Quad Summer 2016

LSU College of Art + Design Magazine

When in Rome LSU’s first faculty-led semester-long Academic Program Abroad

Wildlife Crossing Approaching habitat fragmentation from a landscape architecture perspective

2016 Summer

Art Therapy & Healthcare Design Alumni making a difference in society’s well-being

E D I TO R I A L Editor in Chief, Writer Angela Harwood, Communications Manager

ART Graphic Design Student Office Faculty Advisor

Associate Professor Courtney Barr

Art Director

Instructor Luisa Restrepo Perez, MFA 2015

Design and Illustration

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Alec Gaschen, BFA 2016

Photographers

Eddy Perez, LSU Photographer Dason Pettit, MFA candidate Hayden Nagin, BFA candidate

18 ON THE COVER: The College of Art & Design in Rome (page 8) Students studying in Rome during the fall 2015 semester were challenged to design a diving site for the 2024 Summer Olympics. James Babin’s aerial rendering shows the juxtaposition of the old and new and the exploration of temporary, additive building processes at the Hippodrome of Domitian, an archaeological site on Palatine Hill. The design project engaged adaptive reuse and new construction, interior and exterior environmental conditions, and preservation and demolition procedures.

26 To share feedback, contact Angela Harwood – aharwood@lsu.edu – 225-578-9041

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Contents F E AT U R E S 08

18

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Rome, If You Want To

05 06

14 34 36 38 39 42

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LSU’s First Semester-Long Academic Program Abroad

The Bear Necessities

Designing Wildlife Crossings to Connect Black Bear Habitats

Art + Design = Health & Wellness

Making a Difference in Society’s Well-Being

DEPARTMENTS 04

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Letter from the Dean

Infinitely Diverse

Kilning It

LSU Ceramics is Top in the Nation

Four Minutes on . . . the Flotant

Exploring Louisiana’s Geomorphological Features with Catherine Seavitt Nordenson

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The International Student Experience

Broadening Cultural Diversity

I Made That!

Biophilic Book Design with Klaudia Wasowska

An Aging Society

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Designing for Senior Living

Did You Know?

An Architect’s Concern with Water

Class Notes

See What Your Classmates Are Doing

Equipped

Hayden Nagin’s Favorite Tools for Photography

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Letter from the Dean Infinitely Diverse

In this fifth issue of Quad, we celebrate the essential value of the College of Art & Design: diversity!

Every new student in our college quickly learns that there is not one singular right answer to any problem and that to be different is normal. The freedom to search, express, and defend challenging and innovative ideas is the norm in our studios, our curricula. It is our way of life. We don’t just talk about or promote diversity and inclusion; we practice it.

The College of Art & Design welcomes and becomes home to people of all kinds. We promote international studies, host many international students and visiting scholars, and send our American students to study and to work abroad.

In this issue we introduce you to some of our students from around the world, and we share

the experience of our first group of students to spend an entire semester studying abroad in Rome through LSU’s first faculty-led, semester-long program run by LSU Academic Programs Abroad.

We encourage all of our students to become citizens of the world and at the same time discover and take pride in their own heritage and cultural identities. In the Design Building Atrium as well as in all workplaces and classrooms across the college, you will hear a variety of accents and see people from all corners of Louisiana and the world. We cultivate the unique qualities of every person and add to the cultural mosaic that sets Louisiana apart from other places.

Every year our faculty mentors put together a host of imaginative studio projects, never the same as the year before. In this issue we feature work as varied as the study of bear crossings and biophilic design, the journey of monarch butterflies, and a service-learning project for senior living facilities. We celebrate our alumni’s successes in applying their abilities in art and design to improve our society’s health and wellness.

We spend many hours in studio week after week, defining and developing solutions to complex problems. The creative process is a demanding journey of exploration and discovery. It takes commitment and time, patience and passion.

The outcomes of this process are interesting, innovative, and often provocative. They are also skillfully and professionally executed. Attending midterm and final reviews in our buildings is nothing like grading midterm or final exams. It is rather like taking part in a ceremony, a celebration of serious play. It is competitive and imaginative and at the same time collaborative, mindful of the rules and above all infinitely diverse.

Alkis Tsolakis Dean

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Kilning It LSU’s MFA ceramics program ranked seventh in nation by U.S. News & World Report Associate Professor Mikey Walsh was in Kansas City attending the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) when she received news that LSU’s MFA ceramics program had moved up two spots in U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 Best Graduate School rankings, from ninth to seventh in the nation.

“Being there at NCECA with 19 LSU students and getting the rankings at the same time, I felt as much a strong responsibility to the legacy of LSU ceramics as I felt proud to be a part of it,” shared Walsh. “Our students, overall, were great ambassadors for LSU.” For example, graduate student Naomi Clement was selected as the student ambassador at large at the conference, a prestigious and competitive twoyear post. Jodie Masterson was a presenter in a well-attended panel, and Mike Stumbras, a second-year graduate student, was in several prominent shows, including the NCECA student juried show, one of the premiere exhibitions at the conference each year.

“Our students are really driving for success themselves and for the program, too,” added Associate Professor Andy Shaw. “They are exhibiting widely, applying for summer scholarships and studio assistantships at national arts and crafts workshop schools, and taking part in residencies in the U.S. and abroad. As much as each one is studying here at LSU for very specific and personal aspirations, our students know that they succeed best when they assist and promote each other. They invest in each other, making the studio a very happy and productive space.”

LSU ceramics faculty are great ambassadors for the program, as well. Shaw, who was selected for a 2014 McKnight Residency for Ceramic Artists, spent three months at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis in 2015, where he presented an exhibition of work completed during the residency. His tableware has received multiple awards, is shown widely across the U.S., and has been featured in recently published books.

During his sabbatical in fall 2016, Shaw will take part in a two-month Sím residency in Iceland at the Korpúlfsstaðir studios, and he will complete a short residency at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. Walsh recently returned from sabbatical and completed a two-week residency at Haystack School of Crafts in Maine. Her work will be featured at the Harvey Meadows Gallery in Aspen, Colorado, and in Northern Clay Center’s Annual American Pottery Fest in Minneapolis this fall, and she has been invited as one of seven artists for “Artist and Mother,” a two-week residency at Red Lodge Clay Center in Montana for summer 2017.

“The ranking is the result of decades of hard work within LSU ceramics,” stressed Shaw. “Tremendous gratitude goes out to former faculty Joe Bova, Linda Arbuckle, Bobby Silverman, and Kate Blacklock, as well as to the generations of LSU MFAs who define the best elements of the field of ceramics.”

“My word for now is momentum,” added Walsh.

“We now have a new building on the horizon, as well as a strong and ambitious group of grad students. My hope is to remain in forward motion with the full support of LSU.” The LSU Studio Arts Building is undergoing a much needed renovation, with expected completion only a few years away. “The renovation will give our students opportunities that feel like only dreams right now,” Shaw stated. “We will use our current momentum to take the program in new directions.”

MFA ceramics students hang out in front of the soda kiln. From left: Grace Tessein, Jodie Masterman, Jenni Lombardi, Melodie Reay, Naomi Clement, Bri Ozanne, Mike Stumbras, and Adam Meistrell (Photo by Dason Pettit, MFA photography candidate)

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Four Minutes on . . . the Flotant with Catherine Seavitt Nordenson, Spring 2016 Nadine Carter Russell Chair

As this spring’s Nadine Carter Russell Chair at the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture, I set out to explore the many unique geomorphological features of Louisiana’s coastal, riverine, and upland terrains. These terms often include territories described with the local blended Creole language—the chênière, the crevasse, the batture. My longer-term intention is to develop a “Louisiana Landscape Lexicon,” a visual glossary situated somewhere between the 18th-century technical Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and the 21st-century Glossary of Landform and Geologic Terms of the NRCS National Soil Survey Handbook—ideally seasoned with a dash of the novel inventiveness and creative wit of Ambrose Bierce’s 1911 Devil’s Dictionary.

I thought that digging into the archives of LSU’s extraordinary special collections, housed at Hill Memorial Library, would likely produce some intriguing finds. Prior to my residency as chair, I had done some preliminary digital research into the collections at Hill, but I had no idea what I might actually find in person. The special collections provided, in fact, an unexpected, extraordinary treasure box. Over a four-month period, I explored four aspects of Louisiana’s territories. With the incredibly generous help of the librarians at Hill Memorial, particularly Tara Zachary Laver, head of research services, and John D. Miles, professional-in-residence, we worked to identify and gather maps, photographs, books, and films that addressed each of the thematic topics. The beautiful McIlhenny Room at Hill Memorial became an impromptu exhibition space for each of these monthly seminars, with the materials displayed on tables throughout the room for students and faculty to peruse.

I was particularly elated during my first visit to campus to look through the archived papers of Richard J. Russell, a professor of physical geography at LSU from 1928 through 1971 and the director of the Coastal Studies Institute. His papers included an index card file box, labeled GLOSSARY TR 63, with typewritten glossary terms arrayed in alphabetical order from “ablation” to “zostera.” Russell’s handwritten annotations and corrections are seen throughout—this set of cards was the working manuscript of his seminal 1969 handbook Glossary of Terms Used in Fluvial, Deltaic, and Coastal Morphology and Processes. He too sought to create a lexicon and expressed this caveat in his foreword: “Corrections and clarifications were found to be needed every time its contents were reviewed, and it became apparent that the preparation of a glossary could become a lifetime project.”

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Assistant Professor Forbes Lipschitz’s digital representation seminar class visits Hill Memorial Library’s McIlhenny Room during the February Russell Chair seminar on the Riverine Bayou.

Source: Catherine Seavitt Nordenson

In Russell’s own watery landscape lexicon, one term stands out: flotant. This phenomenon was first explored by Russell much earlier, with a highly readable and engaging 1942 paper entitled “Flotant,” published in the Geographical Review, Vol. 32, No. 1. In his 1969 glossary, Russell defines flotant as floating marsh; on this index card, he penciled in the words “flying-in-air . . .”

