The Harvey Hall Grates: Purposeful Readaptation through Industrial Design

Abstract

During the 2015 remodeling of the former President's Office in Harvey Hall of the UW-Stout campus, staff salvaged two brass ventilation grates. Dean Maria Alm of the College of Arts and Human Sciences initiated a project to incorporate the salvaged brass grates into end tables designed and fabricated by students. Dean Alm recruited Associate Dean/Industrial Design Faculty Member Jennifer Astwood as Project Director and University Archives Director Heather Stecklein as research mentor. Students researched archival collections and contemporary designs to inspire end table designs that referenced the long-term identity of the former President's Office and the larger campus.

Each of the student designers, Jordan Jentsch and Annamarie Burch, designed an individual table for fabrication. Student fabricators, Amelia Dobbratz and Ethan Romo, constructed the tables using campus laboratories and locally sourced materials.

The finished tables were installed in the Dean's Conference Room (Former President's Office) in Summer 2024.