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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1988)
Wednesday, March 2, 1988AThe Battalion/Page 3 State and Local Trash surfer ‘catches the wave’ In exercise of communication imnis By Tracey Streater Reporter Environmental Design 104 stu dents learned more than just how to construct sculpture out of trash while creating “Catch the Wave,” a sculpture on display on the first floor of the Langford Architecture Center. “Catch the Wave” is the Environ mental Design 104 students’ contri bution to the Rowlett Lectures, a se ries of lectures by visiting speakers and displays of student projects sponsored by the Department of Ar chitecture. Although the lectures only were Monday and Tuesday, the displays will be up through the beginning of next week. Taught by Dr. Hadley Smith, a visiting professor in the College of ^Architecture, the class created this ■project as an exercise in communica tion and imagination. "If you’ve got a great idea and don’t have the skills to communicate it, it’s as if you didn’t have the idea,” Smith said. The sculpture, made entirely out of trash, depicts a surfer riding an ironing board in the curl of a wave of debris. The ingredients of this master- )iece of refuse include everything rom Christmas tree lights to old blue jeans and a U-bolt from a pick up truck. Environmental Design 104 stu dent Alan Underwood, a freshman environmental design major, ex plained the goal of his class. “We were trying to use an unlikely material to create something visually compelling,” Underwood said. After deciding to use the cheapest materials they could find — trash — the students brainstormed to de velop the ultimate theme of the cre ation. Matt Mars, a freshman environ mental design major, said the objec tive was to make the most out of the class’s design while keeping the theme in mind. Man is affected by his environ ment — what goes around comes Paul Neidinger, a graduate architecture major from Houston, listens as professor Peter Cook from the Technical University of Frankfurt cri- Photo by Beth Murray tiques his design and discusses regional designs in modern architecture Tuesday during the De partment of Architecture’s Rowlett Lectures. around,” Mars said. “That’s why we made the surfer out of trash instead of using a mannequin or some thing.” Maximum affect at a minimum cost was also a major goal of the class, Mars added. Suzanne Grothues, a freshman environmental design/building con struction major from Dallas, said the sculpture is more than just a pile of junk, though. “If people say it’s a pile of junk, they’ve got a limited view,” Grothues said. “They’re looking at the material and not the form.” After all was finished, the stu dents seemed to agree on one idea in particular. They all learned the importance of working together to achieve a common goal. As Underwood expressed it, they learned “how to give a little to get a little.” Shifting soil, clay causes damage to research center DALLAS (AP) — Walls are cracking, ceilings are sagging and equipment is in danger at a $1.5 million research center at the University of Texas-Arlington because of shifting soil under the building, officials said. Officials blame moist and swol len clay beneath the 15-month- old Aerospace Research Center, and say the shifing soil is also causing the fire alarm-sprinkler system to fail. The building was completed in November 1986 as part of a $39.9 million contract for an engi neering complex with the Stolte Co. of Arlington. “I’m not really worried about the building falling down,” center director Donald Wilson said Monday. “It’s more of a nuisance than anything. It’s embarrassing to invite contractors and govern ment officials to impress them with our research and facilities when you can’t even get the front door that you fixed three weeks ago open.” The foundation on the north end of the building has risen about 1.5 inches, Wilson said. Al though workers tried to replace most of the soil before beginning construction, problems began shortly after the building was fin ished. Doors became difficult to open and shut, tiles fell from the sag ging ceiling, outside walls cracked and a safety officer noticed prob lems with the fire alarm system and sprinklers, Wilson said. Although the shift has not caused serious damage, faculty members are worried that if al lowed to continue, the precision of a sensitive optical laser might be altered. John Blanton, resident con struction manager with the UT System Office of Facilities Plan ning and Gonstruction, said Stolte Co., which also is remodel ing the engineering building and constructing a new one, was not to blame for the shifting building. Bush campaign hits B-CS, Tower courts A&M voters The George Bush campaign came to Bryan-College Station yesterday to try to build support for the vice- president in next week’s Super Tuesday primary and to attempt to get voters out. “The student body of T'exas A&M are the most sophisticated voters of any college campus in Texas, with the possible exeception of SMU, my alma mater,” former U.S. Sen. John Tower said. Tower, along with U.S. Rep. Tom Loeffler and Judge Roy Barrera Jr., all stressed the importance of the people needing to vote in the pri mary next week. “Remember next November you are not electing America’s president, you are electing the leader of the free world,” Tower said, “the man that will be responsible for providing the leadership necessary to promote a climate of peace and security and self-determination for all peoples in this world.” " Commons: 10 am to 8 pm MSC: 10 am to 6 pm nsored Blood SBISA: 10 am to 6 pm Zachry: 10 am to 5 pm by Aggie Drive If you feel the need for speed. $2199. 220 watt power supply The CA 386 is fully IBM compatible and compatible with 80287 and 80387 math co processors. With a 1.2MB 5 1/4” high density floppy disk drive, the CA 386 is only $2199. Every Computer Access computer comes with a one-year limited warranty (compared to 90 days for the name brand makers) and guaranteed 48-hour turnaround on upgrades and repairs. 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