Indeed, this is how the word is defined in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, as a term of heraldry.

Russell, however, reinvents the flotant as follows: “Vegetation-covered areas held together by intertwined roots and plant debris above water or soft ooze. In some cases the accumulation is too thin to support a man’s weight, but typically it may be crossed, and eventually becomes firm land.” For a region experiencing rapid land loss, this notion of the potential transformation of vegetative plant life and ooze into made land is most compelling and, indeed, magical.

But let’s be clear—despite the evocation of the term flotant, Russell is not describing the ubiquitous and invasive water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes). This aquatic plant was introduced to Louisiana from Brazil’s Amazon basin in 1884 as an ornamental plant at the Cotton States Exposition in New Orleans—a typical botanical misstep of the period. By 1904, the water hyacinth had spread from Florida to California, and is now listed as a Federal Noxious Weed in all of the southeastern states as well as New York, Virginia, California, and several other states. During my many visits to LSU’s campus, it was fascinating to observe the daily appearance, expansion, and nomadic movement of this invasive aquatic mat moving across the University Lakes. This imagery appears in another gem of a find in Hill Memorial’s archives. We screened a very young Fonville Winans’s fascinating documentary Cruise of the Pintail, filmed between 1929 and 1933 as he and two friends, Bob Owen and Don Horridge, guided their motorized sailboat along the backwaters of the Atchafalaya River. At one point, the Pintail is trapped in a massive water hyacinth mat, and we watch the young men desperately trying to dislodge their boat from this clog with their oars.

In his 1942 paper “Flotant,” Russell describes the invasive water hyacinth and the alligator weed (Achyranthes philoxeroides) as pioneer plants in a flotant succession, describing their floating mats as the preparatory stage in the development of true flotant. While he distinguishes these non-natives from the muck-rooted flotant species of couch grass (Spartina patens) near the coasts and maiden cane (Panicum hemitomon) in the fresh-water regions, Russell surprisingly takes an agnostic tone toward these novel plant associations, avoiding the hyperbolic and bombastic “invasive” rhetoric of today’s environmentalist language. What should we do with the real “flotant” issue of today? Might we harness its biomass to “make land” in a territory rapidly losing ground? Do we accept a new novel ecosystem unlike anything from our past, or should we continue the battle against this “invasion”? These are deep and complex questions, and ones that I hope the current generation of landscape architects will address in this brave new world of southern Louisiana.

Catherine Seavitt Nordenson is an associate professor at the City College of New York and principal of Catherine Seavitt Studio. Her research focuses on design adaptation to the sea level rise in urban coastal environments and explores novel landscape restoration practices given the dynamics of climate change.

Index card file box from the Richard J. Russell collection, containing the edited manuscript of the 1969 handbook Glossary of Terms Used in Fluvial, Deltaic, and Coastal Morphology and Processes. The edited “floating marsh” index card is shown here.

Source: Catherine Seavitt Nordenson

Video stills from Fonville Winans’s documentary film, Cruise of the Pintail, 1929–33 Source: Hill Memorial Library Special Collections, Fonville Winans collection

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Rome, If You Want To The results of a comprehensive survey exploring the long-term impact of studying abroad conducted by the Institute for the International Education of Students (iesabroad.org) shows that “study abroad positively and unequivocally influences the career path, worldview, and self-confidence of students.” Benefits of studying abroad include increased maturity, tolerance, and intercultural development. Students gain a better understanding of their own cultural values and biases, and the experience has a lasting impact on their worldview. Studying abroad also leads to long-lasting friendships with other students, and a majority of those surveyed responded that they continue to seek a greater diversity of friends and experiences.

Students benefit no matter how much time they spend abroad, but “the longer students study abroad, the more significant the academic and cultural development and personal growth benefits.”

The LSU College of Art & Design has had several short-term spring and summer intersession study abroad programs in place for years, including Art in Ireland, Art in Florence, Footsteps in Berlin, and Contemporary Dutch Design. Now, as of fall 2015, LSU College of Art & Design students can spend an entire semester—more than four months!—studying in Rome.

The College of Art & Design in Rome, formerly a summer-length program, is LSU’s first faculty-led, semester-long program run by LSU Academic Programs Abroad (APA).

“We have domestic and international exchanges throughout the world to different partner universities that students can go to during the fall and/or spring, but the Rome program is the first time we took the LSU faculty-led model that has been so successful in the summer and applied it to an entire fall semester,” said Jill Clemmons, assistant director of APA at LSU. The program is offered during the fall semester and is a 17-week, 15-credit-hour, design curriculum taught by LSU and University of Arkansas Rome Center faculty. Designed to integrate within the curriculum in the School of Architecture, the course work enables students to engage in the built environment of Rome while testing observations through design work.

Field studies, travel, and housing are coordinated through the administrative staff at the University of Arkansas Rome Center at Palazzo Taverna, a 13th-century palace located between the Vatican and Piazza Navona, home to private residential apartments, banqueting halls, diplomatic residences, and art studios.

The program is open to other design disciplines in the college besides architecture; in fact, three interior design students participated in the first

Students expand their worldview in LSU’s first semester-long Academic Program Abroad semester-long program in fall 2015. Directed by A. Hays Town Professor Ursula Emery McClure, LSU School of Architecture faculty members rotate teaching in Rome each fall; Assistant Professor Robert Holton taught the program in 2015, and Assistant Professor Catherine Bonier will be the Rome program instructor in fall 2016.

“One of the things I loved about teaching the program,” said Holton, “is that it wasn’t a group of students who already knew each other.

We had fourth- and fifth-year undergraduate architecture students in studios with fourth-year interior design undergrads and architecture grad students. Students from a total of four universities were studying at the Rome Center. The students—and their work—benefitted from these different influences and perspectives.”

“Everyone knew how to do something differently,” recounted Tina Naraghi-Pour, a Baton Rouge native with dual U.S./Iranian citizenship who received her Bachelor of Architecture from LSU in May 2016. “We got different perspectives from people above and below us in the program, and seeing more diverse approaches was refreshing.”

The LSU students were all required to take the architectural design concentration studio and a seminar course on vernacular architecture and material culture, combined worth 12 credit hours, and they could choose an approved, three-credit-hour elective. Most took Architecture in the City, a course co-taught by LSU and University of Arkansas Rome Center faculty.

“I think I did the most—and the best—work I’ve ever done during the Rome program,” Tina avowed. “The studio hours were so different from what we’re used to. Because we were only allowed in the building from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., we learned a lot about time management; we

Students often sit and eat lunch outside on the steps near the University of Arkansas Rome Center at Palazzo Taverna before studio starts.

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Access to the lower levels of Palatine Hill—an archaeological site and the location of the students’ studio project—is rarely granted. By pure chance, Holton bumped into the new director of the archaeological association, who made special arrangements for the studio to visit the site.

couldn’t be obsessed with studio like we are here at LSU. Inspiration came easily, and if it didn’t, we could take a break and walk around Rome to get inspired again.”

“It was frustrating in a good way to close up studio at 9 p.m.,” related Cody Maffei. A member of a New Orleans family of Italian descent, Cody attended the Rome program in the fall semester of his fourth year in the Bachelor of Architecture program. “We had to learn to work within those hours. It completely changed the way I work; I get up a lot earlier, even now that I’m back. It was nice to have to leave the studio—more time to enjoy aperitivos,” he jested.

For their studio project, the students investigated the juxtaposition of the old and the new to develop a program for the 2024 Olympic diving event set to take place in Rome. Inspired by the location of the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, the project site was the Hippodrome of Domitian and the immediate surrounding areas on Palatine Hill. The project parameters covered an approximate space of 30,000 square feet for the entire Olympic diving venue, including the pool and diving platforms, seating for 600 spectators, concessions, ticketing, restrooms, locker rooms, and the myriad of other details that a project of this scale entails, such as providing separate points of entry for each user group—athletes, spectators, and journalists. The students had to explore temporary, additive building processes since excavation and permanent structures would be prohibited at the location, an active archaeological site and one of the most ancient

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and historic parts of Rome. The design project engaged adaptive reuse and new construction, interior and exterior environmental conditions, and preservation and demolition procedures.

“I think I did the most– and the best–work I’ve ever done during the Rome program.”

“It was fun—and challenging as an interior design student—to work on a project at this scale and to experience the way the architecture students worked,” acknowledged Kelsey Liggio, one of three interior design students who participated in the program last fall. Interested in pursuing a graduate program in architecture, attending the Rome program during her senior year helped Kelsey get a feel for the transition from interior design to architecture, and she walked away with some great additions to her portfolio.

“We got to be Romans and make our own concrete,” Cody remarked. The experiment led to a few sobering moments in his search to find an unusual material in a non-English speaking country. He recalled having a “pretty hilarious” experience trying to find powdered iron at the “Roman equivalent of Home Depot,” a small, mom-and-pop hardware store. “I eventually had to order it on the Internet,” he said, laughing.

“The support of the Rome Center was crucial to our success,” Holton commented. “Their staff offered 24/7 assistance, helping us find materials and arrange field trips and excursions.”

Holton arranged several class excursions through the Rome Center, and the Architecture Students toured the concrete mine and lab at the Tasullo Concrete Rein the City course included weekly excursions search Facility in Bergamo, Italy, then hiked over the Dolomites, the unique to nearby tourist attractions and cultural sites. geological formations from which the concrete is mined.

As part of the tectonics class, Holton arranged a field trip to the Tasullo Concrete Research Facility in Bergamo, Italy. The students visited the lab, toured the concrete Sara Loquist, a nontraditional graduate assistant mine, and then hiked over the Dolomites, the unique geological formations with a background in business who received her from which the concrete is mined.

