RE.STYLE Design Competition from ASID

Posted on May 12, 2014 by sreicis

The ASID New York Upstate Canada East chapter sponsored a RE.STYLE Design Competition that challenged members at any level to repurpose any kind of object into a creative, interior design related fabrication. The judging and display occured during the Network 2014 event held recently in Syracuse, New York. Designers were encouraged to create a piece of furniture, light fixture, art object or other item that directly related to Interior Design. What a fun and inventive approach to sustainability and adaptive re-use! Your only limitation was your own creativity. It also placed students in competition with design professionals. Constance Strother, a Junior in the Villa Maria College Interior Design Program submitted the lighting fixture that she designed and fabricated for the Lighting and Acoustics class and came away with a third place prize! Villa Maria College gets to be doubly proud, since the first place award went to Villa Alum Caroline Barr.

Interior Design Student Exhibit and Awards

Posted on April 13, 2014 by sreicis

Villa Maria College hosted the 2014 Interior Design Student Exhibit opening night reception on Friday, April 11, 2014. President Sister Marcella Marie Garus was present at the event. The reception was a resounding success culminating with the announcement of the Distinguished Students of the Year. A jury of 21 distinguished designers and educators assessed the exhibit prior to it’s public opening and based on their votes the 1st place award was given to Harrison Walsh ’14. He receives the Humanscale Diffrient Task Light, donated by Millington Lockwood. The 2nd place winner was Jessica Foster ’14 who receives the HON Motivate Chair, donated by Integrity Office Supply. The 3rd place winner was Tara Clack ’15 who receives the Buffalo Office Interiors chair. Each of the students is pictured in front of the exhibit of their body of work. Members of the jury included Ike Lowry, Cannon Design; Robert Reeder, Robert Reeder Interiors; Lee Schlatterer and Todd Piotrowski, Carmina Wood Morris; Nina Lewis, DIRTT Environmental Solutions; Edna Czyc, Wolf Gordon; Megan Ebert, DalTile; Mimi Fierle, Buffalo Office Interiors; Sandra Zygaj-Borowski, Integrity Office Solutions; Mary Golden, Ferguson Lighting and Bath Showroom; Barbara Reformat, Tiles International; Ryan Renshaw, Schenne & Associates; Jim Constantin, Laura Shoemaker, Ryan Hanes, Charles Gattie, Roswell Park Cancer Institute; Therese Smith, Villa Alum; and Villa Faculty members, Brian Duffy, Michael Bosworth, Joyce Kessel and Bob Grizanti In addition to the selection of the distinguished students there is also a best of show category for the freshmen students. Due to the high caliber of the freshman work, this was a difficult year for voting, but the majority votes went to Ana Spanake. She wins a full-size drafting table donated by Seneca Blueprint. Congratulations to all the winners! The exhibit will run until April 25, 2014.

Emily Bolles Participates at the Calico Corners Designer Challenge

Posted on April 8, 2014 by sreicis

Emily Bolles at Design Challenge Calico Corners, a fabulous fabric retail outlet servicing the industry as well as the public, has begun a fun tradition inspired by the many HGTV challenge shows. Students have the opportunity to create beautiful spaces, in one hour, using the Calico Corners product and then present to a panel of design professionals. Representing Villa this year was junior Emily Bolles. She was supported by faculty member Sandra Reicis and internship coordinator Judy Piskun. Emily presented a very professional design, focusing on the rapidly growing importance of being able to age in place. Her design featured many Universal Design principles. Check out the ABC’s of Universal Design on Cynthia Leibrock’s web site, which features her beautiful home, designed to follow the principles of Universal design. Congratulations to Emily for winning a $250.00 gift certificate to Calico Corners!

Promoting Excellence in Art and Design with a Featured Artists’ Program

Posted on March 22, 2014 by sreicis

This year marked the beginning of an annual honor for two student artists of distinction attending Villa Maria College. Nominated by the Art Department faculty and selected by Sandra Reicis, Art Department Chair, the featured student artists for the 2013/2014 academic year are Valerie Kasinski from Photography and Bonnie Mack from Graphic Design. This program of recognition is a celebration of excellence in Art and Design. At a recent reception a year-long student exhibit was officially opened and Valerie and Bonnie each received the Chair Award. Pictured above is President Sister Marcella Marie Garus (center) with Bonnie Mack (left) and Valerie Kasinski (right). These students serve as role-models for their fellow peers and ambassadors for the art and design programs at Villa Maria College. The year long displays are in the East and West Reception Rooms located adjacent to the main lobby of the college. Pictured at right is one of Valerie’s photographs entitled Whitney, Mount Baldy, CA. Featured at right is Bonnie Blues, a Visual Communications Branding Project for a fictitious clothing company, designed and fabricated by Bonnie Mack. The call for next year’s featured artists has gone out. All students in a Villa Maria College Art Department Program are eligible to be nominated.

