Four University of Idaho students from the College of Art and Architecture recently placed in the top three of the Entryway Design Competition as part of Boise’s Ann Morrison Memorial Park renewal.
The Harry Morrison Foundation tasked any student enrolled in an Idaho university to design a new entryway for Ann Morrison Memorial Park. Regan Campbell and Tyler Schram placed first and won $1,500, recent graduate Matt Vollendorf placed second and won $1,000 and Kelsey Ramsey, a masters student at the UI Boise program, placed third and won $500.
Ramsey, who is originally from Portland, said she was pleasantly surprised to win and was honored to be a part of an architecture project for a city with infrastructure that she already admires.
“I think it was such a cool idea for the Morrison Foundation to put this on because it’s such an iconic park,” Ramsey said. “It’s huge, it’s right across from downtown, it’s always being used. It just feels like this quintessential park, and that was the first think I noticed about Boise when I moved here. It just has incredible infrastructure. The public space is really extraordinary in Boise. I was really just excited about the competition as a whole, and to be able to shape Boise in any way, and in a way I see it has already excelled in.”
Ramsey didn’t find the competition to be stressful or intimidating, and actually found it to be enlightening process. Having no idea of where to start with her design, Ramsey began with researching the Morrison Foundation.
“I knew they were an engineering firm, and they were a big deal, but had no idea what they did,” she said. “But I did all this research and found out that they helped build the Hoover Dam and the Kennedy Space Center. There was so much stuff they had been a part of that I had no idea, and that was when I really started to get an idea of what I would do for my design.”
Campbell, who partnered with Schram for their design, didn’t expect to place first because she said the project often was pushed aside to make room for schoolwork. After receiving critiques from their professors, they began to feel much more comfortable about having created a quality design.
“After that, we got it turned in the day that it was due,” Campbell said. “It was so last minute, but we got it in there. And then we just had to wait, we were just sitting on our hands waiting.”
Campbell, who is from Parma, Idaho, feels proudest of their accomplishments mainly because they were competing against peers and individuals they admired.
“We saw the other’s designs, and it was a lot of different designers and students that I look up to and often compare my own work to,” Campbell said. “To work that hard and know who some of the competition is, and to still win first prize is such an honor for me.”
The original offer for the winning design was that it would ideally be built and that the designers could potentially be part of the process, Campbell said. They said that after their won, the Morrison Foundation was open about the fact that they wanted Campbell and Schram as involved as possible, but also kept in mind that the project would span over several years.
However, the design team recently received an email that stated the Morrison Foundation is planning on taking a different direction. The email essentially stated that the entryway won’t be built in the literal way the two had designed it.
“I’m still hopeful they’ll stick to either one of our designs, or one of our competitors,” Campbell said. “Even if it isn’t built in the literal sense, hopefully an iteration of it will be.”
The winners’ designs and more information about Ann Morrison Memorial Park can be viewed on their website.
Bailey Brockett can be reached at [email protected]