Intersight Journal of Student Work

First published in 1990 as the School of Architecture and Planning's journal of student work, Intersight chronicles the creative and scholarly outputs of our students and reflects on the pedagogy of the school. This online collection represents more recent projects, published in the journal since 2018.

Interior of abandoned building corridor, peeling paint, two wheelchairs parked neatly off to the side.

From "Board and Batten," an adaptive reuse proposal for a 19th-century barn located on the historic Richardson Olmsted Campus in Buffalo; Preservation Planning Studio, Fall 2019 faculty Kerry Traynor. Exerpted from Intersight 22

Standing at more than 25 volumes, this anthology of student work captures the program's intellectual currents over the course of three decades. Intersight is curated and produced each year by a Master of Architecture student selected to serve as the Fred Wallace Brunkow Fellow. This annual fellowship is generously supported by Kathryn Brunkow Sample and former UB President Steven Sample. Support for the production of the Intersight book publication is provided by CannonDesign.

Recent Issues

White text 26 on orange background.

Intersight 26 celebrates 'compounding knowledge' the intersections between spaces, experiences, and identities

Intersight 26 (IS26), the School of Architecture and Planning's 2023 journal of student work, serves as an archive for significant ideas and events from the year. According to Madeleine Sophie Sutton, the School's 2023-24 Brunkow Fellow and editor of IS26, 'The intersections between spaces, experiences, and identities that I observed as a student led me to the theme of this book, 'Compounding Knowledge.' The publication reflects on the year by sharing stories that highlight pivotal moments in learning, illustrating how students connect their academic coursework with personal identities and life experiences. Presenting a diverse range of student works, IS26 captures the evolving narrative of our educational journey.

Featured projects

Climate-Energy
  • Botanical Garden Master Plan
    8/1/20
    The North Tonawanda Botanical Gardens is an 11-acre site located on 1825 Sweeney Street in North Tonawanda, NY, bordering the Niagara River. The site is overseen by the North Tonawanda Botanical Gardens Organization (NTBGO), a nonprofit working towards restoring the garden to a scenic destination for community education and activity. Three members of the NTBGO, David Conti, Robbyn Drake and Laura Pecoraro, gave students the opportunity to design a proposal for the renovation and re-imagination of the North Tonawanda Botanical Gardens.
  • Off the Grid
    8/1/20
    During the Summer 2020 semester, Off the Grid, led by Professor Jon Spielman, was one of three remote programs being offered. This studio investigated new ways of exploring systems requiring energy established by the man-made grid system. 
  • Resilience Hub
    5/1/20
    During the Junior Spring semester an integrated design studio is carried out and aimed toward incorporating various systems into a larger building tectonic. In the Spring of 2020, students designed a laufmachine, a self-propelled, two-wheeled vehicle; it is the 19th century predecessor to the bicycle. This portion of the semester prompted students to begin thinking about a multitude of systems within their designs through this construction process. 
  • Resilience Hub
    5/1/19
    The junior studio followed the laufmaschine project (see page 128) by designing a Bicycle Institute / Resilience Hub / Community Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The site sits directly adjacent to the Superior Viaduct and the Lake Link bike trail. 
  • Coastal Dreams
    6/1/18
    Coastal Dreams is a speculative futures project, envisioning the cities along Lake Erie as subjected to extreme winter weather conditions in the face of global climate change. Sara Svisco developed a narrative, which depicts life in 2391, as the lake begins to experience alarmingly high water levels, resulting in the flooding of nearby coastal cities.