Recent OSU grad takes first place in museum design contest

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Recent Oklahoma State University graduate Laura Morton of Oklahoma City is the winner of the Wichita Art Museum’s 75th anniversary celebration design contest to envision what the museum would look like in the next 75 years.

Morton’s design was chosen over entries from architectural students at OSU, Kansas State University and the University of Nebraska.

“I had about eight very busy weeks this spring to conceive a design and put together a set of floor plans and a 3D virtual model, from which I rendered the images,” said Morton, who now lives in Atlanta, Ga. She used the computer model to produce a 30 inch x 40 inch board that illustrated her plans for the museum.

“I utilized the original 1930s museum site for my entry, creating a focal tower of the museum that twisted and bent out from that square base,” said Morton. She also broke the layout into two parts and used a bridge to connect the museum with a nearby complex of apartments, shopping, offices, and a parking garage.

“I dug into the site 10 feet, bringing it down to the level of the Arkansas River, which allowed the river to flow through the site, creating an interactive plaza for the museum and adjacent shopping and apartments.”

Morton’s instructor, Mohd Bilbeisi, professor of architecture, calls the museum contest a “unique opportunity for our graduating studio students to stretch their ‘design muscles’ and theorize about the state of museums in the future.” The win asserts the school’s dominance in the fields of architecture and architectural engineering, according to Bilbeisi. “I am so proud of Laura and the rest of our students and look forward to more competitive forums for our next graduating class,” he said.

Morton’s winning entry and all the others will be featured in an exhibition at the museum that will open on Oct. 3 and run through Jan. 9, 2011.