Willamette University Breaks Ground For Innovative Residential Commons

Set to open at Willamette University late in 2006, the 65,000 square-foot, $13 million Kaneko Commons project will include a 150-175 bed addition to the existing Kaneko Hall and will feature suites and apartments, housing for a faculty member, an enlarged dining facility and upscale meeting and activity spaces.

“The development of this innovative, on-campus living community will distinguish Willamette from other universities in the West,” said Robert Hawkinson, dean of campus life. “While the design components are distinctive, it’s the integration of the curricular and co-curricular lives of our students that sets it apart. Adding live-in faculty brings increased cultural programming and an opportunity for students to engage outside the classroom.”

While relatively new to the Willamette campus, the residential commons concept is firmly rooted in the college models at Oxford and Cambridge (13th century), and more recently, Harvard and Yale (1930’s).

In the spring of 2001, following 18 months of research, debate, and student and faculty interviews, the University Campus Life Task Force recommended that Willamette reinvent its residential living model and create “commons” distinguished by flexible, graduated housing arrangements, self-governance and substantial faculty presence, including a live-in faculty member and his/her family.

Hawkinson said, “The schematic design of the Kaneko Commons is the result of six years of comprehensive research and planning for the reinvention of residential living at Willamette University. More than 70 students, faculty and staff have been involved with the project – serving on committees, visiting other institutions, and conducting focus groups with their peers. Members of the Willamette Board of Trustees and University alumni have also been actively involved.”

The Kaneko Commons will have spaces to accommodate individual and group social and learning activities. This will include study rooms, classrooms, multi-purpose areas, traditional television lounges, and laundry facilities. These spaces, all centrally located, will also serve as the “physical” connection between the existing Kaneko Hall and the newly constructed housing. Circulation patterns and incidental meeting and study spaces will also be designed to encourage community. Dining options will include apartment kitchens, community kitchens and enlarged food service and dining area.

Kaneko Hall, the residential wing of Tokyo International University of America (TIUA), was selected as the site for the first residential commons. The Kaneko Commons project will add a new standard of community vitality for the 200 Willamette University students already residing in Kaneko Hall, and the 150-plus residents who will move in to the new facility. In support of the Kaneko Commons project, Tokyo International University of America (TIUA) made a substantial contribution to Willamette University in May 2003. The project will be funded by a combination of cash gifts and tax-exempt municipal bonds.

“Throughout the design process of the Kaneko Commons,” Hawkinson said, “the University has reinforced its commitment to sustainability. Although many important decisions have yet to be made, the Kaneko Commons project has the unique opportunity to set a dual precedent for sustainable and quality design and construction practices for future residential commons projects.”

Design Architects – Zimmer Gunsul Frasca
Contractor – Hoffman Construction
Structural – Degenkolb Engineers
Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing Engineers – PAE Engineers

(For more information, please call Robert Hawkinson, dean of campus life, at 503-370-6447, Kristen Grainger, vice president and executive assistant to the president, at 503-375-5474, or Gunnar Gundersen, executive vice president of Tokyo International University, at 503-510-5933.)

The groundbreaking ceremony will take place Saturday, May 14, at 2 p.m. in the area adjacent to the TIUA tennis courts. TIUA is accessed from 12th Street near the skybridge at 12th and Mill Street.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art Announces 2005-06 Exhibition Schedule

Salem, Ore. – The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University has announced its exhibition schedule for 2005-06.

Major exhibitions scheduled for the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery include:

The Romantic Vision of Michael Brophy features work by this highly regarded Portland landscape painter. Through works that depict the savage beauty of the altered landscapes of Oregon’s rivers, forests, and mountains, Brophy carefully engages the social and political forces reshaping the national dialogues that define environmental preservation and sustainability. Organized by the Tacoma Art Museum in collaboration with the Hallie Ford Museum, the exhibition includes 24 works from the past 15 years. It will run June 4 to Aug. 27.

Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread features superb examples of traditional and contemporary Maori weaving. Organized by the Pataka Museum of Arts and Cultures in Porirua City, New Zealand, in partnership with Toi Maori Aotearoa-Maori Arts New Zealand, and with major funding from Te Waka Toi/Creative New Zealand, the exhibition includes kakahu (high quality woven cloaks), whariki (woven floor mats), kete (finely woven baskets), and other exquisite woven pieces. The show will run from Sept. 24 to Dec. 23.

Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation features more than 80 works that bring to life the complex cultures that flourished across the Asian grasslands from northern China and Mongolia to Central Asia and Eastern Europe during the late second and first millennia BCE. Organized by the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation in New York, the exhibition includes bronze belt buckles, plaques, weapons, and other masterpieces of steppe art. This exhibit runs Jan. 21 to April 1, 2006.

Senior Art Majors is an annual exhibition that features the work of senior art majors at Willamette University. The exhibition includes work in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, ceramics, photography and mixed media. This show runs April 15-May 13, 2006.

Andrea Wallace: Recent Work features recent work by this highly regarded Willamette University art faculty member, who teaches photography and digital art. This exhibit shows April 15-May 13, 2006.

Smaller exhibitions scheduled for the Study Gallery include Darius Kinsey: Big Trees (May 14-Aug. 13, 2005); Michael Aschenbrenner: Damaged Bones (Aug. 20-Oct. 22, 2005); Albert Patecky: Abstractions (Oct.29-Dec. 23, 2005); Tom Foolery: Miniature Environments (Jan. 7-March 11, 2006); and Dean Porter: Taos Landscapes (March 18-May 20, 2006).

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free and Tuesday is an admission free day.

For further information, please call 503-370-6855.

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Darius Kinsey: Big Trees at Hallie Ford Museum

Salem, Ore. – Darius Kinsey (1869-1945) was an important turn-of-the-century Washington photographer who, with his wife, Tabitha, chronicled the logging industry in northwest Washington from the 1890s to 1940. A small exhibition of Kinsey's work, Darius Kinsey: Big Trees, will open May 14 and continue through Aug. 13 in the Study Gallery at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University.

Kinsey was born in Missouri in 1869 and at age 20 moved to Snoqualmie, Wash. A photography studio in Snoqualmie drew his curiosity and in 1890 he bought his first camera and embarked on a 50-year career as a professional photographer.

Although his works are in some of the most distinguished photography collections in the United States, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Kinsey's photographs were not intended as works of art but as records of the people, places, and industries of the time. His portraits of loggers and homesteaders are remarkable for their clarity and verisimilitude, while his photographs of mountains, glaciers, rivers, waterfalls and deep forests capture nature at its most pristine.

Among his most popular subjects were scenes from the various phases of the logging industry, from the first cut of a giant cedar tree to the skid roads and lumber mills of rural Washington. Other subjects included transportation, such as the oxen, steam donkeys, sleds, and steam locomotives that were used to move the logs from the deep forests to the lumber mills, and architecture, such as homesteads, hotels, churches, trestles, and other structures made from the giant cedar trees logged in Washington and Oregon.

Photographs have been selected from the vast collection of the Whatcom Museum of History and Art in Bellingham, Wash., which acquired more than 5,000 Kinsey negatives in the early 1980s. Additionally, the exhibition includes one of his cameras, his timer, a stereoscope with several Kinsey stereoscopic views, Kinsey postcards, and a host of related ephemera.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For further information, please call 503-370-6855.

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Willamette University History Scholars Shine

Two Willamette University history students have garnered prestigious summer Fellowships at nationally-recognized historical programs. Kylie Pine, a junior majoring in American studies, has been accepted to Historic Deerfield’s Summer Fellowship program in Deerfield, Mass. Will Cannon, a junior history major, has won a fellowship to the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s summer History Scholars program in New York City.

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Willamette University Graduates Win National Science Foundation Awards

Three Willamette University chemistry graduates have been honored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Brandon B. Smith, a 2004 graduate from John Day, Ore., and Benjamin J.D. Wright, a 2003 graduate from Allentown, Penn., have both been awarded prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. Ashley Smith, a 2004 graduate from Portland, Ore., has received an NSF honorable mention.

The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship program supports outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees. NSF Fellows are expected to become experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching and innovations in science and engineering.

Competition for the NSF Fellowships is stiff. To be considered, applicants must submit transcripts, test scores, three recommendations and four different essays which discuss, among other things, their research plans, research background and their goals for the future.

Brandon Smith, Wright and Ashley Smith all hope to eventually teach chemistry in a university setting.

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