Marywood University’s architecture students built and presented pavilions for the public to see and experience in November’s First Friday in downtown Scranton.
“Architecture is not just about materials and buildings but also how people and community will interact with it,” said Matthew Mindrup, assistant professor of architecture.
Students from the architecture program were split into three groups and started brainstorming for the pavilion project in the beginning of October. Each team finally revealed their three distinctive pavilions on Friday, Nov. 4 at Courthouse Square in downtown Scranton.
The architecture students worked hard to make sure that their exotic creations were ready in time and met all of Pennsylvanian’s building codes and regulations.
“There were a lot of requirements, but the most important ones were to make a unique, sustainable and transportable pavilion,” said Nicholas Tomasetti, junior architecture student. “We had to make sure that that once we built the pavilion, we could easily take it apart, transport it and reassemble it.”
Once the pavilions were in place, the architecture students stayed downtown to observe how the public would interact with the pavilions and answer any questions.
“It was funny to see people’s reactions. Almost everyone walking by stopped and looked at each one for a while,” said Dave Botsheller, junior architecture student.
The students got a rare opportunity to not only build something and show it off to the local community, but also to learn from observing individuals experiences with the pavilions.
“This was a great learning experience, seeing people actually using and enjoying something that I built made all of the hard work and time spent on this project worthwhile,” said Bart Bajda, architecture student.