Each year, the Salvadori Center sponsors an all-day design competition in the Great Hall at City College of New York (CCNY). This competition brings together over 100 students and 20 to 30 mentors who work in teams to solve an architectural/engineering challenge.

The Challenge

This year's charrette took as its focus the plaza in front of the North Academic Center, or the NAC Plaza, as it’s known. Here was the problem the students and volunteers faced:

The Event

High School students from around New York City and City College graduates from around the country have been invited to come to our Harlem campus to celebrate 150 years of local history.

The Problem

The NAC Plaza is where the Festival will be held on the Summer Solstice, June 21. But, people have always complained that the Plaza, in the words of a local poet, “is a hole in a bowl that’s got no soul.” They see it as a cold and uninviting place that doesn’t reflect the vibrant look, feel and sound of the hundreds of students from dozens of countries who cross the Plaza every day.

The Challenge

You and your fellow City College “Students of Today” are in charge of planning the Festival for “Students Past and Future.” Most importantly, you have to turn the NAC Plaza into a warm and welcoming environment where people can really enjoy themselves. What a job you have!

The Day Begins...

The Great Hall at CCNY. Click on the image for the full size.

As the 120 students from nine schools and the 25 volunteers from nine companies filed into the Great Hall, they found a dozen tables supplied with boxes of materials ranging from pipe cleaners and glue to colored paper and Styrofoam balls.

They also found sliced bagels with cream cheese, butter, and jelly along with coffee, tea, and juices to wash them down.

Thus fortified, participants began their day with an explanation of the challenge by Salvadori educator Alan Feigenberg, who encouraged them to use their imaginations and energies to make the NAC Plaza come alive. Then participants went to their assigned tables and dug into the work at hand.

Continue on to Bringing the NAC Back