A “Desk Crit” with Dean Beth Meyer, Daniel Bluestone, and Alumni Mike Evans, and Bill Skelsey
Friday afternoon, the Communications and Media Group had the opportunity to have a desk crit by some of the brightest and best within all fields of architecture at the A-School. You may be puzzled as to how a team not based on design had a “desk crit”, but it is possible. Dean Meyer, former UVA Professor Dan Bluestone, and alumni architects Mike Evans and Bill Skelsey, of the firms Hanbury Evans Architects and Ayers Saint Gross, respectively, each took time to offer constructive criticism and provided new insight to our questions. Each emphasized the growing importance of communication skills that can cross over into the digital work for working within an architecture firm, and the ability to use these skills to tell a meaningful story.
Dean Meyer and Dr. Bluestone collaborated with Bill Sherman in 2013, producing a ‘white paper’ for the housing situation at the University of Virginia. The paper is very applicable to this year’s Vortex and to the university’s overall vision for a better student body. While the Communications group had questions inspired by their paper, we also learned from Mike Evans (who’s firm does 98% of their business on college campuses) that is almost entirely up to the university to promote residential colleges and when done correctly it can create a last image or brand for the school.
Dr. Bluestone agreed wholeheartedly, and suggested that the University of Virginia would really need to advertise the benefits of communal, higher density living situations for students in order for residential colleges to be successful. He stressed the importance of community dining as well, expressing that it would be a more substantial way to support the students. Besides a sense of belonging, these colleges would provide security for the students living in them. Using his time as President of Hereford College as an example, Bluestone underlined the familial aspect that develops. Ending on a somber note, he suggested that had residential colleges existed, perhaps Yeardley Love would not have died, due to the home-like atmosphere, her abuse could have been known sooner. He challenged our group by suggesting we change the way we look at dorms at UVA, and learn from the most popular ones and apply that to the residential college life.
As we prepare for the final few days of Vortex2015, let’s hope that the design teams have created colleges that speak to nature of the University of Virginia and can pave a way to a brighter, safer university.
Students actively taking notes during their “desk crit”
-Margaret Stella, (M.Arh, 2015)
Dean Meyer and Dr. Bluestone collaborated with Bill Sherman in 2013, producing a ‘white paper’ for the housing situation at the University of Virginia. The paper is very applicable to this year’s Vortex and to the university’s overall vision for a better student body. While the Communications group had questions inspired by their paper, we also learned from Mike Evans (who’s firm does 98% of their business on college campuses) that is almost entirely up to the university to promote residential colleges and when done correctly it can create a last image or brand for the school.
Dr. Bluestone agreed wholeheartedly, and suggested that the University of Virginia would really need to advertise the benefits of communal, higher density living situations for students in order for residential colleges to be successful. He stressed the importance of community dining as well, expressing that it would be a more substantial way to support the students. Besides a sense of belonging, these colleges would provide security for the students living in them. Using his time as President of Hereford College as an example, Bluestone underlined the familial aspect that develops. Ending on a somber note, he suggested that had residential colleges existed, perhaps Yeardley Love would not have died, due to the home-like atmosphere, her abuse could have been known sooner. He challenged our group by suggesting we change the way we look at dorms at UVA, and learn from the most popular ones and apply that to the residential college life.
As we prepare for the final few days of Vortex2015, let’s hope that the design teams have created colleges that speak to nature of the University of Virginia and can pave a way to a brighter, safer university.
Students actively taking notes during their “desk crit”
-Margaret Stella, (M.Arh, 2015)