“After the ecology is regenerated and the green plant life is in place, the project will continue to grow and be maintained.

“After three semesters of design, revision and construction, the final vision still has yet to be achieved, but the structure is complete,” says Mitchel Mesi, a graduate student in this fall’s studio. In late fall 2019, students presented their concepts at Silo City, with a final design selected for construction and development. The goal then became designing and building an architectural intervention that would contribute to the ongoing effort to regenerate Silo City’s post-industrial landscape. But the fall 2019 studio - co-taught by Laura Garofalo, who is now at Carnegie Mellon University - shifted it toward finding a way to eradicate Japanese knotweed, an invasive plant species that was growing in parts of Silo City.

At that time, the idea was simply to cover a water pump by a pond at Silo City. “It’s certainly been an exciting semester.”Ībout 50 people have touched the project in some way since fall 2019. They finished the structure and also created a field guide to Silo City, which builds on the work that’s been happening there for the last 30-plus years,” Rajkovich says. Each student chose an ecological area to research and report on. It’s been a real treat to be part of this process, and I’m so happy that this actually happened safely and that it’s looking amazing.”Ī secondary piece of the course included creation of a field guide mapping the ecology of Silo City, including mammals, soil, water, ectotherms and invertebrates. “Despite everything that’s going on in 2020, this is definitely one of the highlights.

“I am still just so amazed you all were able to pull this off, and how organized and diligent Nick was in keeping everyone safe,” Hwang told the students in December during a studio wrap-up presentation that took place virtually. They completed the structure in early December. To ensure everyone’s safety and reduce the number of people on site, Rajkovich had the students work in teams, alternating days at Silo City. “The hope is that when the willows start growing, they’ll kind of overtake the structure and form this dome shape, and that this will become a gathering space for people at Silo City,” says Joyce Hwang, associate professor of architecture, who taught the studio in spring 2020.ĬOVID-19 pushed the construction phase of the project back to fall 2020, and that’s where a studio led by Nicholas Rajkovich, associate professor of architecture, guided the project to completion. Over time, the willows will intertwine and graft together to become a single structure. The trellis will train the branches of willow trees planted beneath to form a canopied natural gathering space. School of Architecture and Planning faculty and students have collaborated with Rigidized Metals on numerous projects at Silo City over the years. The CEO of Rigidized Metals, Rick Smith, owns Silo City, a sprawling collection of grain elevators along the Buffalo River. Their work centers on a 60-foot diameter trellis composed of stainless steel viper tubing manufactured by Rigidized Metals. “Having the satisfaction of finishing a design-build in a pandemic, being able to see it finished and say that I was a part of creating the creation is the reason why I’m so passionate about architecture,” says Adara Zullo, a student in the School of Architecture and Planning fall studio that saw the project to completion. And they did it amid the stops and starts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a barren field in the shadows of towering grain elevators at Silo City, a group of UB architecture students have created a beautiful structure that will continue to evolve and take shape.

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