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Lobby 7 design winners announced

Lobby 7 design winners announced

The winners of the Lobby 7 Design Competition were publicly announced last Friday. Frederick C. Kim ’11 and Kayla C. Manning ’11, competing as a team, and Benjamin J. Peters ’11 won first place prizes in the undergraduate competition, while Florence N. Doughty G, Nadine M. Volicer G, and Ann C. Woods G won in the graduate section, also as a team. The competition, launched in May of last year, asked students to design creative adornments for the four empty plinths of Lobby 7.

Mark M. Jarzombek PhD ’86, Associate Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning, described Peters’ design as four dense machines of varying shapes that function by pressing a red button. Kim and Manning’s winning design consisted of small, lightweight mechanical birdlike aluminum structures, which Jarzombek described as clever and dynamic for their nighttime illumination.

The design by Doughty, Volicer, and Woods created an interactive installation that projected words, spoken into the muzzle of their design, around the inside of the lobby’s dome. Jarzombek highlighted the amusing quality of their design, calling it “hilarious and fun.”

An honorable mention was awarded to Rebecca K. Uchill G and Ana Maria Leon Crespo G for a design that utilized subjects as opposed to objects. With the funding for their design, they hired live performers and engaged artists for a staged event. Bethany D. Patten ’11’s design also won runner-up among the undergraduates for her vision of hanging installations for the plinths.

—Aparna Sud