Thanks to a design by students for students, the dirt field outside the Centennial Engineering Building will no longer be an eyesore next semester.
Tapy Hall housed the civil engineering department until Aug. 2008 while the Centennial Engineering building was under construction. When Tapy Hall was torn down in fall 2008, a 30,000 square foot dirt lot was left in its place.
The space is in the middle of the Centennial Engineering, the Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Farris Engineering buildings, shaping an isolated courtyard, said Alfred Simon, the associate dean for the School of Architecture and Planning and director of the Landscape Architecture Program.
“Because of where that site is located, it’s very much a commons for what is a small engineering campus within the large campus,” Simon said. “It really becomes an engineering commons and, as such, it becomes a site where faculty, staff and students of engineering can enjoy it in various ways.”
Dean emeritus of the School of Engineering, Joseph Cecchi, and Roger Schluntz, dean of the School of Architecture and Planning, decided to have students design a landscape for the field.
About 12 engineering students participated in the first meeting on Sept. 18 to discuss possible landscape ideas. During the final stages of planning, three teams with two graduate students each, one from architecture and one from landscape architecture, came up with an independent design, Simon said.
The final design consists of outside tables, a small amphitheater for performances and terraces where students can display projects.
The courtyard model will be on display in the Stamm Room of the Centennial Engineering Center for public viewing between 10 and 11 a.m. Friday.
Arup Maji, interim dean of the School of Engineering, said the landscape should be in place early in the spring semester.
The School of Engineering hired Bill Perkins, a landscape architect professional consultant from New Mexico Landscape Architects, to develop the final design and put it in place. He said the students want a shady space to socialize, eat and study.
“This commons space is for people,” Perkins said. “Hopefully it will be a place where members of the University community, and members of the engineering school in particular, can come together to relax or to reflect for a moment before or after an engaging lecture or a tough exam.”
*Courtyard design display
Stamm Room, Centennial Engineering Center
10 – 11 a.m.
Friday*
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