Master of Architecture from LSU in May 2016, also found the project challenging. “Because we couldn’t excavate, at first we felt limited in what we could do. It was more like a puzzle; the program had to fit inside the spaces that were already there, which required a whole different “We worked hard and we played hard,” said Kelsey. “Every weekend, we mindset. Getting different perspectives from the went on a different excursion. Everything the school provided was 100 interior design students was helpful—thinking percent for our knowledge and fun.” The trip to the Dolomites was one of about materiality versus structure. her favorite excursions. “We had access to all these places we normally We were able to build off each other’s ideas wouldn’t have gone or been allowed to visit on our own,” she explained. and methods.”

“I will never be able to recreate this experience, which makes it all the more special.”

The vernacular architecture and material culture seminar delved into the origins and developThe students had multiple opportunities to travel throughout Europe ment of the architecture/tectonic culture of the during their semester abroad, and most took advantage of the ThanksRoman Empire. The seminar, titled the Rome giving break to travel further afield. Collectively, they visited a total of 31 Tectonic, traced the influences of the empire’s cities, including Venice, Barcelona, Lisbon, London, Dublin, Budapest, material innovations through the lens of conand Munich. crete. Under Holton’s direction, the students conducted concrete experiments; they devel“It was nice to have access to such a casual travel experience,” said Cody. oped and poured their own concrete mixes “Everything was so close; you could just hop on a train and be in Bilbao based on unique questions and hypotheses, or Verona.” making more than 100 12-by-12-inch concrete casts. Among other concepts, students attemptHolton made sure the students saw more than just the touristy areas of ed to create transparent, glow-in-the dark, Italy during their time there. In a two-week workshop at the beginning of magnetic, squishy, and thin-but-strong recipes the semester, students from all four universities participating in the for concrete.

“We got to be Romans and make our own concrete.”

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program—LSU, University of Arkansas, Philadelphia University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute—were divided into groups and assigned a neighborhood outside the city center to research and present their findings.

Cody’s group was assigned the Garbatella neighborhood, a web of curved sidewalks, angular plazas, and maze-like courtyards designed in the Fascist era of Mussolini and forced to convert to Communist design principles in the 1970s. “Garbatella was a good example of idyllic Italian suburbia,” observed Cody. “It was interesting exploring a place in Rome I wouldn’t have normally visited.”

“It was interesting exploring a place in Rome I wouldn’t have normally visited.”

The semester-long program in Rome was a life-changing experience for all involved and a great opportunity for faculty and student enhancement.

“It was great working with the other faculty members there,” reported Holton, who had the opportunity to be a juror for Europan, a biennial competition for young architects to design innovative housing schemes for sites across Europe, while in Rome. “Being one of the jurors was a fascinating experience.” Holton also connected with former colleagues from his time working with Bernard Tschumi, two of whom participated as jurors for the LSU students’ final reviews.

Kelsey said her interior design senior capstone project was inspired by her time studying abroad. Her project was based on the preservation of an abandoned industrialized structure in Rome, the former Pontifical Arsenal. She proposed converting the structure into a contemporary workplace, gallery, and recreational outdoor space. “The main goal was to preserve the former Pontifical Arsenal, reconnect the surrounding neighborhood suffering from neglect,

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For their studio project, the students designed the diving site for the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Hippodrome of Domitian. The renderings by Kelsey Liggio (top and middle) and aerial rendering and longitudinal section by James Babin (bottom) and Tina Naraghi-Pour (opposite, bottom) show how they had to explore temporary, additive building processes at this archaeological site.

For the Rome Tectonic seminar, the students developed and poured their own experimental concrete mixes, making more than 100 concrete casts.

and provide for the future,” she explained. Her conceptual ideas were based on the Tiber River and Italian architect, Carlos Scarpa.

Overall, LSU’s first faculty-led, semester-long program abroad was a great success. Holton arranged for the students to exhibit their work completed in the program at the College of Art & Design in early spring 2016, and so far, 12 students have signed up to attend the program this fall.

“I’ve spoken to students who participated in the program when it took place in the summer, and they all say it went by too fast—and that it was miserably hot,” noted Sara. “Spending the entire

semester in Rome allowed us to take on a more detailed project. We were able to do more, explore more, and the weather was fantastic.”

“Our bubble has expanded; we came away with a whole new family,” added Tina, who worked the entire summer to pay for the program. “It was money well spent; I will never regret the money I spent there.”

Cody concluded, “We made friends with people we would have never met before Rome. We lived within walking distance of the Vatican—we actually strolled through it on our way to studio every day. Walking on roads that are so old, that weren’t designed for cars, seeing materials in use that aren’t as prevalent in the United States, living in a place with so many monuments and masterpieces casually placed next to each other . . . experiencing Rome is like seeing the greatest hits of art and architecture. What a great way to live your life for a semester!”

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THE INTERNATIONAL STUDENT EXPERIENCE International students strengthen the intellectual environment by broadening the cultural diversity of the College of Art & Design. Here, some of our students from around the world discuss their experiences at LSU.

WEN “JACKY” K. WAH, BLA 2016 Malaysia

Why LSU? I knew LSU had a good landscape architecture program, but I wasn’t sure what landscape architecture was, so I enrolled in architecture. I started to learn and gain more knowledge of what landscape architecture is, and I switched majors. I’ve loved it ever since! LSU also has cheaper tuition compared to other states, which is also why I applied to study at LSU. Louisiana favorites?

The culture and the food. I would say it’s probably the only state in America where I can find and eat authentic American food besides burgers and fries.

Plans after graduation?

I got an offer from a landscape architecture firm called MESA Design Group in Dallas, where I will begin working this summer!

Biggest challenge studying in another country?

Definitely learning the language and trying to fit into the culture.

But, after all, it’s absolutely worth it!

GIOVANNI COAKLEY, BARCH 2018 The Bahamas

Why LSU? Back in my country, there is a scholarship foundation that sends one or two students a year to study at LSU. When I received the scholarship, I couldn’t pass it up, especially since my sister was studying at Xavier in New Orleans at the time.

Louisiana favorites?

I would have to say the food. Back home we eat a lot of seafood and good food is a priority. The food here is somewhat different from home, but still good, nonetheless.

Plans after graduation?

Currently, I want to get a master’s in urban planning. Where, I’m not sure. I’m thinking about going to graduate school in Japan, but who knows?

Biggest challenge studying in another country?

Probably coming to a country where you know no one. My sister being an hour away was a help, but moving here was a challenge, especially when the university has double the population of my entire island. But now, I’ve gotten to know lots of people from all over the world.

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MICAELA DE LA GUERRA MODENESI,

BFA, PAINTING & DRAWING, 2018 Peru & Costa Rica

Why LSU? My friend got into LSU a semester before I did. She talked to me about LSU and said how awesome it was. I wanted to attend college outside of my country, but I didn’t know where, exactly, so I decided to visit LSU. When I got here, I loved the campus. I researched the art program, and I liked it, so I decided to apply.

Louisiana favorites?

Nature.

Plans after graduation?

For now, I plan to go back to Costa Rica, but time will decide.

Biggest challenge studying in another country?

I have not had a hard time getting used to living here, but I miss my family, my dogs, and my home in Costa Rica. Another thing that I miss so much from home is the beach.

ANA MARCELA MEJIA, BID 2016 El Salvador

Why LSU? I chose LSU because it has a great interior design program and my dad and older sister graduated from here. It’s a legacy!

Louisiana favorites?

Its great food and its people. It’s not a city environment, which fits perfect for my college experience.

Plans after graduation?

After graduation I will look for a job and work for a couple of years. Later, I want to get a master’s in architecture.

Biggest challenge studying in another country?

The difference in thinking due to being from another country with its own culture and aspects.

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From Where Do You Hail?

The College of Art & Design’s international students hail from 23 countries.

Italy

Canada Mexico

The Bahamas

El Salvador

Suriname

Costa Rica Panama

Saudi Arabia Ecuador

Brazil

Peru

International Faculty

Lynne Baggett

16 percent of College of Art & Design faculty members are international, hailing from six countries.

Myrsini Mamoli

Professor, Graphic Design—United Kingdom

Assistant Professor, Art History—Greece

Malcolm McClay

Associate Professor, Sculpture—Ireland

International Enrollment 9

16

2010/11

10

20

2011/12

15

19

2012/13

21

36

2013/14

17

46

2014/15

22

51

2015/16

Undergraduates

Iran

Graduates

Pakistan

Nepal

South Korea

China

Oman

Malaysia Bangladesh

India

Thailand

Kenya

Hye Yeon Nam

Phillip Tebbutt

Assistant Professor, Digital Art—Korea

Associate Professor, Interior Design—United Kingdom

Rod Parker

Alkis Tsolakis

Darius Spieth

Jun Zou

Director, School of Art & Professor, Graphic Design—United Kingdom

Professor, Art History—Germany

Dean, College of Art & Design & Professor, Architecture—Greece

Associate Professor, Interior Design—China

THE BEAR NECESSITIES The Louisiana black bear once roamed freely throughout the state. Today, only three core subpopulations endure, each plagued by habitat fragmentation. Disconnected from the other populations by Highway 90, the coastal subspecies, the closest hereditary strain to the original Louisiana black bear, is suffering from overpopulation. Unable to reach adequate resources, bears often wander into residential areas to scavenge easily accessible garbage and, too often, these foraging attempts lead them to their death.

According to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries (LDWF), 68 Louisiana black bears have been killed in bear-vehicle collisions along a stretch of Highway 90 in St. Mary Parish since 1992.

In fall 2015, LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture students had the opportunity to approach the habitat fragmentation problem from the perspective of landscape architecture. Kenny Ribbeck, biologist in the wildlife division of LDWF, approached LSU landscape architecture professor Forbes Lipschitz about researching the potential and feasibility of constructing a wildlife crossing over Highway 90 to reduce the number of collisions and improve connectivity among the species.

