High schoolers get taste for architectural design through UNM program
Jul. 7—As the Plaza buzzed with tourists, there was a quietness surrounding Mariajose Hernandez, 17, as she used a drafting triangle to line up the walls in her sketch of the Lucchese building.
Hernandez plans to one day "light up" the streets of downtown Albuquerque as an architect. A rising senior at South Valley Academy in Albuquerque, she is one of 18 high schoolers taking part in the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning's Summer Academy.
It's the first two-week session of the summer program. The academy is still looking to fill spots for its Santa Fe session, which will start later this month.
"I'm learning new things that I didn't know architecture included," Hernandez said. "That makes it more exciting."
Interested in drawing and sculpting, she said she was relieved that the mathematical component of architecture wasn't too intense.
Hernandez and her peers split into groups to sketch various facades along the Plaza before stringing the drawings into a massive map with the Plaza at the heart of it all. They also designed hats out of newspaper based on their mood and built bridges using edible materials.
Her group-mate, 16-year-old Elizabeth Martinez, has an interest in tiny homes and other aspects of residential architecture. She loves how architecture requires using "both sides" of the mind. An incoming junior at La Cueva High School in Albuquerque, she's had the chance to take some computer-aided design classes, which came in handy.
"I'm actually learning my style of drawing," she said of her time in the program.
The academy focuses on design, landscape architecture, urban planning and historic preservation. Students attend field trips and lectures while taking on design projects.
Francisco Uviña, who directs the historic preservation program at UNM's School of Architecture and Planning, taught students how to use charcoals, pastels and other mediums to bring sketches of the Plaza to life.
"Not all of them have had the experience of sketching and drawing," he said. "There's rules, especially when it comes to architecture drawings, of ground-lines, shadowing, different ways of shadowing and texturing."
At the end of the program, students will get professional feedback on their work. Come September, a public exhibition at UNM's George Pearl Hall will showcase their work.
In its inaugural year, the academy is directed by architecture faculty member Janet Abrams. Abrams said the program helps prepare students to apply to UNM's architecture school and that its curriculum involves teachings from a host of experts from around New Mexico and beyond.
