Napoleonic age. His talk emphasized Lebrun’s role as art dealer to the Old Regime’s aristocratic elite, and described how a strategic alliance with Revolutionary painter and Jacobin politician Jacques-Louis David assured Lebrun’s survival and endowed the Louvre with its very first acquisition budget. Through this lens, Spieth discussed the birth of the Louvre Museum.

“This is a well-deserved international recognition of Professor Spieth’s innovative scholarship and a great honor for LSU and the College of Art & Design,” said Alkis Tsolakis, Dean of the College of Art & Design, who attended the talk. “We are proud to have such colleagues!”

darius speith revolutionary paris

The lecture was sponsored by the Amis du Louvre, the Friends’ Group of the Louvre Museum. The presentation was by a panel discussion with Louvre conservator Blaise Ducos, whose 2017 blockbuster exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting traveled to the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and Ger Luijten, Director of the Fondation Custodia, which preserves the collections, heritage and memory of Paris-based Dutch art dealer Frits Lugt. Luijten served formerly as curator of the print cabinet at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The research and publication of Spieth’s book was supported through grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fundation Custodia.

Spieth gave a book signing of his recent release Revolutionary Paris and the Market for Netherlandish Art, which is prefaced by Marc Fumaroli, a leading member of the French Academy. Learn more about the book.

In June 20, 2018 Spieth presented a talk at the Kestner Museum in Hanover, Germany, in tandem with the exhibition O Isis und Osiris on Ancient Egyptians and Freemasonry. Spieth contributed to the museum’s exhibition catalog.

Spieth is currently also editing the Grove Guide to Art Markets (Oxford University Press), anticipated to be published by the fall of 2018.

School of Art Welcomes New Printmaking Facility

Art & Design, Art,

The School of Art’s printmaking facilities have moved into a grand new location: the old Black Box Theater has been re-purposed into a state-of-the art printmaking studio.

The new and improved printmaking facility moved from the basement of Foster Hall to Hatcher Hall on LSU campus. The studio is larger and equipped for various printing techniques, and features a darkroom and an etching and general work room. In the new studio, student and faculty members are able to work comprehensively, and if desired, on a large scale in all the modern print-related methods.

Leslie Koptcho

Professor Leslie Koptcho

“While a small handful of universities may have large presses, we’re perhaps the only university to be able to work comprehensively on a large scale in all the print related methods, including relief, intaglio, lithography, screen printing, monotype, digital printmaking, and papermaking,” said art/printmaking professor Leslie Koptcho.

One of the main benefits of moving the printmaking space is that it is now conveniently closer to the rest of the studio arts complex; graduate studios and a digital lab are located upstairs. Moving to a new and clean space was desirable and a huge improvement, she said.

“Hatcher’s high ceilings give students a much more pleasant experience,” Koptcho said. “I feel a new enthusiasm coming from the students, especially in the students taking courses for the first time. They seem to really being enjoying it, and we’re currently adding new specializations.”

The printmaking space needs have grown considerably over the years, as the technology has improved. The old space was divided up into many small spaces, much like a sprawling labyrinth. The move into the new space offered an opportunity to position the equipment in a more efficient and logical flow.

Leslie Friedman

Assistant Professor Leslie Friedman

Assistant professor of art Leslie Friedman, who specializes in screen printing, joined the School of Art in 2016. The new space now includes a special area designated just for screen printing, as well as a new beautiful wash-out booth. “In the new space, we are now able to take full advantage of our large format presses,” Friedman agreed.

“For example, one could create an image via traditional hand techniques, or digital means, print the image in any one of the above methods, including the option of making an impression on a hand formed, unique sheet of paper,” Koptcho explained. “They can also realize their creative project as a book, printing and binding it as a work of art.”

Over the years, the studio arts curriculum has evolved to include classes in the areas of printmaking & book arts, papermaking, and digital printmaking, and the vision of the program has expanded significantly, she observed.