“The Louisiana black bear is a native wildlife species that has had a tremendous impact on society, and developing society has had an equally tremendous impact on the species, but not as much in a positive manner,” said Ribbeck. “The developing society in the state of Louisiana and our nation has resulted in the cross-country transection of our landscape, enabling commerce and continued development to benefit a growing society and economy, yet presenting tremendous impacts on daily and annual functions of our native wildlife species. How we overcome these impacts is rooted in societal understanding and willingness to pursue solutions that will ensure biological sustainability of these species without reversing progress to commerce and development.”

Designing Wildlife Crossings to Connect Louisiana Black Bear Habitats landscape architects are uniquely suited to answer this call. That we are economic, social, urban, and environmental generalists affords us a broad macro-level knowledge base with which to approach the problem.”

To prepare the students for the semester-long project, Lipschitz, with support from the LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio, flew in two leading experts, Nina-Marie Lister and Jeremy Guth, professional advisors to and founding sponsors of Animal Road Crossings (ARC), an interdisciplinary partnership working to facilitate new thinking, new methods, new materials, and new solutions for wildlife crossing structures.

“ARC is about building bridges; it’s about reconciling conflict between roads and wildlife, people and animals, and getting us all where we need to go safely, at a lower cost,” stated Lister at arc-solutions.org. “ARC is also about building bridges between science and design, and in the process, reconnecting our landscapes.”

Lipschitz incorporated the project into her third-year undergraduate landscape design studio (LA 3001), tasking students to create a network of crossing infrastructure. The students were instructed to design the crossing and fencing and vegetation strategies and to develop a campaign to promote the project to the public.

Lister and Guth helped Lipschitz connect with other leading experts in wildlife crossing structures, including Dr. Tony Clevenger, a senior wildlife research scientist who specializes in identifying the effects of highways and other barriers on wildlife connectivity, and famed conservationist and photographer Harvey Locke, cofounder and strategic advisor to the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. A native of the Calgary-Banff area of Canada, Locke is globally known for his work on wilderness, national parks, and large landscape conservation.

“Creating crossing infrastructure to restore habitat connectivity requires coordinated interventions across multiple sectors at multiple scales,” said Lipschitz. “How can design facilitate decision-making when conservationists, politicians, and community members have different values and interests and don’t always speak the same language? I believe that

The studio spent 10 days touring Alberta, British Columbia. They visited Banff National Park, one of the best testing sites of innovative roadway mitigation/wildlife passages in the world.

Currently, there are 44 safe-passage structures

Aerial image of wildlife overpass on the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park (Image courtesy of Parks Canada)

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“In Canada, you can see how everyone coexisted with the wildlife.”

After they returned from the field trip to Banff, the students were divided into groups of three to work on their crossing infrastructures for the black bear.

“We came back and started trying to implement their strategies in the Atchafalaya, a vastly different demographic and landscape,” shared Delaney McGuinness, BLA candidate from New Orleans. “The biggest differences were in elevation and the water table.”

A cinnamon-colored black bear uses a culvert crossing structure in Kootenay National Park. (Image courtesy of Parks Canada)

wildlife along the 83 kilometers of the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park. Scientists have collected more than 15 years of data on wildlife using the crossing structures along the highway—from salamanders, frogs, squirrels, and weasels to coyotes, wolverines, lynx, bighorn sheep, and grizzly bears. In Banff, the students met with Locke, Clevenger, and more leading experts, and they got to view dozens of wildlife crossing strategies firsthand.

Bachelor of Landscape Architecture candidate Benton Williams, a native of Baton Rouge, noted four particular structures in use at the park: a large overpass spanning the highway; a box culvert underpass that most drivers wouldn’t even notice; an aquatic underpass built for salamanders; and a retrofitted highway underpass that encourages animals to cross under, instead of on, the highway by adding strategic fencing to the existing structure.

“Animals that evolved in the forest— wild felines, moose—tend to favor the underpasses, which keep them hidden and out of the open.”

“We learned how animals that evolved in the prairie, such as deer and grizzly bears, like to use the overpass crossings that offer a wide view of their surroundings,” commented Williams. “Animals that evolved in the forest—wild felines, moose—tend to favor the underpasses, which keep them hidden and out of the open.”

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The students participated in a design charrette with Lister, Guth, and LDWF’s black bear specialist, Maria Davidson. They visited neighborhoods in St. Mary Parish to learn more about problems the bears face due to habitat fragmentation and to get a feel for the local population’s attitude toward the species, which was “surprising,” according to third-year BLA candidate Daniel Hernandez of St. Amant, Louisiana.

“In Canada, you can see how everyone coexisted with the wildlife,” explained Hernandez. “We do that to a certain extent, but only with the animals we like or the ones we can hunt.” (Even though the Louisiana black bear was removed from the threatened species list in March 2016, the species remains protected from hunting by state laws.) “The relationship—regardless of how dangerous the animal is—is just different here in Louisiana,” continued Hernandez. “We have different priorities. We had to approach the same problem from a completely different social perspective.”

The student groups worked on the project at a variety of scales, and each group developed a narrative, or theme, to use to present their ideas.

Some students developed a larger framework throughout the Atchafalaya region. Others focused on the sugar industry—how might we create more bear friendly sugar? One group came up with lower cost solutions for retrofitting

existing structures. Another created a campaign to use Louisiana’s many festivals as a promotional platform.

Hernandez, McGuinness, and Williams’ team embraced Louisiana’s reputation as a sportsman’s paradise in their proposal titled, “The Atchafalaya Bear Authority.” They designed a crossing infrastructure that included a section of raised highway with an underpass, fencing and vegetation strategies, an observation tower to serve as an educational tourist destination, and well-marked signage to engage the public. Their campaign was focused on hunting and community engagement. Assuming the population would increase enough to allow for hunting, they proposed building a ritzy hunting lodge in St. Mary Parish and selling a number of hunting tags as an economic driver to help fund conservation efforts. They envisioned an app to engage and educate the public with incentives to coexist with the bears, such as gas discounts for uploading pictures of locked, bear-safe garbage cans.

Each student group designed a project book and presented their final results to LDWF at the end of the semester.

“It’s amazing how many different jobs you can do with the things you learn in this program.”

“The studio projects encompassed ideas that captured not only the physical needs of a system that would allow this subpopulation of bears safe

This aquatic underpass was built for salamanders, which require the stream for their life evolution processes.

(Image courtesy of Benton Williams)

access across the highway deathtrap, but also the educational and awareness aspects that are equally important in the long-term management of such a species,” Ribbeck stated. “The designs included mechanisms to allow public engagement and understanding of the structures’ role in the recovery and management of this charismatic mega-fauna species, one which not many Louisianans are aware even exists within the Louisiana landscape. Insightful mechanisms were included that could also aid instead of

A moose crosses the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park using a wildlife crossing structure.

(Image courtesy of Parks Canada)

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impact commerce and development in the area while encouraging the long-term use of the project areas by the bears for their continued recovery and eventual connection with other subpopulations in the state.”

In the end, the bear-crossing project introduced students to even more areas where landscape architects can make a difference in the world.

“Just for this project alone we dabbled in wildlife ecology management, public relations, outreach, branding. We did site design. We had to look at regional processes on the human and ecology side; we had to learn people’s relationships with things that we never thought about,” said Hernandez. “It’s amazing how many different jobs you can do with the things you learn in this program.”

Hernandez, McGuinness, and Williams proposed the inclusion of a large, four-story observation tower for tourists to explore the native scenery while learning about wildlife connectivity.

The entire Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Class of 2018, with Professors Risk and Lipschitz, at Lake Moraine in Banff National Park. The students spent 10 days in Alberta, British Columbia, where they viewed one of the best testing sites of innovative roadway mitigation/wildlife passages in the world. (Image courtesy of Delaney McGuinness)

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Image by Delaney McGuinness

The Bear Facts ++ The Louisiana black bear is the state mammal for Louisiana. ++ It is one of 16 subspecies of the American black bear. ++ The subspecies is only known to occur in Louisiana, East Texas, and western Mississippi. ++ Compared to other black bears, the Louisiana black bear has a longer, narrower, and flatter skull with larger molar teeth. ++ On average, adult males weight between 250 and 400 pounds; female bears weigh between 120 and 200 pounds. ++ Louisiana black bears remain active all winter; they are not true hibernators. ++ Cubs are born in late winter/early spring, around the month of February.

The Road to Recovery 1980s More than 80 percent of the Louisiana black bear’s habitat had been modified or destroyed.

January 7, 1992 The Louisiana black bear was listed as threatened within its historic range.

March 10, 2016 The species was removed from the Lists of Threatened and Endangered Wildlife under the Endangered Species Act due to recovery.

++ It is estimated that currently between 500 and 750 Louisiana black bears roam the United States.

Source: Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries, wlf.louisiana.gov

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A Monarch Motorway In some cases, highways can work for rather than against wildlife, especially when a thoroughfare extends along an endangered pollinator’s migratory route.

In 2015, President Obama established the Pollinator Health Task Force to address imperiled pollinators critical to the nation’s economy, food security, and environmental health, such as birds, bats, honey bees, and—butterflies. Part of the task force’s National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators is to create a “Pollinator Highway” along the 1,500 miles of Interstate 35, a federal highway extending from Duluth, Minnesota, to Laredo, Texas. The I-35 corridor closely coincides with one of the migratory paths of the monarch butterfly, a species whose numbers have dropped by nearly a billion in the past 25 years, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Each year monarchs set out on a multigenerational, 2,000 mile journey from Minnesota to Mexico. Along the way they battle pesticides, predators, and disappearing habitats in their efforts to eat, grow, and mate their way to warmer weather. Roadways and adjacent infrastructure provide the perfect butterfly habitat—low vegetation, lots of sun, and government-owned right-of-ways. For example, 100 miles on either side of I-35 is federally covered in the Pollinator Highway project, creating the potential to restore 200,000 acres of monarch habitat! And who better than landscape

architects to plan large-scale habitat mitigation along a massive transportation corridor?

