Public Installation by Lopez and Collaborators Blurs the Line between Learning and Play Spaces
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Assistant Professor of Architecture César A. Lopez (team lead), with project collaborators Jess Myers, Amelyn Ng, and Germán Pallares-Avitia, recently exhibited PUBLIC / SCHOOL / GROUNDS as part of Exhibit Columbus, a two-year cycle of programming by Landmark Columbus Foundation that uses the modern legacy of Columbus, Indiana to convene conversations and commission installations to create a free exhibition, demonstrating the power of public art and architecture. Lopez, Myers, Ng, and Pallares-Avitia were selected as one of six teams across the nation named 24-25 University Design Research Fellows (UDRF). Each UDRF team partnered with a Columbus-based organization to develop their site-responsive installations.
On view and open for all to engage with from August 16th to November 30th, PUBLIC / SCHOOL / GROUNDS draws inspiration from the dynamic roofscapes of public schools in Columbus, seminal architectural works of the modern era. These public schools, designed and built in the 1950s and 60s, include Lillian C. Schmitt Elementary School (architect Harry Weese, 1957), Parkside Elementary School (architect Norman Fletcher, 1962), L. Frances Smith Elementary School (architect John M. Johansen, 1969), and Southside Elementary School (architect Eliot Noyes, 1969).
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Partnering with Columbus’s Central Middle School and Columbus Signature Academy (CSA) Lincoln Elementary School, the project team’s installation of outdoor furniture aims to break the conventional boundaries of the classroom, while still referencing the striking roof forms expressed in the city’s midcentury architectural works. Installed on the grounds of Central Middle School, a variety of colorful, hard, soft and furry platforms, designed at reclining angles and with sinuous curves, foster a sense of openness and spontaneity in educational environments.
Researching the history of classrooms, the team reflected on the ubiquitous approach to teacher-centered spaces, with students sitting in rows facing the front — and with walls that tended to separate students from other classrooms and the outdoors.
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“We envisioned treating our project like a new prototype for a classroom that would embody different forms and types of spaces, textures, and sensory experiences," said Lopez. “Most classrooms offer a one-size-fits-all solution. [Instead, we wanted our installation to] bolster creativity and allow more variation in the types of spaces young learners excel in.”
As part of their design process early on the team held a workshop during which they asked students at Central Middle School to trace one another in comfortable positions. They also asked elementary and middle school students what they would do if they weren’t at a desk, on a chair, and inside a building while at school. Those diagrams and insights, paired with the rooflines of local schools, informed the geometries and configurations of the outdoor furniture. The resulting playscape is a series of dynamic and undulating forms with novel seating arrangements, rather than the typical rigid classroom “box.”
The installation incorporate materials and sounds from the classroom to engage multiple senses, encouraging students of all ages to learn in new reposes, clusters and heights. The team describes, “This outdoor classroom has no back-row students or marker boards. Instead, [students] will discover nooks to learn together and from one another, promoting a student-led environment.”
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Blurring the line between learning and play, the design elements of PUBLIC / SCHOOL / GROUNDS are paired with a curriculum and list of sensory-based activities developed with input from teachers and students at Central Middle School. The Exhibit Columbus installations and programming foreground how discovery is an active and spatial process where design can play a role in setting the stage. Lopez said, “We’ve envisioned how [students and visitors] will use this space, but we’re curious about how they are going to do it. They are going to see the spaces through [another] lens. We’re authoring the design and the space and the materials and the sensory experience; ultimately, it’s up to the students to leverage how this will [be used].”
Team
PUBLIC / SCHOOL / GROUNDS was designed, developed and fabricated by UDR Fellows César A. Lopez (University of Virginia), Amelyn Ng (Columbia University), Jess Myers (Syracuse University), Germán Pallares-Avitia (Rhode Island School of Design); Research Team RISD Students (Runqing Chen, Yik Heng Lee, Priyanka Kumar); Syracuse Students (Isaac Chin, Elijah Villarosa Ramos); GSAPP Students (Elise Cloutier, Mia Henry, Esther Su)
Community Partner
Central Middle School and Columbus Signature Academy Lincoln Elementary School
Fabrication Support
Andrés Lemus-Spont, Cooperation Racine, The University of Virginia School of Architecture and Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts, Syracuse University School of Architecture, Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation Making Studio, The Rhode Island School of Design Department of Architecture
Additional Support
Principal Brett Findley and the students at Lincoln Elementary School, Columbus Indiana Architectural Archives, Firefighters at Fire Station No.4, Melissa Goldman, Mohamed Ismail, Katie MacDonald, Andrew Mondschein, Jeana Ripple, Kyle Schumann, Chris Cavino, Steve Forster, Nancy Hard, Andy Molloy, Kristin Shapiro
Presented by
Johnson Ventures
On display through late November 2025, PUBLIC / SCHOOL / GROUNDS is located at Central Middle School. The full exhibition map and field guide can be found at the Exhibit Columbus website.
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Exhibit Columbus is a program of Landmark Columbus Foundation and an exploration of community, architecture, art, and design that activates the modern legacy of Columbus, Indiana.
For the fifth cycle of Exhibit Columbus, Yes And invited contributors to explore the legacy of Columbus, Indiana, by adding to the multiple and overlapping lives of buildings and spaces. Originating in improv theater, Yes And is a technique for affirming and building upon an idea to create a shared narrative. It is a participatory call to work from existing material to shape positive change.
Through a cycle of events, Exhibit Columbus encourages the public to collaborate in the creation of the ongoing performance of the city, to expand what forms of togetherness and collaboration are possible.
24-25 Exhibit Columbus Curatorial Partners
Could Be Design (Architects, Chicago and Urbana-Champaign, IL); Mila Lipinski (Architectural Associate, Jackson, MS); Rasul Mowatt (Writer and Educator, Raleigh, NC); Preservation Futures (Preservationists, Architect and Historian, Chicago, IL); Too Black (Artist and Poet, Indianapolis, IN).
