Graduate architecture students’ move to off-campus studio sees mixed reactions

George Zhou | Contributing Reporter

For the first time, the Lewis Center, an off-campus building just north of the Delmar Loop, will accommodate graduate architecture students for studio.

The Lewis Center, located on 721 Kingsland Ave., has been owned by the University since 1998. The building, formerly a school, currently serves as studio space for 34 graduate students. The majority of the graduate architecture students still have studio space on campus.

The Lewis Center, a building just north of the Delmar Loop, is home to studio space for 34 graduate architecture students. This is the first year that the Lewis Center has hosted University architecture projects.

The Lewis Center, a building just north of the Delmar Loop, is home to studio space for 34 graduate architecture students. This is the first year that the Lewis Center has hosted University architecture projects.

Student reaction to the move has been mixed, with many architecture students upset that they are not able to interact with the rest of the architecture school in Givens Hall.

While this is the first year the Lewis Center will provide studio space for graduate students, using off-campus space for architecture programs has occurred in the past.

“They have a history of…studios off campus,” Leland Orvis, facilities manager of the Sam Fox School, said. “It’s not an entirely new scenario.”

Orvis added that the Lewis Center provides the space and resources for the space-intensive nature of the architecture studios.

Previously, architecture students have had studio space on Westgate Avenue.

Although some students felt the additional space was important so that graduate students could have the space they needed, others thought that the distant location isolated them from the rest of the architecture community.

“It’s upsetting.” Daniel Aguilera, a graduate architecture student, said. “Why not work at the same building that we all do?”

Currently, there are also 10 graduate students using studio space on 282 Skinker Blvd., which sits on the upper floors of the building housing Kayak’s Cafe.

Will James, a sophomore undergraduate architecture student, said that interaction between undergraduate and graduate students is infrequent, in spite of both groups occupying some of the same buildings.

“I say [we interact] pretty infrequently,” James said. “In our Architectural History class, there are grad students, so there’s some interaction…but that’s about it.”

Kaitlyn Badlato, a graduate architecture student with studio at the Lewis Center, reflects that while she is somewhat separated from the graduate community, she can interact more with students in the Master of Fine Arts program.

“I think we do lose something when you’re separated from the rest [of the on-campus students]…because a lot of architecture school is about walking around and talking to people…That’s how you gather ideas,” Badlato said. “But overall I think it’s a great way to really collaborate with the MFA students because…we haven’t had much interaction with them before.”

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