The printmaking studio allows for art students to experiment with different materials. “Students have been really crazy about creating paper from local plants and materials,” Koptcho said. “Just this past semester, we made paper from, raw cotton, black willow, and Turk’s Cap Mallow, a hibiscus-related plant.”

“It’s the visual and conceptual nature of the process that is the most exciting draw—the essence of a print aesthetic at work,” she said. “Artists create print-based installations and unique works that challenge and question technology and ethics, the multiple and serial image, authenticity, identity, reproduction, and utilize the print as a visual platform to promote a social agenda. Individuals tend to gravitate toward the medium because of the inherent, and quite beautiful, physical attributes of the print.”

Koptcho hopes that the new printmaking studio will inspire many future artists. Many distinguished alumni have specialized in printmaking over the years, she noted. Louisiana, and in particular LSU, has propelled the careers and businesses of many individuals, including for example: Carmon Colangelo (MFA 1983) is currently the Dean of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in Saint Louis; (Carmon was the recipient of the LSU College of Art & Design distinguished alumni award in 2014), and Kathryn Hunter, (MFA 2003) is the successful owner-operator of Blackbird Press, and employs a number of emerging printmakers and book artists in Louisiana.

The printmaking curriculum at LSU is a hidden gem that deserves recognition in the community. “I don’t think the general Louisiana citizen realizes what a treasure they have in LSU’s printmaking & book arts program, and what a rich history of printmaking there is in our state,” Koptcho observed. “We’re far better known nationally for our accomplishments than right here at home.”

Using Games to Explore Coastal Change

Students, Landscape Architecture, ,

 

Landscape architecture students in assistant professor Brendan Harmon’s Advanced Topics Studio designed and developed serious games that explore the challenges of coastal change for the town of Jean Lafitte in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. They presented them at a serious gaming workshop at the College of Art & Design on April 27.

To create these games students used Tangible Landscape –  a tangible interface for geospatial modeling – to simulate, model, and visualize alternative future scenarios. The games addressed the impact of coastal change – of storm surge, flooding, erosion, and land-loss – on Jean Lafitte. The games explored how methods for defense or adaptation such as levee construction, evacuation, elevated buildings, floating buildings, and bioretention wetlands perform in simulated storms.

“Serious games are used to make serious topics more fun and challenging. They are meant to be motivating and engaging,” Harmon said. “They are also a way to leave behind preconceptions and encourage experimentation. Our students’ serious games were a fun and engaging way to learn about flooding and water flow simulations, challenge preconceived ideas for protecting the town, and experiment with new ideas for adapting to coastal change.”

Students chose to focus their games on topics included levee building and flooding, tourism development and sea level rise, stormwater management, and wetland parks in Jean Lafitte. The Louisiana location was chosen to focus the geographic area addressed in the games, but the issues are widespread concerns regarding the repercussions of coastal change.

The class worked in groups to create a variety of engaging and interesting scenarios with real-world applications. In a game designed to illustrate stormwater management, for example, players sculpted a sand model to create swales and planted trees using triangular patches of felt. Their designs were digitized using Tangible Landscape.

Tangible Landscape, which Harmon co-designed, has numerous applications in addition to serious gaming, including landscape architecture planning, earth science research, and other educational methods. Geospatial modeling applications include analysis of hazard risk management, hydrology, solar energy, coastal and fluvial flooding, fire spread, landscape and park design. Harmon recently co-authored the book Tangible Modeling with Open Source GIS.

Professor Jeremiah Ariaz Wins Documentary Photography Award

Honors & Awards, Art, Photography, Faculty, , ,

“As a child I had a particular image of a cowboy shaped by popular culture,” said Jeremiah Ariaz, associate professor of photography at the LSU School of Art. “He was gruff, serious, white, and situated in the West.”jeremiah ariaz

Then one day he encountered Louisiana trail riders, and that image shattered.

“Riding my motorcycle in rural Louisiana, I encountered a large group of people riding horseback,” Ariaz said. The riders were numerous, commanded the road – and African American. “I retrieved my camera.”

