Syracuse University architecture students host interdisciplinary symposium and charette Feb. 15 and 16

Syracuse University architecture students host interdisciplinary symposium and charette Feb. 15 and 16February 05, 2002Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

Third-year students in Syracuse University’s School of Architecture will host a symposium titled “/ingMemoryConstruct/ingMemoryConstruct” that will feature keynote speakers Mary Miss, one of the leading environmental artists in the United States and a pioneer of architectural sculpture; and M. Christine Boyer, the William R. McKenan Jr. Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at Princeton University.

The symposium, which is free and open to the public, will begin with a panel discussion at 6 p.m. Feb. 15 in Slocum Hall’s first-floor rotunda. The panel discussion will be followed by an overnight charette, where teams of students will develop designs in response to the ideas and issues that are presented during the panel discussion. Participants will be issued a kit of parts that they will use to create their designs. The charette will conclude at 2 p.m. Feb. 16 with a discussion and critique of the proposals led by Miss and Boyer. The discussion will also be held in the rotunda. The completed designs will be exhibited in Slocum Hall and elsewhere on campus.

“The symposium is a way for students to learn more about selected topics that are not taught through the regular curriculum,” says Todd Rubin, a member of the 10-member student committee that organized the symposium, which is an annual event at the School of Architecture. The advisor for the student committee is Laura Auerbach, assistant professor in the School of Architecture.

“This year’s symposium will focus on constructing memory and use the events of September 11 as a vehicle for discussion,” Rubin says. “Through our selection of speakers, we hope to bring together both art and architecture students for the event.”

Miss, who lives in New York City, is best known for her outdoor constructions, which are imbued with a strong sense of the architectural. She has designed and built more than 30 outdoor projects, many of which are permanent installations in city parks, in outdoor exhibition spaces, on campuses or in museum precincts. More than 15 exhibitions have been dedicated to her work, including installations and shows at the

Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1976, Harvard’s Fogg Museum in 1980, the Institute for Contemporary Art in London in 1983 and London’s Architectural Association in 1987.

Miss has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1986; the American Institute of Architects Medal of Honor in 1990; grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1974, 1975 and 1984, respectively; and in 1989 from the American Academy in Rome, where she a member of the board of directors. In 1991, she was the Davenport Visiting Professor at Yale University, and she has taught at colleges and universities across the country.

Boyer is an urban historian whose interests include the history of the American city, city planning, preservation planning and computer science. Prior to teaching at Princeton University, she was professor and chair of the City and Regional Planning Program at the Pratt Institute. She has written several books, the latest of which are “CyberCities: Visual Perception in the Age of Electronic Communication” (Princeton Architectural Press, 1996) and “The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments” (MIT Press, 1994).

Boyer received a Ph.D. and master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also holds a master’s of science degree in computer and information science from the University of Pennsylvania.