Friday, July 01, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

ARCHITECTURAL ODYSSEY: Clarke's vision captured

10 teams compete for honor of designing building bearing sci-fi author's name

UNLV students Vince Novak, Jane Michael, Alicia Ziegler and Frits Bakker created this design, which won a 10-day architecture competition on Thursday. They along with the eight other students who competed will have their concepts included in the final design of the proposed Arthur C. Clarke Center for Imagination and Opportunity building, which will represent the legacy of the science-fiction author. Photo by John Gurzinski. Science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke shows off a copy of his book "2001 A Space Odyssey," his novel, at his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in this Dec. 31, 2000, file photo. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A crowd reviews three designs for the proposed Arthur C. Clarke Center for Imagination and Opportunity building. The designs were developed by students during a 10-competition that concluded on Thursday. Photo by John Gurzinski.

Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote "2001: A Space Odyssey," is known as a science-fiction author and as a scientist.

So Tedson Meyers, the chairman of Clarke's foundation, said Thursday he was pleased to see both sides of Clarke's mind reflected in preliminary designs for the building that likely will house his manuscripts.

The winning team of a 10-day student design competition of the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Imagination and Opportunity building crafted a structure that is patterned after a brain.

"Imagination really happens in the brain. We played off the dichotomy of the two sides of the brain," said UNLV graduate student Vince Novak, whose team won the competition and a cash prize from the foundation.

One half of their structure is a cranial shaped dome. Novak envisions the material for this creative, right side, of the structure to be made out of liquid crystal and sandwiched between two layers of glass. With a robust tree behind it, the half of the facility would have adequate shading.

The left side of the structure represents a more analytical and scientific inspiration, using traditional lines and right angles. But Novak said there is a "little color, just for fun."

Their work as well as the ideas from two other teams that competed will be included in the final design of the center, which Meyers said will be located across from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas at a site yet to be determined.

"While there is a winner of the contest, I'm taking all three on the road with me and we're also going to be asking the university to put them on our Web site. But people around the U.S. and overseas will be seeing them," Meyers said.

Thursday's competition marked the kickoff of his campaign for funds to build the center, which he expects to cost between $50 million and $75 million. He'll use the students' drawings to solicit donations for the building he hopes will be a place to study the origin and progression of the human imagination.

Clarke, 87, resides in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and has never been to Las Vegas, Meyers said. He was surprised when the foundation decided to work with UNLV to create his namesake center, Meyers recalled. But he was intrigued the university would allow his center, which would be housed in the honors college, to be an integral part of all disciplines, Meyers said.

Clarke moved to Sri Lanka decades ago and does not travel much. He ran a scuba business that was damaged by last year's tsunamis, Meyers said. But the foundation is hoping he'll make an appearance somewhere this fall for the 60th anniversary of his essay "Extra-Terrestrial Relays" that appeared in Wireless World magazine in October, 1945.

In the article, Clarke suggested satellites would create instant global communications. He described the geostationary orbit around the Earth's equatorial plane that would enable satellites to travel the globe in one day and appear stationary in the sky. That route is now called the Clarke orbit.

Trying to incorporate that kind of imagination and science into a building became the main criteria for most of the students in the contest.

"It should be iconic. It's a high-profile project by a high-profile person. Part of what they wanted was a building people will recognize," said Craig Palacios, a UNLV graduate student whose team designed a transparent building atop a bridge that would straddle Maryland Parkway.

University officials stressed the project was only in the planning stages. A campus committee led by two former deans, has been working on the partnership, said Jim Frey, former College of Liberal Arts dean. He said they're developing a partnership with the foundation, which will need university and Board of Regents approval. He hoped to take the project to regents at one of their fall meetings.