USF students building scenic Riverfront Preserve Pavilion [03/10/2008]

by Judi Jetson

Assistant Professor Stan Russell of USF’s School of Architecture and Community Design is overseeing a group of 12 graduate students who designed and are building a pavilion for Temple Terrace’s Riverfront Preserve. It will consist of a covered area for picnic tables, a grassy amphitheater that seats 30, and a curvy information wall along the Hillsborough River. The Design/Build team spent the fall semester designing the pavilion, testing materials, conferring with the client and engineer and preparing construction documents.

The students participating are not professional builders or contractors, and many of them are doing construction work for the first time so the work is very challenging. “You see it in a book, but you don’t understand until you see it done,” said Jessica Phillips. She added that after getting the construction started, she has more respect for people who work in construction.

One of the main goals the students have is to build a project from sustainable materials. The class is using recycled materials, bamboo and other supplies that are renewable. The Design/ Build program is ongoing with a new project designed and built each year. This year we used sustainability as a theme and we were able to do meaningful research into green building materials that are not currently in popular use in the State of Florida. The Temple Terrace Park Pavilion will be a physical example of how these materials can be used in buildings [how they weather, how they look etc.] to raise the awareness of green building materials among professionals and the general public.

Russell is looking for ideas for future community projects for his students to design and build. Anyone with any project ideas that would serve a public purpose and would be within 30 minutes from USF, is asked to contact Russell by e-mailing him at Russell@arch.usf.edu.