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N E W S CONTACTS: SFW: Bill Bunce or John Crosier 817.335.7000 |
“Sense of Arrival Experience” Entrance Designs by UTA Landscape Architecture Grad
Students on Display at Sheraton Fort Worth Hotel & Spa
in Downtown Fort Worth through January 9, 2012
General Public May Vote for Their Favorite
(Fort Worth, TX…) The Sheraton Fort Worth Hotel and Spa’s urban environment has been the canvas and inspiration for a group of graduate landscape architecture students from University of Texas at Arlington who are envisioning what the hotel entrance might look like and sharing their designs with the general public.
Posters of the concepts will be on display in the Sheraton lobby from mid-December through January 9, 2012. The public is invited to visit, view the designs and vote for their popular favorite; a prize will go to the student with the most popular design at the conclusion of the public exhibit.
On Monday evening, December 12, 2011, twelve students formally presented their interpretations of how to enhance the west entrance area of the Sheraton on Commerce Street and how to connect Sheraton to its immediate context through urban design improvements. Judges included Andy Taft, president of Downtown Fort Worth Inc.; Vida Hariri, Senior Urban Designer in the City of Fort Worth Planning and Development Department; and others. They chose two top designs from the field of 12. Winners were first place, Jack Randal Philips; second place, Nhasala Manandhar.
Begun in late October, the academic exercise resulted in a solid learning experience for landscape architecture students. Under the guidance of UTA’s Dr. Taner Ozdil, assistant professor and instructor for the class, the 12 students fulfilled a component of their six hour advanced graduate studio through this project. They are Lynne M. Carpenter; Huei-Chung Cheng, Amber M. Davis, Leonelle Vincia Dsouza, Xiwen Feng, Jason Paul Lackey, Nhasala Manandhar, Hong Anh Mang, Zoha Niazi, Jack Randal Philips, Alexandra L.Romero, and Dandan Zhu, all of whom presented original concepts as posters.
Dr. Ozdil is also associate director for research for the Center for Metropolitan Density at the University of Texas at Arlington’s school of architecture.
Jurors were Guneet Bajwa, The Presidio Companies, Sheraton Fort Worth Hotel & Spa; Bill Bunce, Sheraton Fort Worth Hotel & Spa; Vida Hariri, City of Fort Worth; Grace Herman, UTA; Meda Kessler, 360 West Magazine; Brooke Kelly Lively, Fort Worth Garden Club; Taner Ozdil, UTA; Sushil Patel, The Presidio Companies, Sheraton Fort Worth Hotel & Spa; Gaile Robinson, Star-Telegram; Andy Taft, Downtown Fort Worth Inc.; Pat Taylor, UTA; and Jeff Whitacre, Kimley Horn and Associates.
Hailing from several foreign countries and across the United States, the students are accomplished professionals completing the degree requirements for a Master of Landscape Architecture degree. They will be able to use their designs in their portfolios and as case studies. Considering the Sheraton’s unusual urban environment to create their ideas and concepts, they not only completed the requirement for this class but also competed for first and second place recognition for the best overall design. The posters are now on display in the lobby at the Sheraton in downtown Fort Worth. A third prize for popular favorite will be announced in January after voting takes place from December 19, 2011 through January 9, 2012.
The work was part of Landscape Architecture 5665: The Urban Landscape (LARC 5665), a six credit course and a final required design studio in the Master of Landscape Architecture program at UTA. It provided a comprehensive review and synthesis of the previous studios in the landscape architecture graduate curriculum. The major theme for LARC 5665 was Urban Landscape and Urban Design in complex urban settings. The fall 2011 semester LARC 5665 studio primarily explored the impacts of urban growth and its meaning for urban landscape and urban form.
This studio undertook urban landscape projects that concentrate on existing neighborhoods, mixed-use sites, and/or redevelopment/revitalization areas in order to respond to the impacts of growth on physical environment in large cities and metropolitan areas. Knowledge-based, sustainable and environmentally sound green design practices were introduced in the previous studio and further elaborated and used as underlying themes for the semester projects. The final juried presentation event took place at the Sheraton last week.
The Sheraton Fort Worth Hotel and Spa, located at 1701 Commerce Street in downtown Fort Worth, offers guests a distinctive Fort Worth experience, blending sophisticated, high-tech amenities in a comfortable, relaxed setting. The two-tower hotel features 430 custom-designed guest rooms and suites and 22,000 square feet of meeting space, complemented by a stylish 8,000 square foot Spa Beaubelle and a fitness center. The hotel also houses Shula’s 347 Grill. Proximate to the hotel are world-class attractions and entertainment, the vibrant Fort Worth business district and the Fort Worth Convention Center. The Sheraton Fort Worth Hotel and Spa is online at sheratonfortworth.com and at facebook.com/fwsheraton.
Sheraton is the largest brand of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. has 1,071 properties in 100 countries and territories with 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Méridien®, Sheraton®, Four Points® by Sheraton, and the recently launched Aloft®, and Element SM. The company boasts one of the industry's leading loyalty programs, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG), allowing members to earn and redeem points for room stays, room upgrades and flights, with no blackout dates. Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit http://www.starwoodhotels.com.
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