Students will soon have a new and improved area from which to view the Boston skyline. Construction will begin this summer on the Tisch Library roof, with the tentative goal of being completed by the beginning of the next academic year.
Although the design is still a concept model and therefore subject to change, right now the plan is to create three outdoor "rooms" on the roof. The largest room would have the capacity to seat 200 occupants, with the other two capable of holding 75 and 25 people, respectively.
While not rooms in the traditional, enclosed sense, they will be more like three clearly defined areas and will add aesthetic value and space for different groups to gather.
"I think it will create different kinds of settings that will be very conducive to different types of conversations," Director of Galleries and Collections Amy Schlegel said.
Library Director Jo-Ann Michalak echoed this sentiment. "We all agree that the current roof has greater potential for events and beauty," she said.
The square-shaped area that students first encounter upon entering the roof will host the largest room, featuring a red and black abstract design and a sundial. To the left, there will be around 35 bundles of birch trees with a pavilion in the middle. The pavilion will be the smallest of the rooms.
"It's for a very small group or a person alone," Michalak said.
In the far left corner, a square checkerboard design with seating area around it will constitute the middle-sized room.
The model for the roof project is temporarily available for viewing in the library along with a DVD that explains the details.
While the idea for the project is not new, it only moved from theoretical to realistic after the Mendell family indicated their interest in contributing a donation for it. Their son, Alex Mendell, committed suicide in Sept. 2003 as a freshman.
The idea was then sent to the Boston-based Urban Arts Institute, a non-profit public arts facilitator, where different artists and architects made proposals. To take on the project, a committee selected Jackie Friedman, a public artist, and M. Paul Friedberg, a landscape architect, out of the more than 165 applications.
Ferrara and Friedberg have worked together on several projects, including one in Arizona, where they designed the award-winning "Canal Demonstration Project."
While construction contracts have not yet been secured and fundraising remains incomplete, Vice President of Operations John Roberto said that the "bulk of the work" will be completed over the summer, with the entire project taking four to six months. If there are delays, the project could be ongoing when students return in the fall, just as the construction in Hotung is now.
Both Roberto and Michalak said the new look would in no way interfere with the Green Roof Collaborative Project that is taking place on the lower roof area. This doctoral research project, headed by biology graduate student Colleen Butler, began this summer and is expected to last for two years.
For this project, around 400 containers filled with plants have been placed on the lower roof. The goal of the project is to test 20 different plant species and develop an understanding of their capacities and viability.
Rob Silverblatt contributed reporting to this article
