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BY KEVIN CARR

In print | March 24, 2005

Although students had the opportunity to participate in the creation of the student lounge in the renovated Parrish Hall through a design contest, winners of the competition have had limited say in the final design of the lounge.

The lounge design will not be done solely according to one student’s proposal, as some were initially led to believe when the contest was announced. Instead, the plan is to incorporate ideas from each student. “We want to get input from the winning students and work them into the design,” Susan Sayer, project manager for the Parrish renovation, said.

According to Sayer, 11 students submitted proposals and four winning designs were chosen. The winning proposals were designed by Jessica Mandrick ’07, Serena Le ’07 and Marie Kim ’07, Stella Kyriakopoulos ’05, and Joey Roth ’06.

Roth said he was upset that more than one design was chosen. “I was surprised and disappointed that the judges chose four first-place winners instead of one. They never explained why they did this,” Roth said.

“The students’ ideas will definitely be incorporated, especially the ideas that ran through all of the submissions,” Sayer said. According to Sayer, these ideas include “the lounge [as] an important north-south connection for the campus” and the lounge as a “place to relax and hang out, not another study setting.”

Mandrick said she understood the benefits of awarding multiple designs. “I believed the competition was going to choose a first- and second-place winner, but I think that having multiple winners was a good idea. One person cannot think of everything,” she said in an e-mail. “Considering that the space will be used by the entire student body, it is beneficial to have input from multiple students because a broader range of tastes can be accounted for.”

In regard to the specifics of the design, Sayer said she wants to “reinforce that we are appreciative for student’s ideas.” “I hope that as many of their ideas as possible can be built into the project,” she said." The winning students were invited to attend meetings with the design team to discuss the final design. “There have been two meetings with the students thus far,” Sayer said. “Attendance … has been mixed, I think, because of conflicting schedules.”

Roth said he stopped going to the meetings because he did not feel as though he’d have sufficient influence on the final outcome. “I went to one meeting with the interior designer, and it seemed like they were going to use way less of our input than I had thought, so I stopped going to other meetings.”

Kyriakopoulos said the designers did incorporate some of her and the other winners’ ideas in the final design. “You can see some elements of our ideas in the final design. I think the designer’s own style suited, complemented and streamlined some basic ideas that ran through our proposals,” she said in an e-mail.

At this point, “there is a finalized design and we’re awaiting a finish board from the designer,” Sayer said. “When it arrives,” Sayer said, “we will get it posted in Parrish so everyone can have an opportunity to see it.” According to Sayer, the only aspects of the new lounge set in stone are a new central stair, new elevators, a new student lounge, post office, the Parrish Parlours, new carpeting, lighting and wall treatments.

The range of ideas in the winning designs varied. Kyriakopoulos described her own proposal as focusing on “color, vibrancy and warmth.” It uses “spatial dividers and colorful lighting fixtures,” she said. Roth’s design calls for the use of Lycra ceilings, natural moss and hanging lamps. Also, he proposes LED lighting for the mailboxes to both alert students of new mail and create a “visually striking wall of randomly illuminated boxes, reminiscent of an apartment building at night.”

Roth attributed the relatively low level of participation in the contest to the amount of work required to make an entry. “I put about seven hours into my entry,” he said.

His entry, which according to Sayer was chosen for its “innovative use of lighting and materials,” can be viewed at joeyroth.com/parrish/parrishindex.htm.

Proposals were judged by a panel consisting of Sayer, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Joy Charlton, Associate Dean for Student Life Myrt Westphal, Coordinator of Student Activities Jenny Yim, Vice President Larry Schall '75 and Office Occupant Liaison Mimi Geiss.

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