In spring 2016 second-year Bachelor of Landscape Architecture students in Assistant Professor Halina Steiner’s studio explored landscape interventions that could be implemented along the I-35 corridor to save the monarch butterfly.

“For these second-year undergraduates, this was the first studio where research informs design,” said Steiner. “They needed to understand the systems that affected the corridor and determine what elements of those systems could be reimagined for butterfly and pollinator habitat while maintaining their original functionality and layering on the temperature changes, migration routes, and plant seasonality for each unique site along the corridor.”

Student Jacob McGill’s project focused on how weigh stations along the I-35 corridor

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could be used to attract monarch butterflies. His rendering of a weigh station in Texas includes places for the butterflies to “puddle” and plenty of space to grow milkweed.

It was also their first foray into GIS (geographical information system) mapping. Analyzing the data for a project of this scale—the entire I-35 corridor—is an enormous undertaking. GIS provides a method for capturing, storing, manipulating, analyzing, managing, and presenting all types of spatial or geographical data. In the case of monarch butterflies, the GIS results showed how different systems, such as temperature, topography, hydrology, infrastructure, ecoregions, park space, and population density, overlap and come together over the corridor. After identifying the big takeaways, the students wrote mini research papers and designed double-page spreads on specific aspects of monarch life—from metamorphosis, feeding and mating habits, and different species of milkweed to migration, lifespan, predators, and other threats.

Using the GIS data, the students created three-dimensional models of their system overlays.

Each student was assigned a system that could be used to attract the monarchs and encourage the butterflies’ presence along the corridor.

Students explored a variety of options, such as roadways and clover leaf intersections, weigh stations and visitors’ centers, existing streetscapes and parking lots, prisons, military bases, and other government-owned lands.

For the final project, the students designed mini master plans exploring their specific system of interest. As a whole, their work identified available assets, potential test sites, and campaign strategies to help get the “Monarch Motorway” rolling.

Isabel Rountree’s model, shown here, represents power plants and monarch migration paths. (Photo

by Hayden Nagin, BFA 2018)

To help the students understand the GIS overlays, Steiner took a step back from digital to analog. The students went “old school” and used a light table to view their overlays. (Photo by Hayden Nagin, BFA 2018)

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Art + Design = Health & Wellness The LSU College of Art & Design equips students with the skillsets they need to enter a variety of professions that have a positive effect on our health and wellness. We have alumni working in all spectrums of healthcare—from healthcare architecture and design to restorative garden design, art therapy, and beyond. The alumni interviewed for this article represent just a few of those out there changing the world and making a positive impact in health and wellness. Stay up to date with more LSU College of Art & Design alumni activities at design.lsu.edu/alumni.

HEALTHCARE ARCHITECTURE Architects work on all types of projects at a variety of scales, but few require such devotion and commitment as those in the field of healthcare architecture. Healthcare architects have made groundbreaking progress in sustainable and evidence-based design while staying ahead of trends, conducting new research, and implementing ever-changing, industry-wide policy changes. They design state-of-the-art new medical and research centers and embrace the challenges entailed in renovating out-of-date and aging facilities. They are leaders who must manage the roles of dozens of stakeholders and professional experts to design hospitals and clinics that allow for maximum occupancy and efficiency, all while keeping the end-users—the patients and caregivers—first and foremost in mind. Several LSU School of Architecture alumni are established, American College of Healthcare Architects (ACHA) certified professionals in healthcare architecture, including Percy “Rebel” Roberts III, president, chief operating officer, and design partner of VOA Associates in Chicago, and Allen D. Ohlmeyer, principal and director of healthcare design at Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects in New Orleans.

After Percy “Rebel” Roberts III received his Bachelor of Architecture from LSU in 1976, he moved to Chicago and joined VOA Associates as a design architect. Over the course of his career, he has gravitated to healthcare architecture, where he considers it a privilege to contribute his expertise to improve the lives of patients, their families, and caregivers.

“I have been drawn throughout my career to complex assignments and projects that positively affect people’s lives, health, and well-being,” shared Roberts.

Roberts, a board certified ACHA certificate holder who has practiced within the specialty of healthcare architecture for 35 years, was elevated to the ACHA and AIA Council of Fellows in recognition of his contribution to the field. VOA’s attitude toward healthcare design includes a passion for

LSU Alumni Making a Difference in Society’s Well-Being participatory design—engaging the multitude of constituents involved in a healthcare project.

“We are committed to fully understand the needs of the stakeholders so that the final design integrates all of the important elements that have been identified,” Roberts avowed. “The healthcare field is constantly evolving in terms of new modalities for treatment, legislative factors that impact providers, and patient expectations. So it is critical that the design of healthcare facilities ‘gets it right’ in terms of making sure the patients and caregivers have the best and most efficient environment to promote the healing process.”

VOA’s approach is to view these challenges as design opportunities that are integral to thriving communities. “Hospitals are typically mixed-use buildings,” explained Roberts. “They are tied into the fabric of streetscape, providing retail, hospitality, educational, and community uses and, in the best scenarios, green space. We know that creating distinctive spaces through design must reflect the cultural values and legacy of each healthcare client. It is exciting to me, personally, to be challenged with a project vision and to work to bring that dream to reality.

That’s why we are all here—to build the dream.”

Roberts is particularly proud of two projects that he considers the most challenging and rewarding: Prentice Women’s Hospital in Chicago and a series of projects associated with Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge.

Meant to provide cutting-edge diagnostic and treatment modalities from birth to palliative care, Prentice Women’s Hospital, an 18-story, one-million-square-foot hospital located on a tight urban footprint in Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s (NMH) academic medical campus,

The design of an operating room is critical to its functionality. The layout, coordination of equipment, mechanical, lighting, and color selections are integral to the effectiveness of the space.

(Courtesy of Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects with Gresham Smith & Partners)

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Dr. Kevin Reed, and Danny Mahaffey. Roberts said his respect and appreciation for this team cannot be overstated.

This two-story atrium at Slidell Memorial Hospital, designed by Jennifer Mitchell, welcomes visitors and connects the Emergency Department to the Heart Center. (Courtesy of Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects)

was delivered as a joint venture with OWP/P (now Cannon Design). The project, a career-defining moment for Roberts, involved more than 600 stakeholder groups and a complex code and regulatory process.

“Our goal was to honor our commitment to longtime client NMH to design a hospital to enhance and promote their ‘patients first’ mission and that would demonstrate nationally benchmarked excellence in patient services and clinical outcomes,” Roberts stated. At the time of its designation, Prentice was the first LEED-NC Silver certified inpatient hospital in Illinois and the largest in the country. “The project was challenging, exciting, and gratifying in that it continues to enrich the dynamic community it serves.”

In his 35 years in healthcare design, Roberts has witnessed some of the most significant changes in the healthcare industry, particularly the advances in technology and the emphasis on the comfort of family members and guests. “In order to remain competitive, most providers have moved to a private room model in their inpatient facilities,” he noted. “The Affordable Care Act ties patient satisfaction to reimbursement so a pleasing and efficient patient environment is paramount to providers,” he added.

He also mentioned the shift toward directing a greater percentage of patient care to outpatient centers. “Electronic patient records make it possible for a team of caregivers to more effectively coordinate patient care across disciplines. As a result the services provided in most outpatient centers have increased, which requires more extensive medical planning and programming to accommodate all of these elements.”

Allen D. Ohlmeyer, principal and director of healthcare design at Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects in New Orleans, has been working in healthcare architecture for 23 years. Born and

Roberts said a very different but equally gratifying series of projects has been associated with Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, where he has been honored to work on the campus master plan, the design of OLOL East Tower project, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, and OLOL Healthplex Medical Office Building.

“I was very excited to work closely with my friend George Karam to help him realize his vision for the LSU Medical Education Innovation Center,” said Roberts. “These projects have been very special to me, both because I grew up in Baton Rouge, and I was lucky to work with such an amazing leadership team on campus.”

Besides Dr. Karam, “a force to be reckoned with,” Roberts had the great fortune to collaborate with Terrie Sterling, Scott Wester, Dr. Richard Vath,

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Rebel Roberts helped design Our Lady of the Lake East Tower. (Courtesy of VOA Associates/Thomas Rossiter Photography)

raised in New Orleans, Ohlmeyer was exposed to architecture at an impressionable age; his mother worked in the office of a large, prominent architecture firm. After graduating high school, Ohlmeyer worked in the construction industry at an engineering firm with an architectural component. However, he fondly recalled the building models and working environment at the firm where his mother worked, and after two years, he quit his construction job and applied to LSU to pursue a career in design.

Foreshadowing his future field of expertise, he ended up doing his thesis project on a senior living development. After he graduated from LSU with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1991, he worked for a while at the firm he had admired in his childhood before eventually ending up at Sizeler.

“I started doing healthcare work from my first day through the door at Sizeler, and it clicked,” recalled Ohlmeyer. “It’s always been a gratifying

specialty trying to improve the experience of people who aren’t well—the dark side of being in a hospital. I focus on how I can improve that experience for them.”

Ohlmeyer is one of five or six architects accredited by the ACHA in Louisiana, three of those, including Ohlmeyer, work at Sizeler Thompson Brown.

“Certification puts a stamp on your experience as a healthcare design specialist,” shared Ohlmeyer, “and shows that at Sizeler Thompson Brown, we really do focus on healthcare.”

“We work on complex building types with all kinds of different functions.”

