Architecture students are rolling up their sleeves, readying to build a pavilion that will be the first feature at an art park along Camellia Boulevard.
They designed the open-air, dome-shaped structure, called a gridshell, with input from engineers. They also will build it, on a patch of green space near Mount Vernon Drive, with help from contractors.
The Camellia Gridshell Pavilion will consist of a framework of crisscrossed oak slats topped with white aluminum panels. At 40 feet long by 30 feet wide and 14 feet high, it will provide a shady spot for walkers, runners, and other visitors to the art park.
Jessica Prejean is one of about 20 undergraduate and graduate students who have worked on the project since it began in March 2013. She said students have been busy this week prepping wood and testing other components of the structure.
“The foundation has been poured, and we’re waiting for a nice window in the weather to get started. Hoepfully, we will be on site next week,” Prejean said.
The pavilion is partially funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, as part of the Thinking While Doing initiative.
Students, professors and community officials collaborate on projects in their communities. The objective is to develop and test new and innovative construction technologies.
Nine universities and Parks Canada, a governmental agency run by the country’s minister of the environment, are participating.
Four of the universities – the University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada; the University of Arizona; and the University of North Carolina – are designing and constructing gridshells. They will band together to build a fifth gridshell next summer in Nova Scotia.
Work on UL Lafayette’s Camellia Gridshell Pavilion is being coordinated with Lafayette Consolidated Government and the Acadiana Center for the Arts.
Geoff Gjertson, an associate professor of architecture who is guiding the University’s project, said many local contractors and artisans are donating materials and services.
Grant money will cover about half of its $77,000 cost. Students also have started fundraising campaign.
To learn more about the Camellia Gridshell Pavilion project or how to make a donation, visit .
Photo: Architecture students have designed and will build an open-air, dome-shaped pavilion called a gridshell, the first feature at an art park along Camellia Boulevard. The pavilion will consist of a framework of crisscrossed oak slats topped with white aluminum panels.