The Renaissance Charter School Architecture Club

by

Janny Gédéon, Salvadori Architect-Educator

The architecture club at TRCS (16 students) has been working on a semester-long project. The theme of the semester is “Architecture and Power.” Asked to think about a change in the school that would benefit the school community as a whole, they decided that a student lounge would be a great project.

A student plots a floor plan for the lounge.

Having decided on this, the club then identified who controlled the “power” in the school and what the students would need to do to receive the necessary permits to create the student lounge. We talked about how acquiring permits is a crucial step in the design process and reviewed the strategies architects, engineers, property owners, and others use to get the political and cultural “powers” responsible for granting permits to support a project.

We began our design process for the student lounge with “primary research” about shared space. We went on several field trips to look at different communal spaces. At the Queens Museum of Art we looked at all the open spaces in the five boroughs and had the students think of different buildings that they knew had communal spaces. We also visited Rockefeller Plaza and the Winter Garden.

A student surveys a possible site for the lounge.

The next step was to search for a site in the school to locate the student lounge. We considered three areas; students did preliminary studies of the three while interviewing other students not in the club for ideas about what they wanted in a lounge. We compiled the ideas and interview results and started the scale drawings of the space.

To learn how a professional design process works and to pick up helpful hints for our own work on the student lounge, we visited HLW International, a world-renowned architecture firm, which had offered to host our club. The students were greeted by Ted Hammer, senior managing partner of the firm, who gave them an overview of the firm’s projects, and then introduced them to

The headquarters of HLW.

architect Christian Giordano, who walked the students through a project he was working on and told them about the process of becoming an architect. The students were especially interested in the 3-D computer program he uses to generate the drawings for this project.

After Mr. Giordano finished his demonstration, Mr. Hammer gave the students a slide show of the many projects, both past and current, HLW has tackled. The students recognized several big names, such as HBO (see the picture below), and Mavis Wiggins, an interior designer with the firm, talked to the students about a renovation project she was working on for MTV. Students found her presentation very relevant because their own plans called for renovating a space into a lounge. They examined various materials (such as floor, wall, and window treatments) and explored furniture layouts and styles of furniture. The students were very excited to touch and feel the actual materials Ms. Wiggins discussed.

After lunch we went down “Main Street,” the office's main hallway. Along the hallway were architectural models, maps, magazines, old fire hydrants, and parking meters that still work.

HBO, by HLW.

Mr. Hammer then brought the students to one of the firm’s studios so that they could “talk shop” with the designers.

The students found the visit informative and enjoyable. Mr. Hammer made sure each student received some architectural or math goodies as well as a package of information about HLW. As the students left, they were already discussing how they could apply what they had learned to their own project.

Their next step will be to present four designs to the “decision-makers” in the school: the principal, the co-directors, and the PTA. Based on the feedback they receive, the students will then work up a budget and make a scale-model of the most workable design for the space and re-submit the package as part of their application for a “permit” to continue working on the project. Completion is expected early next year.