Architecture students take on Salem police station project
EUGENE, Ore. -- (Nov. 25 2010) -- Students in instructor Josh Hilton’s and associate professor Christine Theodoropoulos’s fall architecture studio are influencing the plan for a new police station in Salem, Ore., thanks to the city’s partnership with the Sustainable Cities Initiative (SCI).
The twenty-four students in the studio are designing a new Salem police station facility on Salem’s Civic Center campus. The City of Salem and two architecture firms, Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects (ZGF) and CB Two Architects, are providing the students with the requirements for the station and ongoing support throughout the studio.
The City of Salem is researching the possibility of pursuing a bond measure to support funding for a new public safety facility. The work the students are currently doing will help to clarify the probable cost, size, and location of the new facility. After the studio ends, CB Two and ZGF will incorporate student work into their preliminary studies and analysis.
The students have risen to the challenge of working with architects and a client on a real-world project. “We have been impressed with the diversity and originality of ideas produced by the students thus far,” says Kirk Sund, an architect with CB Two Architects. “With all of these different options under consideration, the City of Salem is going to be able to create a stronger concept of the new public safety facility.”
Lt. Scott Hayes of the Salem Police Department agrees. “I am ecstatic over how it’s going so far. I am impressed with their grasp of police facilities and the speed they are working at.” Hayes says that the entire city staff has been drawing energy from their collaboration with students, both on this project and the others in the Sustainable City Year program.
This studio is one of fourteen projects students are doing in Salem as a part of the Sustainable City Year (SCY). The Sustainable City Year is a partnership between SCI and one city in Oregon per academic year in which a number of courses from across the University focus on assisting that city with its sustainability goals and projects. SCI coordinators expect 500 students to spend 80,000 hours in 25+ classes to move those projects forward in Salem.
Architecture student Greg Swift (right) presents his proposal to Lyle Gembala of the Salem Police Department (center) and Garth Brandaw of CB Two Architects (left). Photo by Marshall Reynolds Stein.
Contact: Karen Johnson, AAA Communications, (541) 346-3603, karenjj@uoregon.edu; Chris Jones, program manager, SCI, jonesey@uoregon.edu, (541) 346-6395
Source: Josh Hilton, Adjunct Instructor, jhilton@uoregon.edu
Story by Dave Amos.