Ohlmeyer said healthcare projects often become a labor of love. “They take years from the time a facility starts talking about improvement, and funding is always a challenge.” Sizeler Thompson Brown recently finished a major addition at Slidell Memorial Hospital that included a new Emergency Department. “The original space was built many years ago and had been updated very little over the years. Because of the resourceful nature of the ER staff—they were making-do with anything—it was rewarding to design a modern Emergency Department with a staff so excited and looking forward to the ribbon cutting,” he added.

Ohlmeyer agrees with Roberts that one of the biggest changes in healthcare design during his career has been considering the patient’s perspective rather than just the process. “We work on complex building types with all kinds of different functions. We understand those complexities from a patient’s perspective and always try to improve on that experience. Early meetings usually include all of the facility’s stakeholders, users, and staff, but patients generally aren’t included in the design process. We are their advocate,” he emphasized. Ohlmeyer also noted the positive changes in his field since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. “We don’t have to push as hard for better quality and more square footage. Quality now affects the stakeholders’ bottom line.”

Prentice Women’s Hospital, designed by Rebel Roberts of VOA Associates, is located on a tight urban footprint in Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s academic medical campus.

(Courtesy of VOA Associates)

Both Roberts and Ohlmeyer had advice for those seeking to enter the field of healthcare architecture. Roberts pointed out that there are several avenues available. “The role of healthcare designer is one, but specialists in the medical planning arena, lean operations, code/regulatory and technical experts also have important parts to play in the process. Project managers are invaluable as the complexity of these projects and the multitude of consultants typically involved, as well as owner stakeholders and program management teams, require a highly skilled project leader who can keep budgets and schedules on track and also ensure the successful delivery of the project.”

“At Sizeler, we make concerted efforts to look for people with healthcare experience, but we have also found the best healthcare designers learn

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Views of nature, soothing color pallets, and warm wood tones create a healing environment for patients and a supportive space for family members. (Courtesy of Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects)

on the job, often starting as interns dedicated to the healthcare specialty.

That’s a different person than someone working on multiple project types,” Ohlmeyer stressed.

“I don’t think it’s an overstatement that architects who choose to focus on healthcare tend to approach this work as a vocation,” contended Roberts.

“They must fully immerse in the complexities and unique aspects of these specialized environments. Working in healthcare provides a singular sense of professional satisfaction because your work contributes directly to helping people at their most vulnerable. Our ability to design healthcare spaces that help make patient journeys less frightening and intimidating is the core mission of the healthcare architect.”

HEALTHCARE INTERIOR DESIGN As healthcare architects look at the bigger picture, healthcare interior designers work out all the details to provide enduring, functional, safe, and efficient environments. Interior designers coordinate with lighting and electrical engineers, collaborate with in-house architects starting with programming, and consult with engineers and architects on everything from the types of walls to the square footage of rooms. The thoughtful detailing that an interior designer provides is paramount to a successful healthcare facility, and the earlier interior designers are involved in the projects, the better the results, said Jennifer Mitchell, director of interior design at

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Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects in New Orleans.

Originally from Metairie, Louisiana, Mitchell received her Bachelor of Interior Design from LSU in 2006, after which she completed an internship at WHR Architects in Houston. “Until then, I’d never thought about healthcare design,” she admitted. She joined Sizeler Thompson Brown’s healthcare studio in 2007 and worked on the St. Bernard Parish hospital design in full before she fell upon the opportunity to work for the New Orleans Department of Veterans Affairs.

She was part of a team selecting the furniture, fixtures, and equipment for the new VA medical center in New Orleans. She also selected artwork for the building. “So much research goes into healthcare,” she added, “even researching the best types of artwork. Healing and inspirational images are best; anything abstract can trigger PTSD.” Mitchell worked at the VA for three years until she was approached by Sizeler Thompson

Brown to return as the firm’s director of interior design. “I still work in healthcare but am also in charge of our interior design department and all the responsibilities that go with running a department,” said Mitchell.

Mitchell received her certification from the American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers (AAHID) two years ago, a process that requires a minimum of five years’ experience, a portfolio of healthcare projects, and three reference letters from clients—just to be admitted to take the exam. To pass the exam, “you have to know your healthcare design,” she said. “There’s not a specific book you can study; experience tells all.” Mitchell is one of only four AAHID certified interior designers practicing in Louisiana.

porous that could harbor bacteria. Hospitals don’t have the budgets to replace things often. You also have to think about the bariatric population, which affects space requirements and minimum loads.”

It’s a wonder that any hospital ever looks attractive with all of these aspects to consider, but as Ohlmeyer said of Mitchell’s work, “I am always pleasantly surprised by how it turns out in the end.”

Mitchell said healthcare interior designers learn to appreciate those areas where they can have more leeway, such as hospital atriums and lobbies, waiting rooms and chapels. “The whole process is very rewarding and such a challenge. It is great to have an impact on the way people live and heal.”

“You have to consider the best placement of equipment and furniture for the least mistakes.”

Healthcare designers have their own set of guidelines, said Mitchell, and some spaces, such as operating rooms, have more stringent design guidelines than others. Interior designers have to consider the most effective use of space and room layouts. For example, Mitchell pointed out how adjacent hospital rooms used to be designed as mirror images to take advantage of sharing walls for electric machinery and plumbing. But research shows that nurses make fewer mistakes when each room is oriented to the exact same hand. “You have to consider the best placement of equipment and furniture for the least mistakes,” explained Mitchell. “I try to create a more functional, durable but beautiful, relaxing retreat to help patients heal better.”

Interior designers consider acoustics, proper ceiling heights, views to nature, daylighting, ongoing maintenance, and more. Much research goes into choosing materials and furnishings, as well. “You have to think about durability, longevity, and cleanliness, how the materials will hold up to harsh fluids and chemicals—nothing

Architect Allen Ohlmeyer completed the renovation and cardiology expansion at Slidell Memorial. (Courtesy of Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects)

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ART THERAPY Art therapy is first and foremost a mental health profession, but art therapists are also artists who have experienced the effects of art-making on his or her own life. They have backgrounds in studio art, human development, psychological and behavioral disorders, counseling theories, and therapeutic techniques. They use the creative process of making art to enhance and improve a person’s mental, emotional, and physical health. They practice in hospitals, rehabilitation care units, assisted living centers, psychiatric facilities, senior communities, and schools. Art therapists treat people of all ages, from individuals with serious medical health conditions or disabilities and people experiencing stress, depression, or anxiety to those seeking personal growth and increased self-esteem. Art therapists must have a master’s in art therapy from an institution accredited by the Council for Higher Education. At LSU, students can get the undergraduate background they need to apply to nationally recognized art therapy graduate programs.

“Over time, a visual history of treatment is created, and clients can literally witness personal changes through the work created.”

“Students wishing to pursue careers in art therapy should establish a background in psychology and studio arts,” advised Denyce Celentano, associate professor of painting and drawing at LSU. “We’ve had several students enter nationally renowned art therapy programs, proving that you can get the background you need right here at LSU.” For example, Hannah Stinson, a psychology major from LSU who minored in fine art, will enter the art therapy program at Florida State

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This painting by art therapist Ashley Wood was created while she was studying abroad in Ghana, where she worked with children with special needs as part of NYU’s focus on cross-cultural competency.

University this fall. Originally from Illinois, Stinson took a career aptitude test during her freshman year of high school; one of the suggested results was art therapy.

“I’d never heard of the profession before, so I did some research, and found out that one of my dad’s friends was an art therapist,” said Stinson. “I talked to her, and the more I found out and the more I read up on it, the more excited I became. I was swaying back and forth between whether I wanted to go toward counseling and therapy or art, and I realized I could have both in one profession.”

FSU’s art therapy program is nationally recognized for its focus on art therapy theory, practice, and research. Stinson said she isn’t sure what field of art therapy she’ll pursue, but she’ll have time to figure it out during graduate school. “I volunteered at the St. Louis Society for the Blind and Visually Impaired; all the people there had lost their vision later in life due to illness or accident and were relearning how to do everything. I definitely enjoyed working in a rehab setting and could see doing something like that, but I’ll have a couple different internships in different settings during grad school, so I want to keep an open mind.”

LSU alumna Ashley Wood received her BFA in studio art with minors in psychology and art history from LSU in 2013. Wood said she has known she wanted to be an art therapist since the fifth grade, when her childhood friend was diagnosed with cancer and told Wood about his experience with art therapy. She learned more about the profession in high school and entered LSU knowing exactly what she wanted to do. She was accepted into

New York University’s graduate program and graduated with a Master of Arts in Art Therapy in May 2015. NYU’s art therapy program was launched in the 1950s by Margaret Naumburg, one of the eminent pioneers in the field. The program integrates psychotherapy and visual arts practice, promoting scholarly research abilities and evidence-based clinical praxis, cross-cultural competency with appreciation for social justice issues, and fluency with the evolving technologies of new media art.

“Often in the act of creating, the medium chosen is part of the message.”

Wood is currently an art therapist working with post-hospitalization patients at a medical rehabilitation facility in New York. She works with post-transplant patients, heart attack and stroke survivors, and people undergoing strenuous physical and occupational therapy—people of all ages, from 30 to 106! Wood leads one-on-one bedside art therapy sessions and several themed group therapy sessions.

“I am extremely passionate about providing supportive interventions through a variety of art mediums to diminish the traumatic effects of medical treatment and hospitalization as well as help patients better integrate their experiences through this process,” shared Wood.

Tiffanie Brumfield, an alumna and instructor of the LSU School of Art and a practicing art therapist and program manager at Jefferson Oaks Behavioral Health in Baton Rouge, teaches introduction to art therapy and materials in art therapy at the LSU School of Art. Brumfield received her BFA in painting and drawing from LSU in 1991 and her MA in art therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has practiced art therapy in Maryland, Virginia, Seattle, and now in her hometown of Baton Rouge. A member of the American Art Therapy Association and the Louisiana Art Therapy Association, she has directed expressive art therapy programs in outpatient, inpatient, and residential settings. At Jefferson Oaks, she uses a combination of theoretical approaches that, within the context of art therapy, allow the clients to externalize internal processes and see their issue or concern in greater depth.

