Art History Students Redesigning Campus and Community

Written by 8/27/2009Share this story on Facebook!

Associate professor of art history Lauren O’Connell is using some cool technology to teach her students about the history of urban design.

Using Google SketchUp, students produce 3-D models of local and urban campus spaces and then propose ways to improve the spaces, using course principles.

Park Hall Before and After by Bobby Chiang '08

In this "before" sketch, Chiang identified the following design problems:

• The central building blocks a magnificent view of Cayuga Lake.
• The space lacks visual and social focus.

Chiang remedied these problems in this "after" sketch.

• Chiang added transparency to the central building, dramatically altering the structure to create a brilliant lake view.
• The water feature and a clock Chiang added improve the character of the space, making it more inviting.

O'Connell will ask students to use Google SketchUp to tackle urban design again this fall in her art history course called Great Spaces.

What would you do to improve the look of campus? Comment below!