A group of six students in civil and environmental engineering worked with Washington State University’s new student group of Engineers Without Borders and Asiana Education Development (AED), a Seattle-based nonprofit organization that runs schools for orphans in Sri Lanka, to design two schools that will be rebuilt in the region destroyed by the December 2004 tsunami. The organization is working to rebuild nine of its schools that were destroyed.
When completed, the schools, which will cost a total of about $100,000, will hold about 720 students altogether and contain about two dozen classrooms.
Student Alex McDonald started the WSU chapter of Engineers Without Borders about … » More …
Since 1869, Bellevue has morphed from pioneer settlement to Norman-Rockwell small town to burgeoning suburb of Seattle. Now, with the help of a handful of WSU-trained architects, it's high-stepping into its new role as one of Washington's most vital urban centers.
Visiting China’s cities in recent years is like watching time-lapse photography. Consider: the city of Shanghai had one skyscraper in 1985; now they are legion. In 1988, I looked from Shanghai’s famous Peace Hotel on the Bund to the far side of the Huangpo River: nothing but a gray stretch of grimy shoreline. In less than 20 years, Shanghai’s Pudong District transformed from a forlorn swamp to something like the Chicago Loop. To say no more, this kind of construction explosion doesn’t afford much time to evolve a coherent architectural style.
The 20th century was a tough one for China. It began with the collapse … » More …
Work has begun on a two-year, $86-million project to remodel the Compton Union Building. The plan is to modernize the 1951 building, carving out 53,000 square feet for stores and restaurants, installing a new state-of-the-art auditorium, and introducing more light and style.
The price tag, 60 percent of which will be covered by a student assessment of $120 a semester, is the highest in Washington State University history. That’s because at six stories and 235,000 square feet, the CUB is one of WSU’s largest buildings, says Travis Duncan ’05, the CUB project coordinator. The renovation involves gutting the entire building and the costly endeavor of … » More …
For more than two years, a group of Washington State University students in architecture, construction management, interior design, and engineering designed and built a solar house, including all of its systems, from the ground up. In September 2005, they transported the house to Washington, D.C., to take part in the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition on the National Mall. WSU was one of only 18 schools from around the world-and the only school from the Northwest-to participate. Sponsored by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Lab, the competition required students to plan and build a 650-square-foot home and provide it with all the modern conveniences, including … » More …
When Rob Barnard ’84 was earning degrees in architecture and construction management, his professors scheduled project deadlines and tests on the same day.
“What that was teaching you was time management, how to work with a small amount of sleep and under pressure,” says Barnard, who brought that work ethic home to Portland. During the next two decades, the once-sleepy Rose City gained acclaim for innovatively solving urban problems, including transportation woes that vex most cities. Barnard’s blueprints are all over that reputation.
In magazine rankings last year, Men’s Journal deemed Portland the best place to live in the United States, praising its “nearly flawless” … » More …
“You can’t put the blame on one side. Everybody has made some contributions to the misery.”
So thought Rafi Samizay, professor in the School of Architecture and Construction Management at Washington State University, as he stood in what is left of his high school in Kabul, Afghanistan. As he tried to chat cheerfully with students about favorite teachers they shared, the remains of the school teetered around them. Classes are still held in part of the building that was blown up, so students have to gingerly make their way across a second-story, narrow piece of concrete that falls off to nothing. Others walk below. Where … » More …
“The task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees.” —Arthur Schopenhauer
THERE ARE LANDSCAPES that move us and landscapes through which we simply move.
State Route 26 has always been considered one of the latter: a notoriously dull 133 miles between Vantage and Colfax that has for decades been the main transportation link between the West Side and Washington State University.
It’s the asphalt welcome mat for more than 10,000 WSU students who travel this highway between their homes in Western Washington and WSU, along with thousands … » More …
