OSU Celebrates Architecture Week

Adam Huffer
Communication Services
Oklahoma State University
(405) 744-9080
04/05/05

Second-year architecture students Yuri Takashima and Tri Nguyen load ping pong balls into a structure they designed as part of the “Running of the Balls,” a presentation that on Monday kicked off the School of Architecture’s “Architecture Week.” The weeklong celebration continues this evening with a presentation by Bill Pedersen of the firm Kohn, Pedersen and Fox that designed the New York Sports and Convention Center.

Architecture Week, the OSU School of Architecture’s annual celebration of architectural design and practice, continues this evening at 7:30 with a presentation in 313 Classroom Building by internationally renowned architect Bill Pedersen.

Pedersen, co-founder of the New York City-based Kohn, Pedersen and Fox, will detail his firm’s design of the proposed $1.9-billion Sports and Convention Center that has been the source of a contentious debate in the city and state.

Envisioned as a lure for the 2010 Super Bowl and the 2012 Olympics, the stadium will also allow the New York Jets to return to Manhattan from New Jersey. Just last week, the project took a major step forward when developers finalized a deal on the sale of a construction site on the island’s west side.

“This stadium project has been in the national news because of the debate over its site issues and cost,” said Randy Seitsinger, professor and head of the School of Architecture. “What’s really interesting architecturally is the stadium is designed to use site specific sustainable design technologies and generate energy for the city rather than use it.”

Architecture Week began Monday with “the Running of the Balls,” a presentation of projects by students in the second-year design studio. Standing no taller than two feet upon a base no larger than one square foot, the structures were designed to facilitate a ping pong ball race in which the slowest time was the goal.

            “They use natural forces such as gravity and counter weights to move the ball, but the idea is to envision yourself as the ball and try to develop something so that it’s an experience to move through the structure,” said John Womack, professor of architecture. “It’s an introduction to the fundamentals of designing a building, but we also evaluate them on overall design quality as well as staging the performance and getting the audience in on the experience.”

            Educational, informational and recreational activities will continue through the week. Wednesday includes a product show by The Construction Specifications Institute, an affiliation that advances the use of sustainable materials and technologies in non-residential building design and construction, and the American Institute of Architecture Students golf tournament.  A “Pie a Professor” benefit for the OSU student chapter of the Architectural Engineers Institute and the school’s scholarship honors and awards program will be held on Thursday.

After the Oklahoma Sustainability Network (OSN) 2005 Conference at the Wes Watkins Center, the week-long celebration culminates Saturday with the school’s traditional pig roast at Lake Carl Blackwell.

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