College of Architecture Newsletter Fall 2023

College of Architecture Author

12/06/2023 Added

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[00:00:00.766](light music)
[00:00:04.500]Hello, I'm Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg.
[00:00:06.630]Welcome to the Fall 2023 edition
[00:00:09.180]of the College of Architecture Newsletter.
[00:00:11.550]I'm standing out here at the northern edge of our site
[00:00:13.710]where you can see our new addition underway
[00:00:15.780]and we are so excited about the addition
[00:00:18.330]and also the opportunity for you to tour
[00:00:20.340]that addition on May 17th at our 50th anniversary gala.
[00:00:23.640]Come and join us.
[00:00:24.870]But first I'd like to share with you some
[00:00:27.030]of our project highlights happening here at the college.
[00:00:30.198](light music)
[00:00:35.460]Professors Michael Harpster
[00:00:37.230]and Sarah Carley's Multidisciplinary Collaborate studio
[00:00:41.040]develop plans to improve a state park in northeast Nebraska.
[00:00:46.020]So we are working on the design of a new visitor center
[00:00:49.230]for Niobrara State Park.
[00:00:51.000]The Visitor Center will include new offices for the staff
[00:00:54.153]that operates the site in Niobrara State Park,
[00:00:57.000]as well as new interpretive elements,
[00:00:59.130]both exterior landscape elements
[00:01:00.803]and a new interior space dedicated to the interpretation
[00:01:05.149]of the area's history and its ecology and landscape as well.
[00:01:09.780]We got to go to our actual site,
[00:01:12.090]which is right at the entrance of the park
[00:01:14.010]and kind of just do a bunch of surveying of that area.
[00:01:17.970]And then beyond that,
[00:01:18.990]we did a driving tour of the entire park.
[00:01:20.970]So we got to see all of those existing buildings,
[00:01:23.550]we got to go into the lodge, areas like that.
[00:01:26.610]So we kind of just got a really good feel for
[00:01:28.170]what already existed and what kind of context
[00:01:30.300]they were trying to match.
[00:01:31.770]So the main concept that my group came up with was
[00:01:34.387]a visitor center that connected the landscape directly
[00:01:40.350]into the building itself.
[00:01:41.910]So we kind of oriented our program to directly relate
[00:01:46.230]to the outdoor play scapes
[00:01:48.180]that we were inserting within the site,
[00:01:50.486]as well as really orienting our program inside the building
[00:01:54.780]to really atone to the views
[00:01:56.220]that Game and Parks was wanting within
[00:01:57.690]their visitor center as well.
[00:01:59.400]The Studio project really helps to address,
[00:02:02.160]I think Game and Parks' need to have the opportunity to work
[00:02:06.090]with designers on a more consistent basis
[00:02:08.558]and allows them to kind of test out many of their ideas
[00:02:12.390]for their new visitor centers.
[00:02:14.130]It's really cool to know that some of the parts
[00:02:16.320]of our project might be in an actual project
[00:02:18.780]for Nebraska Game and Parks in the upcoming years.
[00:02:21.630]It's something that we've never really experienced before
[00:02:23.640]and I think it just makes it that much more exciting to kind
[00:02:26.182]of develop our projects further.
[00:02:29.732](bright music)
[00:02:35.580]A landscape architecture team conducts research
[00:02:38.280]on the other side of the globe.
[00:02:40.200]Professor Yujia Wang
[00:02:41.670]and his students traveled to China
[00:02:43.410]to collect data on climate, water quality, noise levels,
[00:02:46.942]and visitor surveys in a designed urban park.
[00:02:50.550]The information will be used to evaluate the economic,
[00:02:53.670]social, and environmental benefits of urban wilderness
[00:02:57.090]in different countries.
[00:02:58.380]It's a way to kind of broaden our view
[00:03:01.020]and see how cities are organized, how cities function,
[00:03:04.650]how people and culture changes, you know,
[00:03:08.730]certain performance of landscape and how we can design
[00:03:11.453]with more cultural sensitivity in connection with people
[00:03:15.196]that are using the park.
[00:03:16.654]I hope that the findings of this research would be helpful
[00:03:22.380]for the future designs for landscape projects
[00:03:26.577]and how to implement natural based solutions
[00:03:30.496]to solve urban problems.
[00:03:33.810]At this point,
[00:03:35.253]it's a really amazing multidisciplinary project,
[00:03:38.250]working in an international context
[00:03:40.140]and producing important insight
[00:03:42.270]and important data points that's going to advance the field.
[00:03:46.477](light music)
[00:03:53.910]Community and regional planning students reimagine
[00:03:56.490]a growing city's downtown corridor.
[00:03:58.907]Professor Zhenghong Tang's class toured the town of Bennett,
[00:04:02.760]Nebraska, surveyed community members,
[00:04:04.886]conducted field assessments,
[00:04:06.740]and shared their downtown economic development plan
[00:04:09.810]with the public at an open house.
[00:04:11.730]This project will have the city of Bennet
[00:04:16.366]to build a better viable, economic friendly,
