 "Photo: Jeremy Pharo/Staff Photographer")
A miniature Stealth Bee tank dressed as a Scarlet Knight sped across the floor in the Rutgers Student Center last night.
It was decorated like a Scarlet Knight and ran over Louisville road kill in the process.
Antoine Predock, head architect of his self-named firm, was the driver of the remote-controlm Rutgers-clad vehicle. A crowd of 300 gathered to watch he and four other archeticture teams present their their new College Avenue designs to the University in the Multipurpose Room of the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus.
Each design team consisted of architects and landscape architects, and many include firms with different design backgrounds to help complete their models.
A fleet Predock's "Stealth Bees," which look like futuristic tanks, would replace the University's buses if his design were implemented completely.
Predock, with partner Cindy Sanders, a principal in Olin Partnership and Rutgers Alumna, also excited the crowd when he talked about his idea for "Grease Trucks Plaza," an area dedicated solely to the Grease Trucks, solidifying their permanence at the University. Predock's team focused on eco-friendliness in their design. The main building, called the Rutgers Hearth, would be completely self-sustained, its climate controlled with solar power. The Stealth Bees would also be powered by absorbing solar energy from lasers shot out of other self-sustainable buildings.
But the main focus of their design was that the proposed new buildings and landscapes worked together.
"We see architecture and landscape as needing to be intertwined, one informing the other," Sanders said. "We want to minimize and obscure the boundaries between architecture and landscape."
With a slightly different outlook, Peter Eisenman, founder and principal of Eisenman Architects, said he thinks the landscape should come before the architecture.
"We believe that great campuses are remembered by great spaces, not great buildings," Eisenman said. "That is why we did not give any priority to great buildings, but to great spaces."
Although not focusing on buildings, Eisenman's team, which also consisted of Field Operations as landscape architects, did call for a signature academic building, which is one of the contest's requirements.
Another group, Beyer Blinder Belle and Planners, a landscape architectural firm, went a completely different route with focusing on much more than just College Avenue. Its design encompassed every campus at the University.
John Beyer, a founder and principal at the firm, said there was a lot of thought put into how exactly they should develop the design when they first visited the University.
"We noticed that all four campuses in themselves work separately, but the University in its entirety didn't work well together," Beyer said.
The feature that most stood out in the plan included a MiniMetro light rail to transport students between campuses. Similar to a monorail, this transportation system would have a connective path that would connect all the campuses.
In the question-and-answer portion of the presentation, the teams were asked how their new, modern ideas would work together with the historic aspects of the University.
Enrique Norton, founder of TEN Architectos, answered first.
"It is very important to manifest the time and the element we are living in. Each one of the projects that are presented does that quite carefully," Norton said.
"What's good about the history of Rutgers is that it's always willing to take and face change," Eisenman said. "This competition is a great leap forward, it is amazing that any of us can participate in this future tradition."
All of the groups stressed this project, no matter which team is picked, would take a long time, spanning as much as 30 years. Thom Mayne, founder of Morphosis, said this is because it is not just a redesign, but is a transformation.
"This is an extremely interesting, more complicated project than many may think. Its not just an architecture project, it's a planning, urban design, strategic, tactical project," Mayne said.
"When you hire an architect, it's like getting married. And this is a long-term marriage," Eisenman said.
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