College of Built Environments at the University of Washington.
Architect was inspired by television's talking horse.
Monday March 2008While most people know that TV's Mr. Ed was a talking horse, few may recall that his human companion was an architect. One of CAUP's architecture senior lecturers, Jim Nicholls, recalls this vividly, as it may have been his inspiration. "He had a pretty nice lifestyle," Nicholls says. "He had a little barn out in back, and he walked from the house to his studio, where he drew and made models all day." Whether the credit truly goes to the talking horse or not, architecture is what Jim Nicholls does. With twelve years as a lecturer in architecture at the UW, Nicholls calls his specialty "architectural outreach."
Five years ago, Nicholls began his outreach program by taking his students out into the U District community, where Ave store owners had been offered matching funds from the city to improve their store's facades. Most were reluctant, so Nicholls and some of his students set up a gallery of sorts in the abandoned Tower Records store, and offered assistance to the store owners. The changes to the streetscape that resulted from this effort impressed the City of Seattle and King County so much that since then Nicholls has done a similar Storefront Studio project in various communities from Carnation to Kent, with each community providing a different project. "I want my students to look at the world as if they've never seen it before," Nicholls says. "I can give them some tools and some facts, but what I most of all want them to do is start their own intense inquiry that's about opening theier eyes and loking around the world with fresh new vision." This spring, Nicholl's Storefront Studio will be going to Des Moines.
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