Student Old Main bell designs to be displayed at HUB

University Park, Pa. -- After Penn State’s class of 2009 voted last fall to remove and restore the Old Main bell as its gift to the University, Associate Professor of Architecture Ute Poerschke and her colleagues realized they had found the perfect project for their second-year architecture students. They tasked them to compete in a charrette -- a short, intensive architectural project -- to present ideas for the bell’s eventual relocation and display.

Eleven outstanding designs, chosen by a jury of students, faculty and staff, will be exhibited Tuesday, Feb. 3 through Friday, Feb. 5, on the ground floor of the HUB.

Members of the senior class gift committee will be on hand much of that time to answer questions about the Old Main bell project.

"We chose to display the results of the charrette in the HUB to showcase the designs and foster interest in our project among seniors, who may want to donate and be a part of their class gift," said Liz Kernion, overall chair of the 2009 senior class gift committee, who served on the jury. Kernion emphasized that the final design of the bell display ultimately will be based on input from the class gift committee, the University administration, the Office of Annual Giving, the Office of Physical Plant, restoration experts, and others in the coming months.

Poerschke, who teaches the class along with fellow College of Arts and Architecture instructors Reggie Aviles, Douglas Patt and Robert Keal, explained that the bell project matched their objectives for the students. “We made the charrette a mandatory assignment for all second-year students of architecture,” she said. “There are 45 altogether. We are happy that we received so many good ideas and proposals.”

The course focuses on design projects that have pre-existing limits and defined constraints, moving beyond previously taught abstract principles with an emphasis on the articulation of ideas. A high priority is placed on “making the students aware of the multiplicity of factors involved in the design process and their civic responsibility in making informed choices,” according to the course’s description. “Thus, the pervasive issue of meaning in architecture is given a high priority and is interwoven in all stages of design exploration.”

Poerschke added that they “often do one-to-two-week charrettes and competitions with the students from all levels of our five-year program. However, using the class gift as the assignment was new to us. If this charrette and presentation turns out to be helpful, supportive and successful for the class gift committee, we would surely consider repeating it in the years to come.”

In their final designs, students had to take into account a number of factors, including a new location for the bell; the visual connection between the bell and its former home; spacial issues in terms of possible gatherings at the new location; the relationship between the bell and its surroundings in terms of history, age, materials and use; and campus public display rules and regulations.

Also, the designs were to enable the bell to be rung, something it has not done since the last day of classes in June 1929. According to Kernion, making the bell ring again proved especially popular among the seniors when they voted last November.

For more information about Penn State’s senior class gift program, visit http://www.seniorclassgift.psu.edu/ online.