The rolling Bethel Woods hills that once hosted the iconic 1969 Woodstock music festival now holds a new architectural tribute to peace. The Peace Pavilion, designed and built with the leadership of RIT architecture Professor Amanda Reis, invites visitors to pause, reflect, and immerse themselves in the legacy of a site that continues to symbolize cultural change. Reis, in her second year as a faculty member in the Golisano Institute for Sustainability’s Department of Architecture, partnered with longtime collaborator Eduardo Aquino of the University of Manitoba to submit a proposal to BuildFest 2: Peace Rises, a part of the Bethel Woods Art & Architecture Festival. The event, held Sept. 10-14, called on university professors to create “peace structures” of varying scales. Their submission, entered under their research and design practice AREA, was selected for the largest commission. “It was a real honor to be selected,” Reis said. “We saw it as an opportunity to combine design innovation with sustainability and to involve students in a transformative learning experience.” Set against the backdrop of Filippini Pond and an adjoining forest, the pavilion occupies an Instagram-worthy location on the Bethel Woods grounds. The pavilion’s form was inspired by the yin-yang symbol, a representation of interconnected opposites and balance. Reis and Aquino reinterpreted it into a cubic structure that offers a cocoon-like feel, while also offering spectacular views. ‌ Youngjin Yi RIT architecture students gained hands-on experience assembling prefabricated panels for the Peace Pavilion. Those visiting the structure will step into a light-filled space whose walls are inscribed with phrases curated from poetry, literature, and music. Some lyrics also come directly from Woodstock-era artists, a connection to the area’s past. Western Red Cedar was chosen as the primary material because of its beauty and resilience. The material strengthens over time, meaning the Peace Pavilion could endure for years. “Many of the BuildFest structures are temporary, but we wanted to increase the longevity of the Peace Pavilion,” Reis said. “The material gives it that possibility.” Reis emphasized that the project’s success was the result of many minds. While Reis and Aquino established the design, the project became a hands-on experience for RIT architecture students. The project served as an early design-build exercise for Reis’s Architecture Studio course, a master’s architectural design class that typically emphasizes theoretical projects. The Peace Pavilion offered the students a rare chance to see ideas translated into reality. The student team included Noah Baldon, Maddy Bortle, Anna-Leigha Clarke, Ryan Denberg, Sydney Fox, Gabriela Hernandez, Gil Merod, Mackendra Nobes, Julia Resnick, and Youngjin Yi. “The collaboration exposed students to the full cycle of design-build, from concept to construction,” Aquino said. “They encountered unexpected challenges and learned how to improvise solutions during installation, which is where the deepest learning often happens.” In addition to the student team, staff from the SHED—Michael Buffalin, Jim Heaney, and Chris Vorndran—played a key role in fabricating the engraved cedar boards, before it made the four-hour trek to the Catskills. Ralph Gutierrez, an architectural intern, also contributed to the design development, while Yi captured photography throughout the process. “All of the dimensional wood was fabricated at 10-foot lengths to minimize waste, and the design required tight tolerances that pushed us to be meticulous during assembly,” Aquino said. “Those details emphasized the balance between sustainability and craftsmanship.” ‌ Youngjin Yi Inside the Peace Pavilion, engraved phrases line the cedar walls, which include lyrics from popular Woodstock performers. During the build, Reis mentioned that a couple who had attended Woodstock stopped by in their original festival T-shirts, eager to step inside the new structure. The pavilion offers potential for several outdoor activities. “I can imagine people reading, meditating, or just waiting for friends to finish kayaking or swimming nearby,” Reis said. “As architects, we can anticipate some uses, but the most exciting thing is what we can’t predict.” Fox, an architecture graduate student from southern Maine, said the entire process taught her important lessons. “I see architecture as a tool that can bring people together, communicate ideas and stories, and challenge the status quo,” said Fox. “Building this Peace Pavilion with others helped me see the power of collective effort and how creating something together can forge meaningful bonds between people, giving a project even more significance beyond its final result.”

It was a spark of an idea that forged a new campus club. A year ago, four engineering technology students were taking the class foundation of metals that included a brief training program for undergraduate students to learn how welding is used in manufacturing. They knew they wanted more than welding 101 and started to build the framework of a new club. “It was beneficial to have the class” said Jack Seeley, chapter president and a fourth-year manufacturing and mechanical engineering technology student from Cherry Valley, N.Y. “But we also wanted to learn more, to take advantage of the resources and equipment we have in our lab area.” It seemed his peers across campus did as well. Within a year, Seeley and the others worked with Student Government, RIT’s College of Engineering Technology (CET) administration and faculty member Richard Roe to establish the new organization. It became one of the first student chapters of the American Welding Society’s Northeast District. RIT’s chapter has 50-plus active members and open to any major and experience level. “We have a diverse team with a wide range of expertise. While many of us have an engineering technology background, our members also have backgrounds in game design, finance, art, mathematics and NTID,” said Lucio Tomassetti, chapter vice president, and a fifth-year manufacturing and mechanical engineering technology student from Fairport, N.Y. “We are working with the members from NTID to build our chapter in a way to make students who may be deaf or hard-of-hearing comfortable here.” ‌ Liam Myerow/RIT Members of the student chapter of the American Welding Society are learning how to weld for projects as varied as art to mechanical design. Welding is the art of using high heat and pressure to mold, shape and secure metals. Those new to the process can be intimidated at first, but the group merged RIT’s general lab safety rules with specific welding safety measures to formulate a unique training program for new members. “To enhance our training program, we’ve created a chief welder position. This person acts as lead trainer, with responsibilities that include ensuring lab safety, clean up, managing set up and teaching our next group of trainers,” said Tomassetti. Seeley agreed: “We are constantly trying to improve and retrain our members, especially the newer members with less experience. We can start them on smaller projects so that they can learn what welding sounds like, what it feels like, how the helmet reacts, how it feels to wear different types of gloves and getting that person to feel comfortable with welding.” The path to formalizing the student chapter was paved through help by alumnus Michael Krupnicki ’99 (MBA), a longtime supporter of RIT and its students, particularly those on the Baja, Formula and Hot Wheelz performance teams. Students learned how to weld at Arc & Flame, his business in Rochester. Krupnicki also provided much of the state-of-the-art equipment found in CET’s labs and in campus machine shops. The connection to Arc and Flame locally as well as the national society provide multiple opportunities for chapter members to participate in local, regional and national programming, including student design competitions. “For the current academic year, we are arranging a series of programs with local professionals. These sessions are designed to supplement our classroom learning and will cover a variety of practical skills, including designing with welding standards and fundamentals of business ownership,” said Tomassetti. Programs will focus on crucial skills, like improving interpersonal communication for project management and delivering effective presentations to clients. Seeley agreed: “These things can help students become successful welding engineers and more confident project leaders.”