Sleep-deprived architect calls annex home
Projects keep student working into morning in Lindley Hall studio
By Dave Campbell Special to the Kansan
The scents of balsa wood and coffee fill the small, white, one-level campus building that was constructed as an army barracks. Today, Lindley Hall Annex is a wide-open room with cubicles, fluorescent lights and a dirty, concrete floor and home to second-year architecture students like Ryan Manies.
Manies works on his projects in the back of the building, at a desk beyond the Coke machine and below a window that has a fake arm shut in it. The window is covered by a sign that reads, "Aren't you glad you used Dial?"
hours wisely.
"That sign is for people riding the bus up Naismith Drive," Manies said, grinning. "Things can get real crazy here late at night."
Architecture is a demanding field because of the amount of material architects must consider when designing structures. Movement of people, building support, and overall look are important aspects to each building's design, Manies said. Not only must architects design structures that please their artistic senses, they also must design them to be built. That is where many problems develop.
His latest project was to design a hypothetical studio for graduate architecture students. It is the type of assignment architecture students work on to prepare for the real world.
Tom Leininger/ KANSA
Ryan Manies, Leawood sophomore, decided to study architecture because it mixes math and art. Someday he would like to design his own house.
"Many times, architects will design a building, then an engineer will come along to build it and change a lot of things in the interest of structural support," Manies said.
"I have to do a bunch of drawings and four models in two weeks," Manies said. "I don't have any of it yet. No one has any of it yet."
Life in the School of Architecture is full of late nights and time-consuming assignments that force students to manage their
He said an architect sometimes got mad when an engineer altered plans.
"The architect's design is his baby," Manies said.
This has spawned a notoriously bad relationship between architects and engineers. Manies said he did not want to deal with those problems when he graduated.
"I want to have my own firm and design buildings myself," he said. "By taking into account all the aspects of building design, engineers won't mess with my plans."
Manies said that being self-motivated had helped him get closer to his goal. He is guiding his college career towards a life-long career in a profession he enjoys.
"I like to draw and build things," he said. "Architecture lets me express myself that way as well as having a practical side — the math and physics of building design. It's sort of like making sculptures that people live and work within."
Architecture is a combination of art and engineering that offers immense self-gratification. Manies said.
"I work on my project, and when that's over, I catch up on work for other classes," he said. "It goes back and forth. Time management is essential."
Manies said he often put in 100-hour weeks working on projects and had to balance this with other class work. But he said it would all be worthwhile in the end.
"It's nice to know that you design thing that play such a key part in everyone's life, he said.