Student builds reputation on design

October 1, 2009 by Krista Gilbertson 

Graduate student Angela Strahan plans the future of campus architecture

To survive in the world of architecture, you need to build a strong career foundation. People spend hours brainstorming and designing plans for buildings and the branding of companies and organizations. It takes a tremendous amount of vision and talent to create something new and unique – something that was not there before.

Angela Strahan has an eye for design. Strahan received her bachelor’s in May and studies architecture in the graduate program at the UNLV School of Architecture.

She has utilized her skills and passion for design to help with a few different projects in the past couple years.

Strahan spent the entire summer in a studio class at the Downtown Design Center, where she worked with 12 other students on the rebranding of the Marjorie Barrick Museum. The results of their work can now be found in the museum, where posters of their designs and ideas are on display.

Strahan explained they also created a model in her class that was added to the museum last Saturday. Strahan said they suggested that the museum expand and build towers that would house research.

If implemented, this expansion could have the ability to become a major in the liberal arts college. The model illustrates the ideas for this expansion.

If the towers are created, Strahan said that the large Mesoamerican collections held in the museum could be stored in the towers.

“The largest collection they have is Mesoamerican and as soon as they get it all on site, it will be the largest Mesoamerican collection in the nation,” Strahan said.

Besides the model, Strahan said they created a logo and did all the new branding for the museum. They also designed posters that will be put up around campus.

“We’re trying to discover who our school of architecture wants to be,” Strahan said.
“For the most part, the ideas are done, we’re just helping them implement them now,” Strahan said.

Strahan said the best parts about working on the project for the museum were seeing the positive reaction from the museum director and then having the opportunity to meet with the Paiute Indians to get their ideas and feedback.

“I think that meeting with them was probably the most educational and meaningful moment I’ve ever had in a class,” she said.

Other than her work with the museum, Strahan has been given opportunities to work on other projects as well. Last summer, Strahan was in another studio class where she helped redesign Nellis Air Force Base’s training facilities.

She was also involved in a project for downtown Las Vegas, designing an idea for a “live/work” program where there would be retail shops on the ground level. Then the people who work in those shops could live above them.

Robert Dorgan, a professor for the architecture school and the director of the Downtown Design Center, was the project advisor and taught the studio class Strahan took, that led to her work on the museum. Dorgan has seen Strahan’s skills and how she puts them into practice.

“She just stepped up and took charge of the project,” Dorgan said. “She was the one who knew the work better than anyone.”

Strahan also takes a studio class at the design center that Dorgan teaches, where they are working with the downtown area again. Strahan said they are working on greening downtown Las Vegas, to make it more environmentally friendly and sustainable.

“Working in a group environment and working on projects that are more ‘couched’ in reality seem to be the most important things I’ve taken away,” Strahan said. “I feel as though I have a real impact in the world.”

Strahan said that she does not want to be an architect when it comes to a career. “I know that I’m a designer and I want to pursue a career in academia,” Strahan said.

Dorgan noted the benefits Strahan and the other students will take away from the work they’ve done for all of these projects.

“Their ability to work with a client is going to be enhanced because they’ve already met with clients and understood their needs and how they think about things,” he said.

Strahan will be able to take away a collection of designs and skills from these projects into her future career, which she said will hopefully be in the teaching side of design and architecture.

“I wish I had a dozen students like her,” Dorgan said about Strahan. “She’s definitely one of those students who’s figured out what she wants in her education.”