Greenberg students learn
architecture early

By Lauren Fritsky
Times Staff Writer

Gabriel Zeltner recently made a toy building in his class, but he didn’t use wooden blocks.
Instead, the 5-year-old acted like a real architect, designing a building model to scale and assessing the form and function of every component — even the stairway railings he fashioned from Popsicle sticks.
"We have to put glue on it and stick it to the paper," Gabriel explained of the process. "They’re there so you don’t fall down."
Gabriel’s kindergarten class at Joseph Greenberg School recently spent eight weeks learning about their built environment through the Architecture in Education program, sponsored by the Philadelphia chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
The hands-on program works with students in all grades to further their understanding of architecture. A team of teachers, real architects and architecture students tailors the lessons and activities in the eight-week project to the specific age group. Based in Center City, AIE works with as many as 30 local schools each year.
In Eileen Simmons’ kindergarten class at Greenberg, students created a city block out of shoeboxes. They displayed their finished houses and businesses on May 7.
The project involved very little child’s play, Simmons confirmed. Each day, the children spent 90 minutes learning about shapes like arches and columns, making small-scale frameworks with toothpicks and marshmallows and measuring and drawing objects to scale.
To demonstrate the last concept, the adults shrunk photos of the students and attached them to cardboard to see if they could fit inside their shoebox buildings.
"That’s how they begin to think in dimensional ways," Simmons said of the exercises. "Most children think in flat terms."
Architect Lené Copeland worked with the Greenberg students. Her mother, Rolaine Copeland, helped start the AIE program.
"It amazes me that they understand (the concepts)," she said of the young architects. "We want these kids growing up knowing about the built environment (so) they talk to their parents about it (and) can explain what it does."
The students’ homework during the project term included discussing what types of buildings they saw in their neighborhoods and learning what function each serves.
Thomas Curran, 6, now knows why banks exist.
"After college, you get money and you save it in the bank," he said while putting the finishing touches on his green, two-story building.
Savannah Mueller, 6, designed her bakery with a glass window to display sweet treats and breads and added coziness with some pink cloth curtains and a welcome mat.
Megan Shelton, 6, strayed from the straight and narrow by adding circular windows to her house.
"I just drew a circle and the architects cut it out," she said.
Justyn Myer, a graduate architecture major at Temple University, and Ashton Harwell, a junior at the Charter High School for Architecture & Design, helped with the project. They’ll get course credit for their participation.
"They learn how things work, the basic structure and function. They’re using motor skills," Myer, 26, said of the students.
Harwell, 16, hung a paper city skyline on the wall, in front of which students placed their buildings. Later, the students will write stories about their buildings.
"I think these kids are amazing," Harwell said. "I like the designs they came up with. Even if (my school) didn’t give me credit, I’d still do it." ••
For more information on how your school can participate in the Architecture in Education program, e-mail AIEphiladelphia@aol.com
Reporter Lauren Fritsky can be reached at 215-354-3038 or lfritsky@phillynews.com