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.”
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