Alumni/Friends

North Carolina State University’s College of Design celebrated the opening of its yearround Prague Institute on Friday, June 24 with Dean Marvin J. Malecha joining inter national and university dignitaries at a grand opening ceremony in the city in the Czech Republic.

Representatives from the U.S. embassy were on hand along with university adminis trators to mark the opening of the institute, which is the first international center for NC State. Building on 14 years of summer design studios in Prague, the institute will now offer year-round educational programs. Semester-long courses will be organized and presented by College of Design faculty in collaboration with local designers and scholars. The institute will also continue to host summer studios and other programs. The unique context of an old European city and the larger Eastern Europe setting will be incorporated into the learning initiatives through case studies, field trips and short excursions. The institute is located on a medieval

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street in the center of “Old Town” Prague and is situated in one of the city’s main art districts, which includes a number of art galleries, bookshops, cafes and restaurants.

After running the NC State Summer Study in Prague Program for 14 years, Dana Bartelt will serve as resident director of the institute. Bartelt previously served as associate professor of graphic design at Loyola University in New Orleans. She received her bachelor’s of environmental design in landscape architecture and her master’s degree in graphic design at NC State. Her research focuses on Central European and Middle Eastern topics in graphic art and design.

Among the other officials who attended the institute’s opening were; former Interim Chancellor Robert Barnhardt; Provost Larry Nielsen; and Vice Provost for International Affairs George Wilson. Several deans and department heads from the College of Design and other NC State colleges also participated in the event along with administrators and faculty from Czech Technical and Purkyne universities in Prague.

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Article by W. Michael Leigh, Graduate Student, Department of Landscape Architecture

This past summer students from the College of Design spent six weeks at the new home of the NC State Prague Institute. Located in Old Town portion of Prague, Czech Republic the new Prague Institute occupies two floors above a teashop and art gallery. The two floors provide views into a private courtyard, and allow students to sit on the two-level porches to sketch, snack, or water the flowers. Summer semester hosted two design studios. Eleven students attended the Art + Design studio where the summer was spent on a painting studio. Twelve students from Architecture and Landscape Architecture where involved in an Urban Design Studio. The Art + Design studio was taught by Kathleen Rieder from the College of Design, assisted by Jan Hisek, a local painter from Prague. The studio spent the semester working on sight paintings, inspirational work, sketching, and visiting various art museums, artist’s studios and working in the outdoors.

Angelo Abbate, Professor of Landscape Architecture, and Wendy Redfield, Associate Professor of Architecture taught the Urban Design studio. Assisting the studio was Martin Perlik, a local architect who has been involved with the program for the past 10 years. The 12 students paired up to form six groups of one architecture and one landscape architecture student team to work on six individual urban design problems throughout the semester. The semester was spent completing site analysis, concept diagrams, final site plans including sections, elevations, plans, perspectives and building site models. Other projects included neigh borhood sketching, site visits to gardens and local architect projects.

In addition, both groups visited Vienna, Austria, and spent three days touring the South Bohemia region of Czech Republic.