Last autumn, the South Orange/Maplewood school district offered an after-school architecture class, titled The Community Building Project, for students in grades 3 to 5.  The response to the class was overwhelming, and the results were amazing.

"We had 58 students in grades 3-5 from five elementary schools in the district participate," said architect Jung Lee Masters. "The other architect/designer parents and I are very excited to show their work, together for the first time!" 

The handiwork of the students from the five elementary schools the district will be on display this Sunday, Feb. 5 at the Baird in South Orange from noon to 4 p.m. (No Super Bowl conflict!)

The South Orange-Maplewood School District, in a press release, provided the following details:

Students from all five elementary schools put tremendous effort into learning introductory principles of urban planning, scale, and building types. Each school was given a portion of a map of Maplewood and South Orange to develop into their own "town." The students at each school worked together to plan zones, then each student designed and created their own building from re-purposed chipboard boxes.

Taught by parent architects and designers, the program was a collaborative effort and was conceived to unify the students within the district's elementary schools.

The Architects and Designers are:

• Jung Lee Masters, Clinton
• Paul Westhelle, Jefferson
• Devyani Guha, Seth Boyden
• Maia Gilman, South Mountain
• Cami Zelevansky and Monika Parkitna, Tuscan

The Community Building Project exhibit is free and open to anyone who wishes to view these amazing projects.