By Roan Enright ’13
THE ROUNDUP
Students pile into the faculty room at the top of Eller each fifth period to be a part of the one of the newest classes at Brophy, Architecture.
At the beginning of the year Mr. Noah Lewkowitz ’98 introduced the new curriculum based on his former profession.
“I feel like I wanted to continue to bring the things I like about architecture to Brophy. Also I wanted to bring my personal abilities to the Fine Arts Department,” Mr. Lewkowitz said.
Mr. Lewkowitz implements project based learning, allowing students to design and construct their own ideas.
The class has transformed the third floor work room into an architecture studio for the semester.
Desks covered with pencils and rulers with papers while students practiced their drawing.
“There is model making that they are doing and the idea is that when you present a project, you need drawings so that people can see the guts of your building,” Mr. Lewkowitz said. “Then you need a 3-D model that people can understand it, in space. So they will actually start cutting and gluing and doing those things.”
One of these projects is the final project, in which students have to construct an original model home.
“We usually do a very comprehensive project of where they have to design their own house,” Mr. Lewkowitz said. “I want them to create a house that is unique to them, something that no one has ever thought of before.”
Mr. Lewkowitz said he focuses on giving the students a reality of what an architect really entails.
“There are some good qualities in working in architecture and there are some not so great, I just wanted people to understand that,” Mr. Lewkowitz said.
Ryan Dolinar ’13, who took the class first semester said he has wanted to become an architect since the first grade.
“I wanted to get some basics down to prepare me for college, so I don’t go into an architecture program and not really know what to expect, I really just wanted to get the basics down,” Dolinar said.
While the class is just open to anyone who is interested in architecture, it is a class designed to teach different mathematical and artistic skills.
“I doubt that there is any other high school in the Valley that is going to offer architecture. For that, I would say that it would be worthwhile to take advantage of that opportunity,” Mr. Lewkowitz said. “In addition, I think you can learn some skills that you probably won’t learn in other art classes.”
“We spend 90 percent of our lives inside of buildings and maybe having a better understanding of how they were made, why they are made the way they are might be beneficial to students.” Mr. Lewkowitz said.
