Model Building
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| Joe Vocaturo examining one of the trial models.
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| Joe Vocaturo with students Ted Segal, Jessie Hindle, Cecily King, Powell Draper, Katie Kelly, Kieran Kelly-Snead, Jennifer Pazdon, and Emily Roche |
The models were built over the course of three summers: 2006, 2007, and 2008. The first summer was mostly spent determining the most appropriate method for building the models. The creation of
exploratory models served as a basis for the work that was done during the next two years.
All of the models were built under the careful supervision of Joe Vocaturo who has served as the lab manager for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering since 1999. Before coming to Princeton, Joe was a Senior Staff Technician/Associate Test Specialist at Lockheed Martin, where he worked on space flight systems and launch operations. Currently, in addition to managing the labs, he advises and assists undergraduates, graduates, and researchers in both educational and research efforts. He has received the Princeton University Merit Award for laboratory teaching and commitment to students.
Joe suggested and demonstrated many of the techniques required to build the Candela models and mount them on their platforms. His craftsmanship, broad knowledge and experience were absolutely essential in the construction of every single model. Joe’s careful attention to detail contributed to the high quality of the models.
Several of the large models such as Restaurant Los Manantiales, the shell for Cosmic Rays, Bacardi, and the large Milagrosa models were printed at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey with the assistance and supervision of Patrick Sherwood. Patrick manages the Port Authority's Engineering Department Design Division's 3D Model Shop. In addition, he is active in the ACE Mentoring Program sponsored by the Port Authority for developing high school students interested in a future in engineering and architecture. Prior joining the Port Authority, he was President of AMI Models working with the leading architectural firms in the NY metropolitan area; he was an Associate and Head of the Model Studio at Skidmore, Ownings & Merrill/NY and a past member of the faculty at Parsons School of Design.
Patrick reviewed the computer files prior to printing these models as well as oversaw their handling. In the case of the Restaurant Los Manantiales Patrick assisted Eric Hui with assembling the parts. We could not have completed these very important models without Patrick’s patience and experience and the Port Authority’s generous giving of time and resources.
The models are comprised of three types: (1) Plaster models made with
a 3-D printer,
(2) Construction models that represent the scaffolding
and form boards used for construction, and (3) Woodstrip models where
the shell is made from strips of wood and a fiber fabric. The students
also developed computer animations that illustrate how the forms of
Los Manantiales and Cuernavaca were developed from the hyperbolic
paraboloid surface. A total of 19 students from the Department of Civil
and Environmental Engineering built the models. This includes 8
undergraduates, the majority of whom are in the Architecture and
Engineering program, and 11 graduate students. In alphabetical order a
brief bio of each student follows.
Undergraduate Students:
Sylvester Black (B.S.E class of 2009)
Sylvester is from Chicago. He was drawn to the Architecture and Engineering program’s unique overlap of creative design with practical structure. Though model construction was tedious, he found great satisfaction in realizing something that existed only as lines on paper hours before, and only as an idea hours before that. He intends to carry that passion for getting ideas into built form into the real world of engineering design, and looks forward to the day that he can walk across the 10th floor of a building that was only a pencil sketch in his notebook a few years before.
Christy Holzer (B.S.E class of 2007)
Through model building, Christy gained an appreciation for Candela’s structures as well as a better understanding how the shells functioned structurally, and how they were constructed. Christy applied this knowledge to her senior thesis on the Optimization of Thin Shelled Hypar Structures, where she focused her study on Candela’s Chapel at Cuernavaca. In this research, she studied the optimization of Candela’s shells through computer modeling and historical analysis. Christy remains interested in Candela and plans to pursue further study in the field of optimization.
Eric Hui (B.S.E class of 2009)
Eric is an international student from Hong Kong, the "concrete jungle" where he has gotten used to seeing large scale buildings. From Princeton's engineering curriculum, however, he has learnt to look at structures from a new angle, appreciating how the expression of form could lead to a piece of structural art. Understanding that size is not all that matters, he is stunned by the beauty of Candela's economical yet efficient thin shell concrete structures.
Plamen Ivanov (B.S.E class of 2008)
Originally from Bulgaria, Plamen came to Princeton to study architecture. After taking his first class with Professor David Billington, however, he was converted to civil engineering, and ended up graduating with a BSE in the Architecture and Engineering program. Studying Felix Candela's structures during the summer of his sophomore year was one of the highlights of his Princeton education: it illustrated Professor Billington's concept of Structural Art or how structures can be designed to satisfy engineering efficiency, social constraints, and aesthetic vision. He is now in Stanford University's Master of Science Program in Structural Engineering.
Cecily King (B.S.E class of 2010)
Cecily King, a New Jersey native, entered Princeton with an interest in structural engineering. It was not until she took Structures and the Urban Environment, a course offered by Professors David P. Billington and Maria E. Garlock, that she discovered her fascination with structural art. The hands-on nature of this project strengthened both her appreciation for this field and her admiration of the work of Félix Candela. She looks forward to further expanding her understanding of structural art through independent research and plans to apply its principles in a future career in engineering design.
Marianne Koch (B.S.E class of 2008)
Born and raised in New Jersey, Marianne chose to attend Princeton for its location, its reputation, and for its unique program in Architecture and Engineering. With an interest in civil engineering, architecture, and landscape, she likes working between fields and particularly enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the making of the Candela exhibition. Marianne is currently an engineer at Guy Nordenson and Associates and plans to attend graduate school in architecture.
Janice Lee (B.S.E class of 2009)
Janice was born and raised in New Jersey. Although she was reluctant to attend college only about an hour away from her home, she is glad she stuck around. She entered Princeton as an aspiring mechanical engineer, but she switched into the civil engineering department when she heard about the program that integrated both the aesthetics and functionality of design. One of her favorite hobbies is art and enjoys drawing and painting during her spare time.
