Third-year architecture students at NDSU designed live-in studio spaces for the N.D. Museum of Art, Grand Forks, N.D., new artist-in-residence program. Their sketches, photographs and models are on display at the museum through March 20. The exhibit is titled “McCanna House Studies: Explorations of Studios and Living Spaces by NDSU Architecture Students.”
Last fall, 19 students traveled to McCanna, N.D., to visit the ancestral home and farmstead of Margery McCanna Jennison. She willed the house and land to the museum to develop as an artist-in-residence colony for artists, composers and writers. Situated on 10 acres 35 miles west of Grand Forks, the 1920 French-style country house was built by Joseph Bell DeRemer, one of the region’s first architects. The studios will be nestled into the shelterbelt surrounding the farmstead.
The students were charged with designing combination studio and living spaces for visiting artists.
Laurel Reuter, director of the North Dakota Museum of Art, outlined a few project requirements for the students. The studio should be on the ground floor and a modest living space on the second with sleeping quarters, a bathroom, an efficiency kitchen or kitchenette and some storage. Because the cottage-like buildings would be situated in a grove of trees dominated by cottonwoods, she wanted them to consider designing a sleeping porch on the upper floor.
During the semester, students explored, researched and created sketches and models of proposed live-in studio designs. They then presented their work as their final project. The students’ proposals were unveiled to the public during an opening reception Feb. 12 at the North Dakota Museum of Art.
Regin Schwaen, associate professor of architecture, was eager to get his students involved in the project. “As an architect and a teacher in architecture I was very happy to be able to create a task within the academic realm with focus on different arts. Together with North Dakota Museum of Art we decided to have students from third year at NDSU create separate cabins for a musician, a writer, a sculptor and a painter. Most students had never before thought in those dimensions, to design rooms for the arts.”
Student Brittany L. Taplin enjoyed working on the project. “I loved this project. For a typical studio project, we have a real site, but the client is usually imaginary. In this case, we had a real client, Laurel, who we could talk to and ask specific questions. She could describe to us what she envisioned. It is also nice to know that our project could be inspiration for the architect who will be hired to ultimately design the final artist-in-residence spaces.”
If one of the student designs were to be adopted, a North Dakota licensed architect would lead the project.
Student Casey Cotcamp said, “As architecture students we were fortunate to have this opportunity to develop for a real client, to take into consideration what an artist really needs, and build our designs based on that.” Another student Matt Fremstad said, “It was exciting to be a part of a project that generates interest into what will hopefully become an actual project that will greatly benefit the N.D. Museum of Art.
The N.D. Museum of Art is located at 261 Centennial Drive in Grand Forks. The museum hours are weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekends from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. There is no general admission, however there is a suggested donation of $5 from adults and change from children. For more information, call 701-777-4195 or visit www.ndmoa.com.