[00:04:20.981]workable community downtown area for the future.
[00:04:25.309]The Bennet does not have any downtown established
[00:04:30.095]at this time, so our goal is to establish the new downtown
[00:04:35.820]for Bennet.
[00:04:37.320]You know, we wanna work with the community,
[00:04:39.420]we don't wanna work over them.
[00:04:41.190]Like we want,
[00:04:42.060]we don't wanna come here and tell everyone this is
[00:04:45.030]what we're doing, we want to hear back from them.
[00:04:47.370]And that's, you know, the open house, you know,
[00:04:50.670]sort of bottom up approach of planning that is, you know,
[00:04:54.210]that is, that's why we're here.
[00:04:55.740]Well, I've really enjoyed it.
[00:04:57.096]Meeting with the students is so much fun, you know,
[00:05:01.320]to talk to people that understand
[00:05:04.108]what municipalities go through the infrastructure
[00:05:07.544]and you know, there's so many details
[00:05:10.380]and to have them be excited.
[00:05:12.390]I just loved it.
[00:05:14.640]We are the consulting firm that is actually teaming
[00:05:17.310]with the students.
[00:05:18.780]What my involvement has been it's been good.
[00:05:20.880]I mean, it's been very positive.
[00:05:22.200]I'm impressed with the students
[00:05:24.233]and I am graduate of the program as well, so I try
[00:05:26.868]to help the students out wherever we can
[00:05:30.090]to help them learn a little bit more.
[00:05:32.040]The community engagement element
[00:05:33.690]of the whole planning process I think is a really key part
[00:05:36.720]in the planning of profession.
[00:05:38.670]So having this experience alone kind
[00:05:41.460]of eases my way into feeling a little bit more comfortable
[00:05:44.400]with engaging with community members
[00:05:45.840]and asking those thought provoking questions.
[00:05:47.700]So I'm really grateful for this experience, this class,
[00:05:51.060]and for community members coming in
[00:05:52.800]to actually collaborate with us on this project.
[00:05:56.130]Yeah, after tonight, we will collect the citizen feedback,
[00:06:00.082]particularly for the key recommendations
[00:06:02.583]that's the student proposed,
[00:06:05.160]and then the student can reevaluate the priorities,
[00:06:10.650]the citizen voices,
[00:06:12.900]and then we will further finalize their documents
[00:06:17.190]for the city adoption.
[00:06:20.068](light music)
[00:06:25.200]Revitalizing retail in downtown Lincoln.
[00:06:27.960]Professor Sonia Turmans Collaborate Studio is working
[00:06:31.110]with city planners, Colllin Christopher
[00:06:33.210]and Stephanie Rouse, along with local preservationist,
[00:06:36.210]Dan Wirth to explore new possibilities
[00:06:38.970]for this historic block.
[00:06:41.010]Old City Hall is a beautiful building, lots of history,
[00:06:44.042]but to a large extent it's underused as a space
[00:06:48.090]when we think about the larger downtown environment.
[00:06:50.790]Because of that, one of the goals is this project is really
[00:06:52.741]to think about that better use
[00:06:55.350]and how we could use both the building
[00:06:58.020]and the block itself in a more effective way
[00:07:00.450]that really contributes to that downtown environment
[00:07:03.180]that we're looking for.
[00:07:04.230]So Old City Hall used to be a courthouse
[00:07:05.985]and a post office.
[00:07:07.703]Our teams are re-imagining it as a retail space.
[00:07:11.970]For example, my team is turning it
[00:07:14.790]into a health retail center,
[00:07:17.070]so we're calling it the Health Hub,
[00:07:19.320]and inside we're having a grocery store, a pharmacy,
[00:07:22.350]a salad and juice bar, some workout studios.
[00:07:27.000]We're also into integrating biophilic design by including
[00:07:30.471]an interior courtyard and an exterior healing garden.
[00:07:35.520]What I like about this project, it's a real project
[00:07:38.400]that exists in downtown Lincoln
[00:07:40.206]and there are some restrictions that we cannot like mess
[00:07:44.970]with, like the historic preservation on it.
[00:07:47.520]So with that, we have to be more creative
[00:07:51.202]with working with this design.
[00:07:53.195]So as we go through this process
[00:07:55.590]and look at some of the early designs for the students,
[00:07:58.140]I think one of the things that really stands out
[00:08:00.240]is just kind of that out of box thinking that you often see
[00:08:04.920]with young professionals or in this case,
[00:08:07.094]students who are learning to become professionals,
[00:08:09.910]where they're exploring ideas
[00:08:11.580]that maybe we as city staff wouldn't necessarily think of.
[00:08:15.120]And so I think that's really one of the great outcomes
[00:08:18.210]of this, is really expanding what we might think is possible
[00:08:22.050]for this site and for this old historic building
[00:08:25.200]that is Old City Hall.
[00:08:27.630]I want to thank everybody for watching,
[00:08:29.130]for your ongoing support,
[00:08:30.750]and I look forward to seeing you in May, if not before.
[00:08:34.255](light music)

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College of Architecture Newsletter Fall 2023

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