Tuesday, April 28, 2009
A third-year design studio in the School of Architecture is only a few days away from completing its semester-long project.
The studio will complete and show its Rockefeller trailhead structure, which marks the beginning of a trail, at the University of Kansas Field Station and Ecological Reserves, or KSR, on Thursday, May 14. The critique and opening showing will be open to the public.
Contributed photo.
John Myers, St. Louis junior, was one of 17 people in the studio who helped put the project together. Myers said the trailhead would provide a shading structure at the beginning of the trail at KSR, which is located at 350 Wild Horse Road, northeast of Lawrence. Myers said that last semester’s design studio built an overlook deck in the same area, and that now the two student-constructed architecture projects will be connected to make the area more visitor-friendly.
“The overlook deck looks south over the river valley on a bluff, and there’s going to be a nature trail connecting that deck to our project,” Myers said. “The idea is that you have some place to start before you get on the trail, to put on hiking shoes or have some place to rest.”
Myers said the trailhead would also allow for a place to display information about the reserve and a place to sit and look out over the prairie.
Richard and Sue Himes donated money to KSR for the funding of the trailhead project as well as last semester’s overlook project. Himes was a professor in molecular biosciences at the University.
Myers said the best part of working on a project like this was its permanence. He said he looked forward to coming back in five to 10 years to see it still standing.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Myers said. “We’ve worked really, really hard on this. We put in a lot of hours and ruined a lot of pairs of clothes.”
Though the class is six credit hours, Sam Avery, St. Louis junior, said that at times he would spend 50 hours a week working on the project. Avery said students in the studio got along well and worked early and late shifts to complete the project.
Nils Gore, associate professor of the design studio, said he was pleased with the way the project had turned out so far.
“These students have a lot to be proud of,” Gore said. “Students have a way of kind of rising to the occasion.”
— — Edited by Casey Miles
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