See It • Build It • Know It
See It • Build It • Know It
On June 15, 2005, one hundred middle and high school students, teamed up with 20 practicing architects and engineers, had six hours to come up with an answer to the following design challenge:
The Friends of City Park, a non-profit organization that supports parks and green spaces in New York City, awarded your design firm a contract to beautify St. Nick's Park and to make it more environmentally friendly for people, plants, and animals.
You and your colleagues got the commission because you submitted the most cost-effective, aesthetic, and environmentally-sensitive design.
You also got the job because of your unique concept: to involve the middle and high school students who "hang out" in St. Nick’s in the renovation project and to build a major teen recreational facility as the centerpiece of the design.
In the morning the participants, divided into teams, conceptualized an answer to the challege using photos of the site and a contour model of the park and considering such elements as approach, exit, circulation, landscaping, lighting, and viewing.
In the afternoon, the teams built models of their conceptual design and prepared a 3-minute presentation of the model and the ideas behind the design.
Many thanks to the schools that participated: Albert Einstein IS 131,East Bronx Academy for the Future, Ella Baker School, Pablo Neruda Academy for Architecture and World Studies, The Renaissance Charter School, and West Bronx Academy for the Future.
And equal thanks to the volunteers from The Bronx Musuem of the Arts, F.J. Sciame Construction Co., Inc., KSS Architects, MTA-New York City Transit, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Robert Silman Associates, and Weidlingers Associates.
Our founder, Mario Salvadori, a world-renowned structural engineer, believed that the built environment held all the knowledge that a person needed to be an intelligent and active member of the community. What teachers need to make this knowledge available to their students are tools with which they can "unpack" the knowledge embedded in the built environment.
The Salvadori Center gives these tools to teachers and students through a pedagogy grounded in what it calls "project-based, hands-on/minds-on activities" that employ the principles of architecture, engineering, and the design process. Through this method, teachers and their students can unlock the math, science, art, and humanities embodied in the structures and systems that surround them.