You may have wondered what our background image in our blog page might have been. Obviously the topography and material give away that it is clearly a model of some kind.  This photograph is just a sample of one of the several models students here at the UMSoA have been constructing for an exhibit to be held the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.  

Prof. Jean Francois Lejeune was approached by Barry Bergdoll, Curator, Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA, for the creation of select buildings found in Latin America and constructed between 1955 and 1980.  Lejeune, along with another faculty member Raphael Tapanes, led the students in a class that combined the elements of historical analysis and building analysis in an attempt for students to fully understand the act of constructing these buildings.  It was not uncommon that the students had to recreate the construction drawings and digital models from copies of the original plans.  Many hours were spent in the creation of these models, spanning over the Fall Semester and wrapping up just now in the Spring.  These pictures do not give the amount of details and craft in the models and need to be seen for themselves.  Overall, 7 buildings were produced:

-Edificio Altolar in Caracas
-Torres del Parque in Bogotà
-Urnario in Montevideo
- El Centro Civico La Pampa in Santa Rosa (Argentina)
- La Escuela de Ballet in Havana, Cuba
- El Colegio de Mexico and Las Arboledas, both in Mexico City

The exhibit where these models will be displayed is called Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980 and will run from March 24th through July 19 at MoMA.  If you're in the New York City area, please check it out!