See It • Build It • Know It
See It • Build It • Know It
Our design challenge, the "Annual Charrette," gathers students from all over the city for a day of intensive teamwork. A usual charrette will bring together 100 to 120 students from ten to a dozen schools and 30 to 40 volunteer architects and engineers to work as teams on a particular day-long design challenge.
The challenges vary from year to year. In the past the charrettes have re-designed St. Nicholas Park in Harlem, the Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx, and the North Academic Center Plaza on the campus of the City College of New York.
The day begins with an orientation session explaining the origin and process of the charrette, then moves into conceptualizing an answer to the challenge, designing and building a model of the concept, and a presentation in front of the assembled "charretteers."
A quote from a long-time volunteer at the Charrette sums up its excitement and value:
Charrette reminded me why I chose the path I did towards my profession. I saw myself in the eyes of the intelligent and motivated young people who took part in this wonderful event. Teamwork and creativity at its best. Can't wait till next year.
Paul Lucien, P.E., Port Authority of New York & New Jersey
Engineering/Architecture Design Division
Help yourself to some wonderful stories.
"Bringing Back the NAC Plaza" (2006)
"Redesigning The Andrew Freedman Home on the Grand Concourse" (2005)
"Redesigning St. Nick's Park" (2005)
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.