A design by students Hannah Lloyd and Reyna Vaughn

Oregon State University interior design seniors have taken their education and applied it to help make the new Student Experience Center (SEC) a more “zenful” place.

The center is a student activities building which will be constructed to the east of the Memorial Union bookstore, where a parking lot currently exists. The building will house student-run organizations currently existing in Snell Hall, including student media.

Students in the Department of Design and Human Environment’s advanced commercial studio class this term were asked to propose their own original designs for a contemplative space in the SEC, to primarily be used for meditation and religious reflection. Associate professor Marilyn Read said she wants people to see and benefit from the strengths of the students in the program.

“The students are providing excellent ideas,” Read said. She said the students have used research about how their peers would use the student center to inform their designs.

The class gives students practical experience with working with clients. During the course they’re collaborating with Opsis Architecture, the firm who will be designing the SEC. The Opsis interior designer working with the students to develop the beginning design stages, Sondra Jakubowski, is a 2005 OSU graduate of the DHE interior design program. Jakubowski visited with the students to help explain Opsis’s vision and to review design developments.

A design by students Julie Hanano, Kelley Solomon, Emily DeWilde, and Carolyn Petersen

“It has been a great opportunity for the students to work with a professional client. My part in this project has been to give a helpful perspective of how to find a solution to problems that may occur,” Jakubowski said. “I love working with the students. It’s been a fun way to give back to OSU, working on the center’s design development.”

Each of the seven groups of students put in tremendous amounts of research before conceptualizing their designs, making sure to incorporate both necessary and desired aspects of the space.

“We formulated our design from the panel members and our survey of peers,” said Julie Hanano, a senior in interior design. “We asked around 20 to 25 people what meditation is and what it meant to them, and then incorporated those aspects.”

Feedback included wanting earthy tones, natural lighting, water features, partitions for privacy, and a space that was welcoming to all religious faiths. Groups incorporated sheer materials into their designs to create a sense of privacy while still allowing light to shine through the space. Additionally they used water features to give a feeling of nature to the space.

Reyna Vaughn and Hannah Lloyd, both seniors in interior design, designed a space for flexibility and for multiple uses. “Since it’s a student space we also wanted to include student artwork on the walls, and create a place that people of all religions felt comfortable in,” Vaughn said.

After the senior projects are presented to the SEC stakeholders and Opsis Architecture, the aim is to incorporate ideas presented by the students into the next stages and final design of the contemplative space. The SEC is expected to be finished within the next two years.

~ Makenzie Marineau

OSU junior Teressa Hartley was the project manager for a redesign of a conference room in the Memorial Union. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

Bright colors and bold patterns surround Oregon State University student Teressa Hartley as she stands in the Pan-Afrikan Sankofa Conference Room in the Memorial Union. But what draws her attention is a print by Portland artist Isaka Shamsud-Din, depicting African American residents fleeing their homes in the former housing development of Vanport, in Portland.

Hartley, a junior in interior design, knows the story of Vanport well. Her grandparents, like many other Vanport residents, were forced to flee their home with only a suitcase between them after a dike holding back the Columbia River burst, flooding the makeshift town.

Honoring the rich history of the African American experience is an important part of the redesign of the Memorial Union conference room, and Hartley is establishing her own place in history as the first student to be hired as a project manager for the redecoration of an MU room.

During her sophomore year, while Hartley was working at the Black Cultural Center on campus, she and other BCC members were asked by a group of senior design students to provide input on the re-decoration of a conference room in the MU. The students, under the direction of Associate Professor Carol Caughey, were tasked with creating an African American theme for the room, and asked the BCC students about their childhood homes and their perceptions of African American style, using that information to create suggested interior designs. Eventually, the designers were asked to reflect a broader African theme, to be inclusive of all people of African heritage.

Hartley joined a committee of students and staff to choose from eight different designs created by the students, and was pleased by the choice of bold colors and patterns that were finally selected.

The Pan-Afrikan Sanfoka Conference Room in the Memorial Union. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

“I thought it was awesome,” she said.

So when Hartley heard that she could apply for a Promise Internship during Summer 2009 to manage the actual redesign of the room, she immediately applied, and was hired as project manager. The opportunity not only allowed her to participate in a room that honors her own heritage, but it falls in line with her dream of being a commercial designer.

“It’s more complex and interesting,” to design a public space, she said, so that rather than redoing someone’s bedroom, you’re making over an entire office or building. “You have the abilty to affect people’s lives with something larger.”

Supporting the MU mission

Kent Sumner in the Memorial Union said the project manager position was opened up to student interns to support the MU’s mission to include student designers and workers in its projects, and also ended up saving money. He said this project was so successful that they will likely continue using intern project managers.

As project manager, Hartley had to oversee the final designs of the room, which eventually included extending the redecoration to an adjoining room. She kept workers on a timeline, helped manage a budget, and did everything from making sure the paint colors worked well to making decisions on the height of a door when they added a closet into the space.

The best advice she received during her work was from her supervisor, Sid Cooper, who told her to “Own the ground you stand on.” She said the project helped her learn to trust herself and her decision-making abilities. She also said the project was truly a team effort, and she was thankful for the support she received.

Sustainability

Sustainability was as important in the room as keeping an African feel, not only for budget reasons but to honor OSU’s mission to be environmentally conscious. A majority of the artwork was pulled from pieces hidden in MU storage, and simply reframed. When a decision was made to create a doorway between the two rooms, discarded doors were refinished and reused in the space. The chairs were reupholstered with new fabric, and the carpeting contains recycled materials, and is laid in tiles, so if one portion is damaged it can easily be replaced with little waste.

A mural made up of quotes from prominent African and African American thinkers adorns the back wall of the conference room. Hartley and Earlene Wilson-Huey of the Ujima Education Office chose the quotes, which were then put into a design by a graphic arts student, and painted by Corvallis artist Dale Draeger.

The word Sankofa in the conference room’s new title refers to the West African symbol of a bird, reaching over his shoulder to grab an egg. Hartley said that image is deeply meaningful to the intent of the room.

“It’s about us reaching into the past and grabbing what is valuable, and using it to move us forward.”

The room will be dedicated during a ceremony at 5 p.m. Oct. 13 in the Memorial Union main lounge.

~ Theresa Hogue