From idea to design, innovations don’t just appear overnight. Neither do design projects.
University architecture students collaborated and scurried Saturday in preparation for an informal public review at the Walker Art Center’s “Home Show.”
The students presented the third of five public reviews Thursday which document sections of the city.
The students documented three sites, including areas in north Minneapolis along Interstate 94, the west end of Nicollet Island and an area near Lake Street and the Midtown Greenway — east of Interstate 35W to Hiawatha Avenue. All sites are within a three-mile radius of the Walker Art Center.
“The way of presenting information from the site is much more vivid than what we typically do,” said Lynn Lehman, a graduate student. “Having to thoroughly put up your work on the walls and have it so that it is legible to the public and not just for your own information is different.”
Three University professors and 15 students from the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture are conducting their work in the gallery at the Walker until Aug. 20.
“Time is a component of life and architecture,” said professor Craig Wilkins.
At this point, it is also crucial to the students involved in the project.
Coming into the midpoint of their architecture studio work, the barren white walls of the Walker gallery are lined with pin-ups of maps, studies of the students’ investigations and clipboards of information to communicate to the public. Models of the sites are dispersed along the floor.
To make the work tell a story without words means “backing it up with something visual,” said architecture student Cindy Garrido.
Intriguing as it is to the public, students have to adjust to the museum setting without having the amenities of the University’s wood shop and imaging lab on hand.
“It comes down to adjusting to the space, behavior here is subdued and it is the space that dictates the behavior,” said Wilfredo C. David, architecture student.
Having had a slow start, David reassured fellow student Chrisi Weber, “It doesn’t matter how you began, it’s how you finish.”