Service Learning with Junior League

Posted on July 28, 2013 by sreicis

Every two years something wonderful happens in Buffalo, and it’s the Junior League Show House. This year was a slight departure, going to East Aurora and re-designing the beautiful rooms at the Knox Summer Estate. Students with the Interior Design program at Villa Maria College have been perennial participants in the process and have been successful with their proposals. This year proved no different, with the opportunity to finish one of the bathrooms at the estate….and it was the coolest bathroom ever. Our space was used by the Knox family to chronicle the heights and weights of the Knox children on the door and door frame. Preserved as a piece of wonderful family history, the Villa students played off this theme with their space, ‘Pencil me In’. Pictured to the right are Jason Cole, Therese Smith and Sandra Zygaj-Borowski painting our room. The soft, silvery quality of hand drawn pencil marks along with the daylight from the window, inspired the color palette and material choices. Playing off the horizontal pencil marks the students installed glass tiles and a unique, Roman shade was selected for the shower curtain. The horizontal fabric folds are contrasted with bold, vertical fabric panels, alternating between sheer and opaque to allow for natural lighting and insure modesty. The window treatments are one-of-a-kind fused glass panes with deatiling also inspired by pencil patterns. As we discovered during our research of the space, this room originally included a Picasso painting, and to pay homage to this fact, we included a serigraph of an original Picasso that was gifted to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery by the Knox Foundation.

The IN Club….promoting excellence for the students

Posted on February 10, 2013 by sreicis

Student clubs are an excellent way to make friends and get involved with fun activities. The Interior Design student club (IN club) at Villa Maria College is an American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) student chapter and as such is also dedicated to promoting the field of Interior Design through education, competition and networking. The club meets on a regular basis and provides a forum for both faculty and students to discuss various opportunities and needs. Meetings generally occur during campus hour and always include food. We have fun celebrating our accomplishments such as the sweep of 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the recent ASID student competition. It gives us a great opportunity to eat cake! It is also a valuable opportunity for students to participate in Service Learning as well as Professional Development activities. A perennial favorite is the annual Festival of Trees to benefit Women and Childrens’ Hospital of Buffalo. This year the students designed and installed a holiday window, which was on display as well as for sale at Festival at the Hyatt Hotel of Buffalo. This year’s design concept was ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, which fit very nicely with the Festival theme of Winer Wonderland. The window not only sold in record time, but also won the Best Window Display award, for the second year running. The Service Learning Project for the spring will be huge. We have been selected to finish a space in this year’s Junior League of Buffalo Decorator Show House, which is the Knox Family Summer Estate in East Aurora.

Villa Maria College students take 1st, 2nd and 3rd in ASID competion!

Posted on October 9, 2012 by sreicis

The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) has announced the winners of the Upstate New York and Eastern Canada Network 2012 design competition. There are three professional categories including Residential, Commercial under 3,000 square feet and Commercial over 3,000 square feet plus one student competition category. Winners for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place are awarded in each. In the student competition category all three winning entries are from the Interior Design program at Villa Maria College. Third place, for her Studio 5 Dzintari Health and Wellness Center is Sandra Zygaj Borowski. The project location is Latvia, in the city of Sigulda. Students Skype with the project architect, Gunta Graudupe as well as the owner/client Dr. Anda Polna. Ms. Zygaj Borowski researched Latvian folklore and history, selecting the symbol of the Cross Hatch Star to inspire her design. The second place winner, for her Studio 4 Sephora Pop-Retail Design is Savana Czekalski. The students in this studio travelled to New York City to visit the newest Sephora retail store, gain first hand knowledge of the business and study other examples of retail design. Ms. Czekalski based her design on the concept, ‘Tis the Season to be Pretty. The first place winner, also for the Studio 5 project in Latvia was also Savana Czekalski. Students were required to design sustainable interiors applying universal design principles and reflecting the unique cultural and regional properties of the location in Latvia. The projects were also critiqued by Professor Daina Gaga, from the Latvia Culture College located in Riga, Latvia. Both studios are taught in the Junior year. Faculty advisor for Studio 4 is Professor Paul Brinkworth and Faculty advisor for Studio 5 is Professor Sandra Reicis.

Villa Student Projects Presented in Australia…..

