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Community Corner

Susan Robinson and Nancy King Visit Re-WireNXT Student Atelier

Wednesday, July 9, Re-WireNXT Joel Barlow High School student principals invited two guests to the Student Atelier:  Georgetown environmentalist Susan Robinson and Redding landscape architect Nancy King.

In her presentation, Ms. Robinson featured the concept of “usufruct,” defined as the right to enjoy the use of and advantages of another’s property short of the destruction or waste of its substance.  We also learned about invasive plants and the adaptive re-uses of the mill site by birds and animals making their habitats in the old structures, including the chimney swift (http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/chimney_swift/id).

Nancy King, of Seventy Acres Landscape Architecture & Design, introduced the idea of landscape as a language that can be read.  We studied topographical maps, discussed Connecticut watersheds, learned about hydrological cycles, treatment trains, and low-impact development.

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Student Atelier interns working together with the high school principals created models of habitats to protect and promote wildlife diversity as a key part of G&B’s future development.

Each week of Re-WireNXT’s summer Student Atelier has a focus in which the middle and elementary school interns explore concepts related to the Gilbert & Bennett Wire Mill site.  Cross-pollination of ideas is encouraged between each vertical:  Transportation, Ecology, Architecture, Environmental Remediation/Green Energies, Food/Hospitality/Farming, and Fashion/Art. By inviting field professionals, like Ms. Robinson and Ms. King, we intend to foster the same social enrichments envisioned in the proposed Gilbert & Bennett restoration project.

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Every Friday, we welcome the community to our studio at the G&B Cultural Center, Wilton, to view and discuss the vertical themed projects produced by Atelier interns and student principals. Please join us this Friday, July 18, for our Architecture Week exhibition.

Re-WireNXT Student Atelier is funded by the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, Redding Education Foundation, and Fairfield County Bank, and is sponsored by Artspire, a program of the New York Foundation for the Arts.

For more information, please contact us at rewireheadquarters@gmail.com.

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