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College of Design

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Scott J. Newland

University of Minnesota - B.Arch '83

What was the most important thing/skill/concept you learned at the School of Architecture?
Lateral thinking, which is the process of looking at problems from different points of view and at different scales (as opposed to linear thinking) in order to approach a solution with as little carryover of initial preconceptions and prejudices as possible. As someone who tends to go toward the linear and logical, this concept of lateral thinking has proven helpful over and over since school.

Who made the most lasting impression (most influenced you) and why?
Two fellow students immediately come to mind: Elizabeth O'Donnell and John Rode. From each of them, in my first and second years of being in the design studio, I was fundamentally impressed with their designs and how beautifully they were drawn. I consider the experiences gained from interactions with peers more lasting than lessons learned from the staff.

What is your favorite memory from your studio days?
Simply being in the studio with others, working on designs, and being able to share ideas and see different ways of approaching any given problem.

Please identify one (or more) memorable design project that you worked on while a student at the School of Architecture.
In 2nd year studio with Stanley Fishman, we had the assignment to design a replacement for the movie theater in Dinkytown; a new double-screen facility. It was memorable to me because I started feeling like I had a unique design solution I liked that received much encouragement and support from fellow students, and that I presented with what I considered innovative presentation board formatting. It was also a project that still shows the strong influence of Frank Lloyd Wright, a clear hero of mine at the time. Another project that was memorable was an early, abstract problem in 1st year studio with Ray Geiger. The problem, as I recall, was to develop a model that conveyed the essence of a wall, a door, and a window using architectonically-developed geometry. It wasn't like anything I'd done before and it was a good experience, with a solution that I still like.

What major forces (such as individual architects, design philosophies, rendering styles, research methods, etc.) do you remember influencing you significantly as a student?
Influential architects at that time, for me, included Rapson, Wright, Aalto, Kahn and engineers such as Nervi and Morandi. High tech design approaches were the most compelling to me, and it was hard not to be influenced to some degree by Post-Modernism. There were many drawing styles that had a profound influence on me in school, from Ralph Rapson and Frank Nemeth's renderings to some of the loose, colorful pen and colored pencil work of some students, to my professional mentor at the time, Michael Plautz.

Cite an example (be specific) that illustrates how you used the education you received at the School of Architecture to positively impact (or better) your community, city, nation or the world.
The Foreign Study program was formative for me in that the 2 1/2 month experience in China allowed me to experience a radically different culture and meet peers from the culture. From that experience, and from a return trip I made 5 years later on my own to follow up with 2 Chinese students, I have shared lessons both ways - publishing an article on Chinese architectural developments in Architecture Minnesota, sharing with my Chinese colleagues parallels and difference between our respective professional contexts, etc. Through all of this, I have been able to more effectively work with my own clients to whom the U.S. is not their birthplace, and to see our own community in a more global perspective, something that is increasingly important today.



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