Architects build Beaux Arts Ball Table discussion turns to tuxedos, jazz and champagne

Author: Joyce Man

Two years ago, the Johnson Building saw rounds of wine served to the mellow tunes of the Dick Forman Jazz Group transform its interior into a vibrant, schmoozy social space. This weekend, Jean Paul Carlhian's brutalist cement interiors play host again to another event organized by the same student group, Architecture Table. Judging from the recognizeable, stylized posters that bear striking resemblance to those designed for Johnson Week, one would expect a week-long event of similar breadth and length, but as freshly-graduated Andrew Rossmeissl '05 explains, this Saturday's Beaux-Arts Ball should be a fete of a totally different kind.

Initiated in 2001 by Middlebury College alumnus Andrew Corrigan '02.5, Architecture Table consists of a group of students, many pre-architecture majors, who organize field trips, social events, and lecturers to, in the words of former president Jonathan Coble '05.5, "progressively [try] to provide… broader exposure to the world of design."

Two years ago, Architecture Table organized Johnson Week to raise appreciation for the much loved, yet much hated Johnson A. Memorial Building, whose brutalist forms have in the past elicited many displeased responses from unimpressed students. The week-long schedule of lectures brought Jean Paul Carlhian, who designed the Johnson Building back to revisit his building.

Architecture Table has been involved in a small number of projects while trying to establish a more substantial role on campus. Last fall, they launched a chair design competition with an award of $100 for the winner. Recently, the group influenced the college administration to invite Michael Dennis, whose firm, Michael Dennis and Associates, has furnished many college campuses with their brand of integrated architecture, to come to Middlebury as master planner. The group also competed successfully in the Vermont American Institute of Architects "Canstrunction" competition.

The upcoming Beaux Arts Ball is another sign that the Architecture Table, now headed by Teague Douglas '06, is alive and well, despite low funds provided by the Financial Committee for this event.

On Monday afternoon, the group's regular roundtable discussion took the time to review all the works in progress as their big date approached. From such intricacies as how to project 80 slides of their favorite building on the mezzanine walls to how best to circulate 70 bottles of champagne without running dry by 10 p.m., the organizers worked out the kinks in their final planning stages.

The Beaux Arts Ball, a long-time tradition at older universities, is a masquerade held by architecture departments to celebrate the end of exams. While most of our students and faculty will not be donning masks or tuxedoes - only a total of three students opted to reserve the hefty, hundred-dollar rented suits as of Tuesday - Architecture Table's event tries to emulate the Beaux Arts Ball in its grand tradiition. Student band Larson will provide the evening's entertainment.

It is also, in part, a send-off event for departing Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture Parker Croft, who will give a lecture on the night. Dennis will give a separate lecture about contemporary urban architecture.