US + Beijing Workshop
Summer of 2013 consisted of more than Tennessee’s mountains, rivers and valleys for me this year. It was a special one shared with twenty-five students and three professors who came overseas from the Beijing Institute of Graphic Design. For the first time, our College of Architecture and Design hosted the USA+Beijing Workshop, led by Professor Mary Beth Robinson and David Matthews. The workshop was a 3-day Wayfinding Charette designed for pedestrians and vehicular usage traveling between downtown Knoxville and the UT campus. As a result, not only did four great designs come to success, but, more essentially, it was an opportunity that allowed for strong friendship to build through cultural interaction.
Early in the process, we spent the first few days exploring Knoxville together as an initiative to the charrette: strolling through Market Square, listening to bluegrass music, visiting the city’s mayor, and taking pictures of heat-struck strangers sleeping soundlessly on benches along Gay Street. We walked the graveled trails of the Appalachian Museum and heard the waters of Norris Dam. I remember our last dinner together too; the most memorable one that week. Our Beijing friends home-cooked nine traditional Chinese dishes in less than two hours, and so heavenly it tasted! It was this night, too, that our silhouettes danced together so lightly on the corner of Gay Street and Jackson Avenue, under a canopy of rain falling against the sky that turned a warm UT orange.
It was the morning after our review that we left for Washington, D.C. The Corcoran and Renwick Art Galleries were two of the several stops we made, along with the Capitol Building. Shortly after, on July 20th, we arrived in New York City. We ate and drank and shopped and walked all that the Big Apple had to offer. From the Statue of Liberty to Ground Zero and through the work of great artists displayed at MoMA, we experienced it all together. We spiraled the Guggenheim and cheered for the Mets. We climbed to the Top of Rock and learned at Colombia University. We visited alumni and exchanged wonderful stories. However, it is the in-betweens that I never want to forget: the laughter at odd happenings on the subway or the faces that glowed when Grand Central Station came to our eyes. It was an indescribable 4 days that overflowed with love and inspiration, yet still it did not seem enough. But it was this summer that a total of thirty students (five being UT representatives) came together successfully not only as designers but as life-long friends. For now, I guess I can say it is all I can ever deserve.
submitted by Jennifer Nguyen