Transforming Brutalist Architecture With Student and Local Artwok

A new Innovation Showcase report from the League for Innovation in the Community College is about using student and local art to soften and transform Lane Community College's college's otherwise bland architecture from the 1960s:

Lane’s learning environment, like many college campuses built in the late 1960s, is classic Brutalist architecture: bare exposed concrete. In a recent survey, students overwhelmingly commented that they experience the Brutalism as austere, cold, drab, and gloomy, especially during the gray drizzly days of a Eugene, Oregon winter. Some likened it to learning in a parking garage!

To help mitigate this experience, a series of efforts have been initiated by the Art on Campus Committee. Prior to the creation of the print collection, a painting collection and a commercial art collection were pulled out of storage and mounted throughout the main campus. An invitational sculpture exhibit was held and a number of pieces were purchased and put on permanent display. Two sculpture faculty members, also members of the Art on Campus Committee, offered several classes that created public artwork. Traditional Japanese carvers were invited to mentor students for a wood sculpture course that resulted in a large joint outdoor sculpture. A metal sculpture class created a multipiece work for the bus stop that garnered partial funding from the bus company. A stunning stone piece now stands in front of the administration building, the outcome of a two-term sculpture course.

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA

Arts Programs in Academia Are Forced to Nip Here, Adjust There

Writing in The New York Times, Patricia Cohen shares a wide-ranging report on some of the academic programming cuts happening on campuses, much of which seems to focus on the arts. 

The arts are of course not the only victims of the recent economic meltdown. Large reductions in budgets have stung pretty much every corner of academia, from philosophy to Chinese, from gymnastics to geology. . . . Several other college arts administrators around the country also said programs that serve the surrounding community as well as the students — like museums and performing arts centers — are especially vulnerable. . . . Figuring out what or who faces the budgetary guillotine has been a harrowing process no matter how it was done. Few go quietly. 

The Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

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Related, A preconference workshop at SCUP–44, July 18–22: Coffee Cart or Cafe? Campus Center Decisions for Every Institution

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We don't share enough from Building Design & Construction magazine, and we're planning to fix that. First, an article titled BIM+IPD: Three Success Stories, one of which is at Renssalear Polytech:

As design and construction budgets shrink and client demands for quicker, more efficient design and delivery escalate, AEC firms are embracing integrated project delivery, an approach that integrates people, systems, business structures, and practices into a process that collaboratively harnesses the talents and insights of all participants to reduce waste and optimize efficiency. Check out BD+C’s April cover story showcasing three IPD success stories including the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Renssalaer Polytech in Troy, New York.