Architect visits ONS
January 12, 2015

Onondaga Nation School – Architect Andrew Schuster visited the ONS Fifth grade classroom last week to talk about Tsha’Thoñswatha’ (Fire barn) and how earth friendly resources are used in its construction.

“Our classroom has been learning and researching in depth about renewable and non-renewable resources,” states Fifth grade teacher Mrs. Powless.  “It was really great that Mr. Schuster was able to come in to show the class how all of these ideas can come together in designing a building.”

Andrew led the students through a presentation where he showed how he, as an architect, listens to what the people want before he begins to design.

“That is an important part of being a good architect,” he told the class.  “You want a build a structure that reflects what the people want.  The council repeatedly told me they wanted a building that was ‘earth friendly’.  One of the major factors we did is we made it out of wood instead of steel.  Steel is mined minerals from the earth and requires furnaces to create it.”

Mr. Schuster also showed how the building can use minimal fuels to heat and provide electricity for the building with the solar panels, geothermal heating, and insulation.  He said the insulation on Tsha’Thoñswatha’ is “a great blanket.”

Veron said, “I think it’s cool that the heating pipes go 400 feet down to the bedrock. And I really like that 95% of the building is renewable.”

Gage talked of the use of recycling to help build the fire barn, “I like how they actually used recycled books for insulation.  That is so cool that the whole fire barn is based on the environment.”

I learned that it is important where you put the windows in the building,” stated Payton.  “The North facing windows allow the light to be soft.”

Andrew Schuster showed diagrams of the building and the geothermal being installed into the floor.  The Geothermal heat allows the building to heat quickly after the firemen open the doors for the trucks.

“I like that my grandpa, uncle, and cousins helped,” said Jamisin. “They helped pour the concrete on the heating pipes and the sidewalks too.”
 
The students then had some questions of their own for the visiting architect.  They found out that he is a Cornell graduate, has been designing buildings for the past 12 years and has created at least 3 buildings every year of various sizes and purposes, and his favorite building is in France.

“My first building was a health center in Elmira,” responded Andrew to an inquisitive 5^th grader’s question.  “Currently, I am working on a 3 year re-design of the Syracuse University’s old Law Building.  That one is being completed in phases in order to let the students’ still use parts of the building while other sections get renovated.”

Overall the Mrs. Powless class really enjoyed learning about how Tsha’Thoñswatha’ was all put together with our Mother Earth in mind.

Kyler summed up the class’ feelings, “I can’t wait to visit the fire barn!”