Posted on September 23, 2012 by sreicis

IDEA, the Interior Design/Interior Architecture Educators Association is comprised of universities from Australia and New Zealand offering programs in interior design and interior architecture. This year their conference and exhibition, Interior Design:- a state of becoming, was held September 6 to 10 in Perth, Australia, hosted by Curtin University. The conference opening coincided with the exhibition opening, An Interior Affair: A State of Becoming. This was held at Form gallery. Curators fo the show are Marina Lommerse, Curtin University, Australia Jane Lawrence, University of South Australia, Australia Sven Mezhoud, Monash University, Australia Stuart Foster, Massey University, New Zealand. The event was also covered by Gallery Watch, a television program dedicated to support and promotion of the Australian art scene.It was an excellent event to bring all conference participants together to socialize, theorize, meet and greet. delegates had expectedly travelled from across Australia and New Zealand but also included South Africa, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Canada, United States and other countries.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjo22EpFuAU

The conference theme explored the world of the interior as a state of constant and dynamic ‘becoming’ rather than ‘being’. Asking questions such as:- how do we reconsider the interior and the occupant becoming ‘old’? Where is the value in constantly ‘becoming’ new? How do we re-vision the history of interiors in the light of ‘becoming’? What are the potential roles and responsibilities for Interior Designers / Architects in addressing becoming homeless and ‘being’ disadvantaged? Sandra Reicis, Associate Professor of Interior Design at Villa Maria College, Buffalo, New York, saw the relationship to a recent Villa student project. The submitted abstract was reviewed by the conference committee and selected for presentation. “The Millennium Dream Home: quality of life and quality of surroundings”, documented the project research and design process, including the work of sophomore level students Harrison Walsh and Jillian Schultz. Challenged to re-think and re-define the American Dream Home the projects demonstrated inclusiveness and domicile adaptiveness, drawing on historical precedent and universal design principles to create well-designed and beautiful interior spaces. As demonstrated in the student diagram above, the use of rotation was integral to the final form and spatial design of the first floor plan by Walsh. Design inspiration was derived from works of fine art on display at the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY. This fused glass piece, crafted by Schultz, was an inspiration from a work by Georgia O’Keefe. The story behind the art piece led Schultz to an exploration of courtyards and passageways, which became integral to her final project. The paper was presented under the topic of interior: in its everydayness together with presentations by Jane Simon, MacQuarie University, Sydney, Australia, Vanessa Galvin, Curtin University, Perth, Australia and Mary Anne Beecher, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. Other topics included interior: in flux, interior: as performance and interior: as virtual. The conference included Keynote speakers, Beatriz Colomina, see Interior Design live wire and Charles Rice. Images of the gallery show can be downloaded here.

In Search of an Opera House…….

Posted on September 15, 2012 by sreicis

In a perfect visit to Australia the first stop would be the Sydney Opera House. Located on the Bennelong Point, the opera house came to be as the result of a design competition. 933 architects registered, 230 submitted designs and in January 1957, with the firm endorsement of Eero Saarinen, Jorn Utzon was announced as the winner. Although the composition may be based on the simple opposition of three groups of interlocking shell vaults placed on a terraced platform, the experience of the building is filled with wonder at the complexity and detail that have created an iconic structure that is undoubtedly one of the best known of the 20th century. On my recent visit to Australia I was able to tour this magnificent building. I could photograph many parts of the interior, although I could only appreciate the various halls and theatres. Although the pallette of materials is limited to primarily wood and concrete, the effects of the design and the interplay of light and shadow create an interior like no other. Although Utzon did not complete the interior spaces, with his exit from the project politically motivated, a degree of the interior spaces nonetheless followed his original design. In 1973 the building was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II. In later years, Utzon was called upon to design updates to the interior of the building. Today, only one space remains that is still wholly design by Utzon himself, which is aptly named The Utzon Room. Featuring a brilliantly colored woolen tapestry measuring 14 meters in length, the room is a venue for parties, special events and small performances. The author, Sandra Reicis, is standing in front of the tapestry. The Sydney Opera house was a building design that was well ahead of its time and far ahead of available technology. Simply put….a miracle.Views of the exterior shells shows the tile work. Tiles are two-toned white and off-white to resemble clouds.

Why Interior Designers Matter……..

Posted on March 27, 2012 by sreicis

The 2012 Interior Design Education Council (IDEC) National Conference was held in Baltimore, Maryland, March 19 – 22. “IDEC represents the unique professional interests of interior design educators in the United States and worldwide. IDEC provides forums for sharing innovative strategies for interior design education, expressing a range of views on important issues, and disseminating research findings. Members of IDEC educate individuals,families, fellow professionals, and students, and influence policy makers about the interior design profession.” This year’s conference included a student video competition exploring the question…..Why Interior Designers Matter…. The winning entry was a very clever and informative submission from the students at Radford College in Virginia.

The second place submission was from Iowa University and focused on the benefits of hiring a professional interior designer.

The third place video focussed on the economic benefits of professional interior design and qualified interior designers.

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