The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH) awarded Ariaz the Michael P. Smith Award for Documentary Photography for his project Louisiana Trail Riders. LEH annually awards individuals and organizations that have made significant and enduring contributions to the humanities. The awards ceremony is May 10, 2018.

“I’m extremely honored to receive the 2018 award and will be forever grateful to the trail riding club members of Louisiana who allowed me to join them and photograph their weekly rides,” Ariaz said.

He is also a 2018 Southern Prize finalist; South Arts, the organization advancing Southern vitality through the arts, named Ariaz one of nine visual artists from the South to receive a State Fellowship award of $5,000 each.

The Louisiana Trail Riders series is a five-year project documenting creole trail-riding clubs in Southeast Louisiana. The photographs depict African American trail-riders, asserting a counter-narrative to historic representations of the cowboy and prevailing contemporary images of difference and despair in Black America.

“The trail riders in Louisiana are a stark contrast to most depictions of cowboys, offering a radically different vantage point to consider images of the West,” Ariaz said.

In the United States, the word “creole” refers to the people and culture of South Louisiana. Ariaz’ Louisiana Trail Riders project portrays Creoles in south Louisiana on horseback, a pastime with historical and cultural significance. Archival evidence reveals the prominence of enslaved cattlemen in the Louisiana colony back to the 1700s, suggesting that the tradition of trail riders of African descent is centuries-old.

“Trail riding is closely associated with Creoles of rural Southwestern Louisiana who descended from some of the region’s earliest settlers, many of them landowning gens de couleur libres (free people of color) in antebellum times,” according to Alexandra Giancarlo in Riders: Southwest Louisiana’s Creole Trail Riding Clubs.

Photos by Jeremiah Ariaz

A monograph titled Louisiana Trail Riders will be published this year by UL Press. Ariaz also received an ATLAS grant to show his work in a series of national exhibitions.

Interior Design Alumni Work on HGTV Show Home Town

Art & Design, Interior Design, , ,
From left: Amanda Connolly (BID '00), Erin Napier (Home Town star)

From left: Amanda Connolly (BID ’00), Erin Napier (Home Town star), Blake Erskin, interior designers

New Orleans-based interior designer Amanda Connolly (BID ’00) always enjoyed home design shows. So when she had the opportunity to work for Home & Garden Television (HGTV)’s program Home Town, she jumped at the chance to showcase her skills on television.

Amanda is a design producer for the home renovation television program. More than 16 million viewers watched the first season of Home Town in 2017, reflecting the rising popularity of home design programming. The debut episode attracted 2.2 million viewers, the second-highest number in HGTV’s 23-year history. The show has been featured in Southern Living Magazine, Country Living, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and “The Today Show.” Season 2 premiered in January 2018.

HGTV’s Home Town is set in Laurel, Mississippi, featuring home renovation projects around the southern town. Cohost couple Ben and Erin Napier use creative solutions to re-design historic houses into new homes for incoming inhabitants; they aim to restore homes in a way that honors their history while creating spaces that reflect the personal tastes of the new owners. Following the format of other popular “house flipping” television shows, each episode introduces different couples searching for a home in the area. The “big reveal” moment showcases the renovated rooms complete with new interior design, fully furnished and decorated.

“Home Town has been a special opportunity to fully conceive and realize a design down to the tiniest details of the table linens and silverware,” Amanda said.

HGTV Home Town interior design team

HGTV Home Town interior design team (Amanda Connolly in red, center)

Amanda is lead interior designer of Shotgun Design Group, and New Orleans district chair of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). She had no prior television experience when she came upon the opportunity to work for HGTV. Amanda and her business partner Blake Erskin received a tip from a fellow New Orleans ASID member who had received notice that there was a new HGTV series production team looking for an interior designer/production designer.