“Over time, a visual history of treatment is created, and clients can literally witness personal changes through the work created. Within the context of group art therapy, clients are given the opportunity to view their treatment concerns and those of other group members in a new context. The art is an extension of the client in that moment, and discussion takes place about the art. In some ways, this is a more indirect way of discussing concerns or issues but allows clients to connect and align visually and verbally,” explained Brumfield.

client’s current state and also how the materials may influence the outcome of the image and the content.”

Brumfield, Stinson, and Wood emphasized the importance of actively practicing art themselves, as art therapists.

“You need to know about the practice of making art to be an art therapist. In general, those deciding to pursue becoming an art therapist have benefitted greatly from creating their own work.

Staying in touch with the roots of the profession is essential in terms of staying connected to the process,” said Brumfield.

“I think it’s hard to appreciate and understand what you’re doing if you’re not creating art yourself and if you’re not using that as a tool for your mental health,” added Stinson. “You can’t go into a therapy session and say, ‘I don’t really do this, but I think you should do it.’ It wouldn’t mean anything.”

“I think it’s hard to appreciate and understand what you’re doing if you’re not creating art yourself.”

“Being able to utilize our own strengths as artists—our in-depth knowledge of materials, our understanding of the compositional and formal elements of a work, and our own passion about the creative process—in combination with theories of psychology and human development, really allows us to help individuals express themselves in a unique, alternative way,” shared Wood. “Though the process of becoming an art therapist is long and at times very trying, the ability to impact and make a difference in people’s lives through the modality we love makes it worth it!”

Brumfield stressed that art therapy is more about the process than the product. “Often in the act of creating, the medium chosen is part of the message. Art therapists consider how the choice of materials may inform a

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I Made That!

Exploring Biophilic Design Concepts with Klaudia Wasowska Klaudia Wasowska received her Bachelor of Interior Design with honors from LSU in May 2016. Here, Klaudia shares her process for completing a project in Associate Professor Marsha Cuddeback’s interior design studio.

My project explored the concept of biophilic design and how design can respond to our innate connection to the natural environment in order to promote well-being. The theoretical basis for the project was the article by Terrapin Bright Green, LLC, “14 Patterns of Biophilic Design: Being in the Built Environment.” I worked with the “Connection with Natural Systems” pattern, which represents the interconnectedness of human-built and natural systems. A used book represents the building; the cover is the building envelope and the pages are the interior environment. Added elements interwoven through the “building” represent the biodiversity and complex cycles of nature, such as growth, death, and seasons.

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MATERIALS:

Scissors

Used books

String

Clamps

Small claw clips

Hammer

(for hair)

1” wood chisel

Single-ply chipboard

X-Acto knife

Glue

THE BOOK AND THE PAGES I bought a used book and secured it with clamps so it would not move when I cut through the pages. I cut a rectangle entirely through the book using a hammer and a one-inch wood chisel, evening out the edges of the cut with an X-Acto knife.

1B

I shredded the cut-out pages and glued them to

1C

I made larger scale leaves, buds, and

a string.

I removed pages from old gardening books, tearing them so I could stretch them like a string. I cut the sides of the individual strips into leaf shapes and rolled the sections between the leaves into buds and

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1A

stems from the gardening book pages

stems that I glued together, holding them in place with small claw

to achieve a variety of sizes that

clips until dry.

indicate various stages of growth.

2A

I drew and cut an irregular shape out of chipboard to serve as a base for the book and the flowing cutouts. I glued the book to the base and then glued the leftover shredded white paper around the base.

2

THE “BUILDING” AND THE “PLANTS” I set the book vertically and evenly spread the pages. I glued strips of chipboard close to the spine to keep the pages separated.

2B

I wove the strings of shredded white paper and colorful “plants” through the cut-out hole and between the pages of the book, gluing the “young growth” on one side of the book and the “mature growth” on the other.

3

CONNECTION WITH NATURAL SYSTEMS My finished project illustrates the biophilic design concept, “Connection with Natural Systems,” bringing the outdoors in and the indoors out.

View Klaudia’s portfolio at kloud9interiors.com

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An Aging Society Designing for Senior Living According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living (aoa.acl.gov), America’s population of people 65 years or older numbered 44.7 million in 2013—about one in every seven Americans. The population is expected to grow to 21.7 percent by 2040, and by 2060 the 2013 number will almost double to 98 million.

It is no wonder that senior living communities, like St. James Place in Baton Rouge, are reaching out to designers to help ensure that this growing population experiences environments that are wellness-focused, stimulating, safe, and comfortable. St. James Place, the area’s only continuing care retirement community, includes independent living, assisted living, nursing care, and memory care neighborhoods, encompasses 52 acres, and is home to some 400 residents. In 2015 Janet Dewey, community relations manager at St. James Place, worked closely with Jun Zou, associate professor of interior design at LSU, to develop a design project for St. James Place. Zou incorporated the service-learning opportunity into a design project for her third-year interior design studio this spring.

Dewey was particularly interested in seeing programming and designs for four spaces at St. James Place: 1) model living units that reflect current trends for independent senior living; 2) a community gathering area in the memory care assisted living neighborhood; 3) a restaurant space for independent living seniors; and 4) the assisted living neighborhood’s

“country kitchen,” a gathering area for enrichment activities. The students were instructed to keep the shell of the building as is but they could change windows, doors, room sizes—whatever they imagined. They spent the first part of the semester conducting research on current trends for senior living. They visited—and measured!—St. James Place spaces and interviewed residents, collecting data for the different types of senior living areas. They used this data to develop programming and produce designs for their selected spaces.

“Our students did much more than expected.

Indeed, it was a whole-space planning project,” said Zou. “They had to consider all the issues, such as occupancy load, ADA codes; they re-

Quynh-Tram Tran’s redesign of the assisted living building incorporated nature’s playful side. “By bringing in

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nature through an added interior open courtyard and access to the rooftop, I plan to uplift the space with more natural daylight for health benefits and overall improvement in emotion and mood,” said Tran.

searched evidence-based design principles and the effects of daylighting. It was a great opportunity and experience for them to learn as this was their first healthcare design related project.”

Dewey and Cori Lanclos, assisted living counselor and life enrichment manager at St. James, attended the students’ mid-term and final reviews and chose five projects to be presented to St. James Place administrators and President and CEO Tom Farrell at the senior living community the following Friday.

“This was an interesting interactive project for us, and the students’ work was great on many levels,” said Dewey. “They got a dose of reality thinking about what they’d want for their own parents and grandparents.”

“This was the first time we worked on a project for real people, with real dimensions,” added Samantha Sierra, third-year interior design student. “We learned a lot by interviewing the residents—like how much the residents at St. James love the common areas. It was a really good learning experience.”

This studio project was of particular interest to Zou, who is currently working with Xiaoyan Wang, a visiting scholar from Shaanxi Normal University in Xian, China, to investigate senior living solutions for the United States and China, incorporating universal design concepts and daylighting strategies.

“China has a vastly growing aging society, similar to baby boomers in the United States, but in America the senior living system is more mature,” explained Zou. “In China, generations like my own are struggling to care for aging parents. Because of the one-child policy, one couple is responsible for taking care of four elders. More and more often, we don’t live in the

This multimedia interior concept sketch shows Katharina Beliveau’s concept for the café area—bold color choices and wines from around the world.

same city, or even country, where our parents reside. There is a big need for these facilities.”

“Before working on this project, I definitely thought that I wasn’t interested in healthcare design,” said Kayla Calongne, “but I very much enjoyed how the project brought in aspects of psychology and how our designs could benefit the users.”

Janet Dewey (second from the left) and Cori Lanclos (first from the left) attended the studio’s final reviews and selected three projects to be presented to administrators at St. James Place.

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Did You Know? with Catherine Bonier

Q: A:

Why water?

Architects have always been concerned with water: the degree of force and volume as it moves inside the ground or falls from the sky and disrupts foundations and flashings; its availability and purity as it flows near settlement; and its cataclysmic force as it shifts in volume, height, or position slowly or suddenly.

From ancient to contemporary architecture and urbanism, and from the scale of the city to the intimate calligraphy of the detail, water is essential, both physically and metaphysically— but it is also always a force that destabilizes.

Daily news stories paint vivid pictures of a disastrous future in which boundaries of land and water will be increasingly uncertain. Design thinking needs to expand to meet these challenges. This moment of disaster and suspense offers the potential to reimagine every part of how we live, but in order to engage, we need to understand our own designs not just within the limited and limiting category of “problem and solution” but also as poetry and politics at the moving endpoint of history.

My students engage with the social, material, cultural, and environmental conditions of Louisiana’s aqueous landscape. In a recent studio funded by the LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio, students traveled in the Wax Lake Delta and to the drilling and port structures at Port Fourchon and Morgan City. At the same time as they studied given conditions, they used hydraulic simulation software to model fluid change in time and to visualize creative possibilities.

An active understanding of hydraulic, infrastructural, ecological, and urban history can prepare designers for careers which will evolve in dialog with pressing issues at multiple scales— from product to home to urban and global strategy. Water will be at the heart of these designed futures.

Catherine Bonier, assistant professor of architecture, conducts her work around water. In her historical and contemporary research and teaching, she follows water as a thread that connects architecture, cities, health, and environment.

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Class Notes

Keeping up with Art and Design Alumni

1960s

Edward Spooner, BArch ’67, retired as senior vice president of HOK after 45 years of practice, 25 in New York City. Other positions he’s held include senior designer at SOM, New York, and managing vice president of AECOM’s New York office.

1970s

Kurt Culbertson, BLA ’76, principal and CEO of Design Workshop, was elevated to the position of fellow by the American Institute of Certified Planners. Design Workshop participated in the American Planning Association’s annual conference in Phoenix, Arizona, where they led six speaking sessions and announced three project awards and three individual honor awards.

