Morgan Students Think Big For Artscape x

BALTIMORE — Baltimore City college students are thinking big for this years Artscape, the largest free arts festival in Maryland.

Morgan State University architecture students are putting their skills to the test in order to create office space out of a shipping container that lies in the middle of Mount Royal Avenue.

The project called the “Lightbox” first began at Morgan but has been moved to the Artscape festival grounds to display the work in progress. Approximately 30 students have spent hours working on the structure.

“This really gets them on to a construction site, looking at their designs on paper (and decipher) what it means,” Morgan Professor Michael Zebrowski said.

Student Britany Jackson said she learned “what goes between the walls, what goes into a window detail, how to use certain tools.”

The Lightbox is sponsored by The Loading Dock, a nonprofit materials reuse center in Highlandtown that offers building workshops and sells recycled materials for a third of the retail price.

“Most of the materials, when we first looked at them, we were like, ‘What are we supposed to do with that? It looks like it was garbage.’ But as you recycle these materials and see what you can do, it’s actually phenomenal.”

– Zanaya Donato

“Our motto is, ‘You can build a house with what people throw away,’ and this really proves it,” said Katie Joost, of The Loading Dock. “We’re donating about 50 percent of the materials (that are) actually coming to our warehouse to be used as workshop space.”

“Especially with the materials that we have because most of the materials, when we first looked at them, we were like, ‘What are we supposed to do with that? It looks like it was garbage.’ But as you recycle these materials and see what you can do, it’s actually phenomenal,” said Zanaya Donato, a student.

Morgan students said they will also use the Lightbox once its complete and that watching the creation of something out of nothing has been amazing.

WBAL-TV is a proud sponsor of Artscape.

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