Kira Schiavello (B.S.E class of 2008)
Kira is a resident of New Jersey and graduate of the Structural Engineering program at Princeton. Her work on the Candela exhibit helped affirm her passion for structural design and shape her direction of study. Kira was inspired by the concept that Candela's structures can be admired by all: engineers for the remarkable possibilities in obeying the laws of nature and the properties of materials, economists for the efficiency in design and contribution to society, and the passersby for the ability to turn technology into a work of art. Kira has received a Guggenheim Fellowship to pursue her MS/PhD at Columbia University.
Graduate Students:
Dallas Dissmore (M.S.E class of 2008)
Dallas Dissmore currently hails from Columbia, Missouri, where his father is stationed at nearby Fort Leonard Wood as an Army Chaplain. Having grown up as a military brat, Dallas has spent his life living in many different locales, including as far north as Germany and as far south as Hawai’i. Throughout his many travels, Dallas has become fascinated with the wide variety of both architectural styles and engineering innovations that builders have created throughout the world. Dallas completed his undergraduate degrees at Brown University in Civil Engineering and Economics and has done research on sustainable building materials with Professor Wole Soboyejo. He has been admitted as a Ph.D. student in civil engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.
Powell Draper (M.S.E. class of 2005, PhD class of 2008)
Powell earned a BA in history from Wake Forest University and a BS in civil engineering at the University of Virginia. He came to Princeton because of the unique opportunity to combine his background and interests in structural engineering, history, and aesthetics. His research looks at the current viability of thin shell concrete structures and has concentrated on the works of Félix Candela as some of the best examples from the past. In 2005, Professors Billington and Garlock sent him to Mexico to study the current condition of Candela's shells. Working on the models for the Candela exhibition has allowed him to learn aspects about the construction of Candela's shells that otherwise would not have been possible. Powell is now an assistant professor at Manhattan College.
Aaron Freidenberg (M.S.E class of 2009)
Aaron earned his B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Southern California prior to attending Princeton. The idea of structural art, as exemplified by the works of Candela, seeks to visually express fundamental engineering concepts through the form of the structure itself. The extraordinary thinness of Candela’s shells expresses efficient design in a way that is unmistakable. As Aaron has always been passionate about illustrating the theory of structures in ways that can be easily understood, the works of Candela have particular appeal.
Sarah Halsey (M.S.E class of 2006)
Sarah Halsey is a consulting engineer working at Leslie E. Robertson Associates, RLLP. As an undergraduate student at Princeton University, she was interested in majoring in mathematics or architecture; however she switched into the Architecture and Engineering Program after taking Professor David P. Billington’s course “Structures in the Urban Environment”. It was his emphasis on the integration of efficiency, economics, and aesthetics and his ability to illustrate his ideas through actual works that appealed to her and inspired her to become an engineer. Candela’s commitment to these ideals, and his ability to create beauty within this constraint, continue to inspire Sarah in her chosen profession.
Jesse Hindle (M.S.E class of 2009)
A native of South Jersey, Jesse earned her BS in Civil Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 2007. She spent her junior year in the NY/Paris program at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she further developed her interest in the built environment. Jesse was attracted to Princeton's emphasis on structural art and artists, such as Candela.
Kathleen Kelly (M.S.E class of 2008)
Katie is a native of Aurora, Ohio. She completed her undergraduate studies in civil engineering at the University of Notre Dame. Her interest in structures has been prominent since childhood, which she spent building huge forts in her living room and playing with Legos and k’Nex instead of dolls. Katie chose to do her graduate studies at Princeton because of the emphasis on a conceptual understanding of how structures work. Currently Katie is a consulting structural engineer for HNTB.
Kieran Kelly-Sneed (M.S.E class of 2009)
Kieran Kelly-Sneed has a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering degree from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of California. He worked on the structure animations of the Chapel Lomas de Cuernavaca and Los Manantiales Restaurant, and on the physical model of the completed restaurant shell.
Jennifer Pazdon (M.S.E class of 2009)
Jennifer is a native of Durham, New Hampshire. She received her BS in Civil Engineering with a Minor in Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University. She was drawn to Princeton by Professor Billington's scholarship in structural art and her interest in investigating the sustainability of structural art. Prior to attending Princeton, Jennifer was a consulting structural engineer with Gilsanz Murray and Steficek Structural Engineers in New York City and previously was an intern with Arup and FTL. Jennifer is an active member of the ASCE Structural Engineering Institute Sustainability Committee and the Structural Engineers Association of New York.
Emily Roche (M.S.E class of 2009)
Emily hails from the Pacific Northwest. After studying engineering for two years at the University of Southern California and for a summer in Rome, she earned her BS in Civil Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Her lifelong interest in architecture led her to structural engineering and her introduction to structural art, distinct from architecture, motivated her to continue her education at Princeton. She is also interested in the role of engineering in developing countires and spent a summer in South Africa with Engineers Without Borders.
Edward (Ted) Segal (M.S.E class of 2008)
Prior to attending Princeton, Ted received his undergraduate degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University. While at Cornell, he became involved with Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) and at Princeton he was an active member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB). Currently Ted works in New York City as a consulting structural engineer for Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc.
Ashley Thrall (M.S.E class of 2008)
Ashley Thrall is currently enrolled in the PhD program at Princeton with a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She earned a BA in Physics from Vassar College in 2004. After graduation, she participated in a particle physics research project first as a summer student at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, Switzerland and then as a Research Assistant at the University of Michigan. She then worked at a small non-profit organization in Boston before beginning graduate school at Princeton in September 2006. Her current research includes a technical analysis and critical comparison of Gustave Eiffel’s Maria Pia Bridge and Othmar Ammann’s Bayonne Bridge.