Percy “Rebel” Roberts III, BArch ’76, president, COO, and design partner at VOA Associates in Chicago, was elevated to fellow of the American Institute of Architects Class of 2016.

April Philips, BLA ’79, won an ASLA Northern California design award.

April Philips Design Works recently hired Li Wang, MLA ’13, to join the firm and Fen Yang, a current MLA candidate, for a summer internship. The firm was recently awarded the design for the Naval Air Station Site A redevelopment plan, a 68-acre project located on the former naval air station in Alameda, California. The project includes 20 acres of cultural landscape consisting of parks and open space for a new waterfront community.

Mark Ripple, BArch ’79, principle and director of operations at Eskew+Dumez+Ripple in New Orleans, was elevated to fellow of the American Institute of Architects Class of 2016.

1980s Natalie Gaidry De Angelis, BLA ’84, an artist at Disorderly Studio in New Orleans, participated in the student fair and show at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts in May. She has been studying and making art for 30 years. One of her paintings is in the New Orleans Museum of Art’s Louisiana Collection.

Jeff Stouffer, BArch ’84, executive vice president and health group director at HOK, Dallas, was elevated to fellow of the American Institute of Architects Class of 2016.

Judy Byrd Brittenum, FASLA, MLA ’86, retired in June from the University of Arkansas, where she was a faculty member for 27 years. Most recently, she received the gold medal for outstanding faculty member in the Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design.

1990s

Stephen McLaughlin, MLA ’94, went to Nairobi, Kenya, in April to participate, alongside architects and engineers from the Dept. of State Bureau of Overseas Building Operations and several private A/E firms hired by OBO, in a site investigation at the U.S. Embassy in preparation for a project to add new support facilities and an office annex at the existing chancery building. He met with alumna Karla Christensen, MLA ’94, who is serving as a development, outreach, and communications specialist for the USAID mission to Somalia.

Karla’s husband is a UN peacekeeper in Somalia and regularly travels between Mogadishu and Nairobi.

Barney Lighter, BArch/ BLA ’91, is principal landscape architect at Evans + Lighter Landscape Architecture in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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Noel Aveton, BLA ’95, was recently promoted to vice president at CallisonRTKL, a global design firm.

Being part of the planning, urban design and landscape studio, Noel is involved with setting business direction and is a key team member for developers around the world. He is a firm believer in collaborating with developers, community members, municipalities, and other stakeholders in order to deliver projects that are immediately well received and flexible enough to withstand the test of time.

2000s

Ryan Clark, BArch ’02, is a landscape architect/ project manager at England Thims & Miller in St. Augustine, Florida.

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Lori Prochaska, MArch ’04, was named senior associate at Tipton Associates in Baton Rouge. Lori has served as studio leader in Tipton’s education and civic studio and has been at the firm since 2004. She has served as project architect on numerous projects, including the historic renovation of the LSU Honors College, numerous projects for the Baton Rouge Parish School System, and she was a design team member for the new East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library at Goodwood.

Scott D’Agostino, MLA ’05, a registered landscape architect and certified urban planner, was named senior associate at Tipton Associates in Baton Rouge. Scott has served as the leader of the firm’s landscape architecture and planning studio since 2010. He has led the firm’s efforts through urban planning projects such as the City of Ruston comprehensive plan and West Baton Rouge Parish comprehensive plan. He has also led the landscape architecture efforts on projects such as the City of New Roads Community Park, City of Ruston Railroad Park, and University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Elizabeth Pellegrin Babin, BID ’06, is an interior designer at Arnold & Associates Interiors, Inc., in Baton Rouge.

Jeremy Martin, BLA ’08, is currently leading Reed Hilderbrand’s efforts on the LSU Campus Comprehensive Master Plan as well as managing the firm’s redevelopment of City Hall Plaza in Baton Rouge. In addition to the civic and academic projects, he is project manager for several residencies throughout Massachusetts. Jeremy’s previous work experience includes a substantial tenure at Hargreaves Associates and experience at the Office of James Burnett.

Billy Hargrove, BArch ’09, is design master at Somdal Associates in Shreveport, Louisiana.

He has project managed residential, commercial, and healthcare projects and is in the process of becoming a licensed architect.

Alice Wack, BFA ’09, was hired as a graphic designer at the LSU Division of Strategic Communications in February 2016.

Since then, she’s had a fantastic experience with DSC’s team of designers, writers, marketing strategists, videographers, and photographers. Prior to being hired by DSC, Alice worked at the LSU College of Music & Dramatic Arts where she did web design and photography work.

2010s

Blair Lockhart, BFA ’12, is the content production manager of photography at Apple, Inc., in San Francisco.

Michael Olivier, BArch ’13, is an architect at Remson Haley Herpin Architects in Baton Rouge.

Sarah Smith, BLA ’13, graduate landscape architect at Clark Condon in Houston, led a company team to win a Texas ASLA Honor Award in the research and analysis category and is nearing completion (July of 2016) of a $20 million streetscape improvements project in downtown Houston in which she was the assistant project manager.

Distinguished Alumni Lewis T. May, FASLA Kelly Kral, BFA ’14, has worked in the marketing department at the corporate offices of Michael’s Arts & Crafts in Dallas, Texas, for the past year. She is on the creative services side, on the concept development team.

Her team wears many hats, but mainly they design the branding and style guides each quarter and season for the stores. She works on other special projects, such as holiday gift cards, summer kids’ camps, direct mail pieces, and newspaper inserts. “It’s a fun and creative job where I get to doodle everyday!”

Stay in touch!

design.lsu.edu/alumni

The LSU College of Art & Design honored Lewis T. May (BLA ’69/MLA ’73), associate principal and urban design director of Page, with the 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award for his multifaceted impact on the contemporary practice of landscape architecture and urban design in America and throughout the world. May received the award at the college’s spring graduation ceremony, where he delivered the commencement address.

May is one of the nation’s most accomplished master-plan designers, with more than four decades of experience in planning, urban design, and landscape architecture for projects throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and North America. His extensive portfolio includes more than 300 campus facility master plans at prestigious institutions around the world. He has been recognized with many awards for his writing and design and has lectured at numerous universities and professional associations.

May shares his extensive knowledge with students as a visiting critic/adjunct faculty member in the architecture programs at Texas Tech University, University of Hawaii, and Universidad de Monterrey.

“To receive this Distinguished Alumni Award was truly a humbling moment and a highlight of a long career,” shared May. “When I first entered LSU over 50 years ago, I had no idea that my diploma would be my passport to a world of wonder and fascination in my professional practice. Today, around the globe, tens of millions of people live in cities I have planned or designed, all shaped by the lessons learned at LSU as well as from the inspirational vision from the college as to the responsibility we have to this planet and all its inhabitants. LSU and the College of Art & Design have had a profound and lasting impact on my work.”

Visit design.lsu.edu/alumni_profiles/may-lewis-t for more information about Lewis T. May’s illustrious career.

design.lsu.edu/give

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Photos by Hayden Nagin

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Equipped Hayden Nagin, BFA 2018, Photography & Graphic Design

1. Tinted lens filters. A necessity to get the right level of contrast in black-and-white film photography—especially when shooting outdoors!

2. Film. Obviously! Nothing beats the look of classic 35mm film.

3. A remote shutter for my film camera. To

reduce the risk of camera shake or for self-portraits (like the one here).

4. Grey card. To meter for the perfect exposure.

5. Glass prism. I like to carry this in my cam-

era bag to add some really neat light effects to my photos.

6. iPhone lenses. Because #iphonography!

7. A remote shutter for my digital camera.

8. Layout paper. It’s bleed proof, traceable, and

stark white. I go through a couple pads of these a month!

9. A little sketchbook. I always keep this on hand for whenever inspiration strikes. I love Field Notes because their gridded pages are helpful for type and logo sketches.

10. A pot of ink and a brush. I’ve been prac-

ticing hand-lettering a lot lately, so these are necessities!

11. The Tombow pen. Also necessary for

hand-lettering—a felt-tip brush on one end and a liner on the other.

12. An X-Acto blade and a ruler. Every design-

er’s two best friends. Craft is king, and your cuts better be clean!

13. My pen pouch. All of my drawing and

sketching goodies in one place (and it’s pretty cute, too!).

14. Pliers. I always keep a pair in my bag, and

you’d be surprised how often I need them. I’m never out without them now!

Honoring Nadine Carter Russell Nadine Carter Russell received her art history degree in 1967 before building her career in the world of art museums—a background that has propelled her dedication to the College of Art & Design. Russell has been a supporter of almost every major activity of the LSU College of Art & Design for more than 25 years, both with her aunt, Paula G. Manship, who bestowed a fund for the LSU College of Art & Design to establish the Nadine Carter Russell Chair in her niece’s name in 1998, and in recent years, as a donor and community member and supporter of the college’s programs.

“I think you should support the university you graduated from, because that’s how you got your start in life,” Russell said. “Your education is what gives you the basis for your career and your future life.”

Russell gravitates toward overlooked projects. “I learned a long time ago to try and find something that other people were not necessarily going to do,” she said, reiterating the giving pattern of her late aunt.

Russell explained that she loves to support LSU because it makes her happy. “I like to see things improve. I like to see the students happy, and I like to see the faculty happy, because that makes for good, quality education.”

It is for all these reasons and more that the students, administration, faculty, and staff of the LSU College of Art & Design selected Nadine Carter Russell as the 2016 Honor Award recipient. Thank you, Nadine, you are truly a treasure!

Nadine Carter Russell (right) with 2013–14 Nadine Carter Russell Chair Nari Ward (center) and Dean Alkis Tsolakis (standing) at the unveiling of Ward’s sculpture, Msssspp Runoff, located in the LSU Sculpture Quad

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