UNL architecture professor Jeff Day’s architecture firm Min|Day is one of eight firms that were invited to envision a future for East Lansing, Mich. Their work is part of an exhibition that opened Nov. 14 at the Broad Art Museum in East Lansing.
The exhibition invited architects, landscape architects and urban designers from across the country to join in envisioning a future East Lansing. From November 2013 to July 2014, each month a new designer presented his/her past work and ideas as a discussion of themes as they related to East Lansing. The designers developed speculative projects set in East Lansing culminating in this exhibition of the completed designs.
Min|Day’s proposal is titled “Gather Make Live Grow Play.”
Their project description states, “Strong boundaries — campus edges, major roadways and the river — both define East Lansing and separate the community. This project proposes a series of spatial and experiential connections that tie the city to the MSU campus and unite Michigan Avenue and East Grand River Avenue with the Red Cedar River. These linkages build on existing uses and amenities to generate density and strengthen identity. Extending from downtown to Spartan Stadium, Gather hosts mass celebration and events. Make fosters cultural production and technological innovation. Live brings residents of all ages together. Grow unites Valley Court Park and Beal Botanical Garden. Play catalyzes development through linked public open spaces.”
Day and his partner, E.B. Min, were joined on the project by UNL architecture students Kaitlin Blasing, Kevin Bukowski, Junxing Wu and Micah Davis, along with Min|Day architect and UNL alumnus Dennis Krymuza.
Based out of San Francisco and Omaha, Min|Day architecture draws on Min’s and Day’s backgrounds in art, landscape and architecture to provide informed, flexible design for a wide range of clients, sites and projects, ranging from individuals to art institutions, urban to rural settings and furniture to large buildings.
Day, the Omaha-based principal of the firm, is professor of architecture and landscape architecture and director of the architecture program at UNL. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1988 and received a master of architecture from U.C. Berkeley in 1995. “East Lansing 2030: Collegeville Re-Envisioned” will run through April 26, 2015, at the Broad Art Museum, which is the contemporary art museum of Michigan State University. In addition to Min|Day, the other participants in the exhibition include UrbanLab of Chicago; PLY Architecture of Ann Arbor, Michigan; DIGSAU of Philadelphia; LEVENBETTS Studio of New York City; WXY Studio of New York City; Bionic Landscape of San Francisco; and Stoss of Boston.
For more information, go to http://go.unl.edu/el2030.
Other recent awards and honors earned by the UNL community include:
Faculty
• Ian Borden, assistant professor of theatre, has been elected to a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the Association for Hispanic Classical Theatre.
The association is a non-profit, international organization that began in 1984 to promote and foster greater appreciation for Spain’s classical drama in production.
Borden teaches a variety of classes in UNL’s Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, from scripts in performance to stage combat. He is the founder of the Lincoln Assassination Stage Combat Workshop.
His scholarship focuses on early modern theatre, especially the interchange between the stages of England and Spain. .
• Jon Pedersen, associate dean for Education and Human Sciences, has been selected to receive the Association for Science Teacher Education’s Outstanding Longtime Service Award. Pedersen will receive the award Jan. 10 at the ASTE annual conference in Portland, Ore.
A former high school science teacher, Pedersen has served on the board of directors of ASTE for 11 years. He was the board president, has presented at the annual conference more than 30 times, and served on the editorial review board of the organization’s “Journal of Science Teacher Education.”
ASTE’s award provides recognition for outstanding service by a senior member (minimum 15 years) whose efforts address issues, goals and actions that have intellectual merit and broader impact on science teacher education, while simultaneously serving the needs of ASTE members.
The association is a non-profit professional organization that includes more than 800 members from around the world.
Students
• The UNL chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America received a Star Chapter Award from the national organization.
The award recognizes chapters across the United States that succeed in completing eight or more of 10 specific requirements. This is the first time the UNL chapter earned the honor.
UNL’s chapter has steadily expanded its membership numbers since its founding with 12 members in 1998. Now, there are more than 40 active members in the chapter.
For more information about UNL PRSSA, go to http://go.unl.edu/34co.
This column is a regular feature of UNL Today. Faculty, staff and students can submit their achievements to be considered for this column via email to achievements@unl.edu. For more information, call 402-472-8515.
