Last Thursday, former Colorado College Professor of Art Carl Reed led a talk for an assorted group of students and faculty that focused on architecture and the collaborative process, specifically how these concepts applied to Packard Hall and its courtyard.
While Edward Barnes designed the building itself, the courtyard was created by Reed, several students at CC, and a small amount of outside help.
“In our work, I think that term [collaboration] is often misunderstood,” said Reed. “It’s not a free-for-all where everyone has equal ideas and we sort of just throw it all together.”
Reed was the authority in the project, ultimately responsible for its success and failures, but he valued and sought out the input of a variety of people and professions. While Reed is an experienced artist and designer, he wanted to incorporate as much expertise around campus that he could muster.
He brought in several students studying in the Art Department, an architect from Colorado Springs, and his own son, who had recently graduated with a degree in landscaping architecture.
“[Collaboration] all comes down to the people,” said Reed. “If you have the right people you’re living a charmed life.”
The courtyard in front of Packard went through quite the transformative process. Originally it was just a lawn of sod, barren of trees, rocks, or any other landmarks. This design proved to be unfeasible for two reasons.
For one, the courtyard was too barren. It was originally designed in the ‘80s to be used by students to collaborate and play music together, but it was not used as much as the designers had hoped.
“In my experience with studying public spaces, if you have a tree, a stone, a bench in a public space, people start going out there,” said Reed. “They’re not so isolated.”
The second problem was that a third of the courtyard is actually above the roof of a mechanical building.
During the spring and summer, the water given to the grass would leak into the building, and during the winter the building would produce a great deal of heat, cooking the grass. Eventually the grass was replaced with crushed gravel and river rock, but that left the courtyard looking like a gritty parking lot.
Reed and his team developed the courtyard into a very aesthetically pleasing, well-used space. Cement and native grasses more resilient to heat cover the area above the roof, and a semi-circular amphitheater adorns the other side of the courtyard.
A student-designed oblong water feature with a recirculating pump bubbles quietly at the entrance. Several stone pillars reminiscent of trail cairns line the wall leading to the courtyard and front door of Packard. Students often come out to take calls or play music in the courtyard.
Aesthetics and functionality aside, Reed likes this courtyard for what it represents.
“This is going to sound very far-fetched but from the start I was thinking of this as an exercise in physically, visually, realizing the liberal arts process,” said Reed. “That was on my mind from the beginning.”
The courtyard was realized through a collaborative process of several different disciplines, from art to architecture and landscaping. The convergence of several masteries created a space that likely would have been much less dynamic if created individually. Part of this is as simple as the location of the door.
Many have a hard time finding the door to Packard, as it is not visible from the street. This comes from the international influence at work in the courtyard.
“[The design] is directly imposed by Japanese architecture and aesthetics,” said Reed. “You may have a pathway going toward the front door and then a big rock or a tree you have to walk around and then you find the front door.”
Just like navigating the liberal arts process—to find your destination—the Japanese-style entrance forces visitors to engage and wonder, before finding their way eventually.
“I think anybody can find the front door,” said Reed. “They just think about it a little bit.”