“After researching Erin’s style and the pilot episode, which months prior I had seen and loved, we knew we could work with her aesthetic,” Amanda said, referring to Erin Napier, show co-star. “We met with Erin and Ben in a face-to-face interview, and were impressed with the direction of the show. They were willing to take a chance on two interior designers without any television experience.”

“They were willing to take a chance on two interior designers without any television experience.”

Amanda and Blake appear in the second episode of Season 1, helping Erin to set up the rooms in a newly renovated home. As a design producer, Amanda collaborates with Erin and the rest of the design team to make interior design choices for the houses featured on the show. She helps select furniture, fixtures, and equipment, assists with space planning and “dresses” the houses for reveals. The interior design team supports the stars in the design process for all houses featured on the show.

lsu interior design student

Tracy Manuel (BID ’15)

Fellow LSU alumna Tracy Manuel (BID ’15) was a design associate for Season 2 of the hit show. Tracy is principal and lead interior designer of T3M Studios in Florence, South Carolina. She joined the show when the production company RTR Media reached out to the LSU School of Interior Design looking for designers. Within a week Tracy had a phone interview and 24 hours later she was hired and bound for Laurel, Mississippi for the next six months.

Marsha Cuddeback, director of the LSU School of Interior Design, said she was contacted by RTR Media in June 2017 when they were searching for a recent graduate to be a design associate for the HGTV show. “When I received this inquiry I immediately knew who to contact: Tracy Manuel,” she said. “Our school prepares students to enter the profession of interior design, but they also emerge with diverse skills and interests applicable to a variety of career paths. Tracy is just one example of our highly adaptable and accomplished students.”

Tracy was not a “traditional” student when she studied interior design at LSU; she decided to pursue the degree after 16 years at home focusing on her three children. She received numerous scholarships and awards to support her tuition, including interior design scholarship competitions. After graduating she had an offer from Gensler, architecture, design, planning and consulting firm, in Houston. She went on to found her own interior design firm in 2017. Still, when she received the offer to join the show’s design team, she jumped at the opportunity.

The experience on Home Town has been unlike any other Amanda and Tracy have had as interior designers. It was a challenge at times to pull things together under tough time constraints and tight budgets, and with cameras in the mix. Season 1 was a baptism by fire, Amanda said. “With an amazing production and design team we pulled it off to complete ten houses within six months. Season 2 made for an even greater challenge of ten houses within four and a half months!”

Tracy agreed it was an incredible challenge. “Working on a television show is like juggling a design for a board of directors,” she said. “There are lots of people to please, never a [clear] budget, and never enough time. It’s the perfect storm to learn exactly what you’re capable of doing under pressure.”

Tracy Manuel (BID '14) on right

Tracy Manuel (BID ’15) on right

As a design associate, Tracy was the “boots on the ground” during the construction phase. She was responsible for making sure all designs were correctly implemented on site, along with managing finish schedules and design budgets. “We did everything – project management, sketching designs on sheet rock, cleaning, staging, purchasing items – you really do everything,” she said.

Since they had as many as five houses undergoing renovation at a time, the interior design team always had to multitask. But they enjoyed being part of the design reveal team that aided in the staging of the houses prior to reveals. With each episode, new spaces and homeowners led to different challenges, and the designers had to adapt to each scenario.

Tracy, Blake, and Erin select paint colors

Tracy, Blake, and Erin select colors

Being on the other side of the screen was an enlightening experience for the interior designers. They witnessed off-screen processes, saw the renovation projects’ development in real time, and learned how to design for television. On Home Town, woodworker Ben builds furnishings for the individual spaces, often using wood salvaged from the construction process. The show’s interior designers also incorporate the homeowners’ personal items and furnishings into the newly designed spaces wherever they can, to reflect their real life needs and personal styles.

“The beautiful part of it all was that we were able to pull it off,” Amanda said. “Each time we revealed a house to homeowners and they were emotionally moved because the home was a true representation of them, we knew we had done our jobs. For me the thrill of interior design is watching a project that begins in concept be brought to life.”

For the full article, see the Quad Magazine 2018 summer issue.