Ross Barney Revisits the School
By Meghan Dufresne, News Editor
Carol Ross Barney, the founder of Ross Barney + Jankowski and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign school of architecture alumna, revisited the school to give a lecture on October 11. In her lecture, entitled "Beyond Metaphor: Shaping Buildings," Ross Barney stressed the importance of innovation and collaboration.
According to Ross Barney, architects rely on history, context and technology to shape their buildings. She described the impacts these had on a few of her recent projects. She began talking about her design for the United States Federal Campus General Services Administration Building in Oklahoma City. After a seven-year effort, the U.S. Federal Building was dedicated in May 2004. Because of the 1997 bombing of the original building, employees were highly concerned about the safety of the new facility. The building was designed to resist blast and progressive collapse, but Ross Barney explained that it is impossible to design for threats that you cannot imagine.
The Federal Building also contains many environmental elements. The building was designed to be a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver building. After conducting summer and winter sun studies, Ross Barney shaped the façade to address both horizontal and vertical shading.
Ross Barney then discussed a science building that her firm is currently working on, the James I. Swenson Science Building at the University of Minnesota in Duluth, Minn. In order to illustrate the area's mining history, Ross Barney initially used a load-bearing rock called taconite for the building. Ross Barney explained how this rock did not work out because it had stress fractures when it was tested. Since they were unable to predict when the rocks would fail, Barney explained that she clad the building in slate.
The last project that Ross Barney discussed was the Ford Calumet Environmental Center competition in Chicago. Ross Barney's concept was to somehow create an anthill-like building out of dirt that would be excavated from the site. Ultimately, she used the dirt in a load-bearing way by filling wire baskets with stone from the site. The building was designed to be ecologically friendly. Over time the entire building would become overrun with greenery. In the winter a drip panel creates a wall of ice for extra insulation. In the spring and summer, this ice melts, resulting in evaporative cooling of the space.
Ross Barney closed her talk by discussing different issues to consider when designing a building. Her most important points encouraged architects to dream and look at every new project with fresh eyes.
