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Written by Tracie Morales

Wednesday, 01 June 2005 11:00 PM

Architecture students explore Chaco Canyon Nicole Lambert walked carefully along the steep Chimney Rock. A wrong step could have sent the architecture graduate student sliding down the 360-foot rock formation. Finally, she reached the top and sighed with relief as she saw the Colorado mountains around her. “It was the most beautiful thing,” Lambert said. “In our own backyard, we have these ruins, and nobody knows about them.” Chimney Rock was one of many pueblo sites students visited on the Anasazi Study Tour, offered as a three credit hour course called Chaco Canyon, during the Maymester. Architecture professor Richard Ferrier led the tour. Ferrier and 48 UTA students returned last week from the eight-day trip, in which they traveled to New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah. “It’s always a greater experience visiting some place versus looking at a slide on a PowerPoint,” architecture senior Joe Rowe said. Students traveled to Chaco Canyon, in New Mexico, and explored what was once believed to be the center of the universe by the Navajo Indians, Ferrier said. The site contains 13 pueblos and was the religious, political and business center for the group. Ferrier said people migrated to Chaco Canyon to have feasts and learn the secrets of the world. Students also visited Pueblo Bonito, the canyon’s center, which contains a 600-room structure that stands 4 stories high. “It is so well crafted that it is startling to architects,” Ferrier said. He said the trip’s purpose was to travel to pueblo sites in the Four Corners Region, where New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah meet, to teach students about factors that influenced the architecture of the ancient civilization. It also showed them what can be done with nothing but stones and bones as tools, he said. Students were required to attend several lectures and films prior to the trip. Ferrier said he does not give any tests during the tour. “It would distract from what the experience is,” he said. On July 5, the students will exhibit their photographs and drawings of the trip, followed by a movie presentation about Chaco Canyon. Lambert said she learned that the importance of recognizing good architecture from the past is the key to learning the fundamentals that still apply today. She said it was interesting to see how the materials changed as the Navajos’ environment changed. “They were architects, too,” she said. “They just didn’t have the title.” Views: 96 | E-mail   Be first to comment this article Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.6 AkoComment © Copyright 2004 by Arthur Konze - www.mamboportal.com All right reserved

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