Architecture builds momentum

              Ina Siem
STAFF WRITER
to/23/03
pee Gu.V-e't.
It's Monday 8:50 a.m. Students
carrying huge presentation boards
and large plastic bags covering
mysterious objects are walking
from the parking structure toward
the T building, specifically to
.r
instructor Coleman Griffith' s new ideas of architecture with an
architectural design class. . old building. This idea is shown in
Those students are part of one his model. For his presentation, .
of the best two-year architecture Santillan ·also .used boards
programs in the country. arranged for a professional pres-
As students reveal their entation. . ··
objects, other classmates Removing one of the floor
approach them asking about the plans from his model, Santillan
projects. The presentation mate- proposed new circulation through
rials they have ready for class the building and natural light
took hours to prepare. effects. He also designed spaces
This semester, Griffith's stu- that he considers functional for an
dents have been challenged to architecture faculty. .
design an architecture school in Santillan said tha,t it feels good
the existing boiler house [FF] when Griffith compliments. his
building on the PCC campus. work. "It worth all · the hard
Griffith does not find any prob~ work," he said. · '' ·.
lem with the campus building. He
said, "The campus is a fertile place
from which new ideas grow from
students." Griffith, who uses dif-
1 ferent sites on campus for his class,
realized that "students have a nat­ural
interest in their own environ­ment.
There's no environment
The final evaluation of the
project is a presentation to a jury.
This committee is composed of
architecture instructors from ·the
universities these students plan to
attend.There are also professional
architects and former students of
Griffith's on the f:~aneL' : ·c · •· ~
.As part of the preparation for
the professional world, all the cre­ative
projects are presented for
qualification. "This experience pre­pares
them to face how they would
be evaluated at a university, n said
Griffith. "They are the most tr.ained
and prepared students we· have in
the program, They know how to
present their ideas, both verbally
and graphically." _ ~. · ·_- · ~ ·- ~~, · ..
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