The Office of Michael Rosenfeld, Inc, Architects, is located at 543 Massachusetts Avenue in Acton, MA. Currently this firm is under contract to the public schools in Acton and the Acton-Boxborough regional school district to design and build an elementary twin school and a new addition on the junior high school. Upon our arrival, we were given a tour of the office. This structure which formerly was a church, is impressive with its high cathedral ceilings and stained glass windows.

Prior to our visit, the four students responsible for this project had done a considerable amount of reading on ancient architecture and Roman city planning. They had also been exposed to the artwork that these buildings housed by attending field trips to both the Worcester Art Museum and Brandeis University. The Worcester Art Museum has a wonderful collection of mosaics that are being restored. Brandeis has, of course, the Roman Forum under glass in miniature.The Roman Forum depicts life in the ancient city through a wonderful scale model representation of the forum in antiquity. All along the students have been planning how to design and build their city. Some have had preparation in CAD design, but we felt this visit was a necessary step in preparing them to plan, design, and build their own creation.

The architects explained that the students will need to make a rough draft to begin with and then to focus their design when thay have a good idea of how they want their city to look. They were given two options. They may either select two buildings each to build and then put together as a city or to make a smaller scaled model of an entire city on a piece of chip board using pieces of painted sponges as trees and nubbies as trunks. Other possibilities for material use are balsa wood and foam core.

Essential to this project is the integration of each of their respective roles since this will determine the emphasis for their city. Through collaboration they will decide what they want their city to emphasize. This will determine its organization. The process of decision making stresses what is important in this rendition. Space is equally important as building design. The overall organization progresses from concept to concrete and specific buildings develop from rough plan drawings. The size of this city depends on what the students wish to highlight. One inch can equal 40' and 1/2" can equal 1' depending on what scale they detemine is approrpiate. The larger the scale the more detail can be used. Models done as a contour map can include more structures but evidence less detail.

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