by Maggie Yolen Center for Architecture Foundation
“Building Connections 2010,” the Center for Architecture Foundation’s (CFAF) 14th annual exhibition of K-12 student design work, opened on Thursday, 11.04.10 at the Center for Architecture, and runs through 03.12.2011. The exhibition highlights the work and talent of students who participated in CFAF’s architecture and design education programs during the 2009-10 school year. This year’s exhibition also illustrates CFAF’s design education methodology and highlights the benefits of design education.
(Left): Rick Bell, FAIA, AIANY Executive Director and ex-officio Board Member for the Foundation, takes in Junior High School 185’s project “Ancient Cities Along the Silk Road.” Seventh grade students and teachers participated in The Silk Road Project, an arts and education program established by Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and inspired by the historic trade route. The residency was taught by CFAF educators Jenny Lee and Ian Harris.
(Right): CFAF Board Member and former CFAF Design Educator Jerry Maltz, AIA, at the exhibition opening.
Maggie Yolen
(Left): The exhibition opening attracted nearly 100 visitors, including several former students who have taken part in the Foundation’s programs. The exhibition and graphic design was designed by Poulin and Morris Inc.
(Right): Emily Uss (right), a seventh grader at Bank Street School for Children, shows a friend her work. Uss participated in two programs at CFAF this past summer, including A Room of One’s Own, where students designed and built models of their “dream apartment.”
Maggie Yolen
(Left): Students from the NYCiSchool in SoHo display their project, “A Case for a Green Roof.” During this Learning By Design:NY (LBD:NY) residency, students took on the real-world challenge of designing a green roof for their school. NYCiSchool Teacher Susan Herzog worked with Design Educator Al Kurchin to develop lessons in which students first investigated the feasibility of a rooftop expansion, and, after becoming experts in the field, invited officials from the NYC Department of Education’s Division of School Facilities and Office of Sustainability to their final presentation where they “pitched” their ideas. (See OCULUS, Spring 2010, “Raising the (Old School) Roof.”)
(Right): The above photograph is an example of work produced by fifth graders at P.S. 73x in the Bronx through LBD:NY and the Bronx Museum of the Arts’ Culture and Competition After School Program. The program, modeled after AIANY Emerging New York Architects Committee’s (ENYA) 2010 international ideas competition, HB:BX, challenged students to design a cultural center at the location of the High Bridge aqueduct connecting the Bronx and Manhattan.
Maggie Yolen