Design

My UW journey began with design. On admission, I planned to join my interests in ecology, community, and engineering in the field of architecture. I dove into architectural drawing with my first architecture studio class, ARCH 200, in Autumn 2020. The assignments were fascinating, rewarding, and strenuous.

*Glenn Murcutt’s Marika Alderton house, drawn for ARCH 200 final project.*

After some consideration, I chose to pursue landscape architecture due to its greater focus on ecology. I applied for the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture major and was admitted to begin in Fall 2022. Like the architecture classes I took early on, Landscape Architecture has been challenging, yet rewarding.

*Miguel Symonds Orr’s 2022 headshot for the College of Built Environment’s directory*

Design projects in my UW years have flowed in and out of the classroom since the beginning of my studies. In Autumn 2020, I was living with my family in Prosser, Washington. The sun was a deep orange due to wildfire smoke as I dug beds for a native plant garden at my parents’ home.

*The smoky air of the site where I would later plant a native garden, taken in Fall 2020*

*The plan for a native plant garden at my parents’ house*

*A bed in the author’s native plant garden in July 2022, which was planted in Fall 2020*

The World Culinary Garden project – a garden I designed for the UW Farm with Program on the Environment student Keya Roy – was an exciting opportunity to explore design, learn about culturally important culinary plants, and collaborate on a design with a like-minded student. This project brought together several of these critical themes – design, ecology, and activism – in a fulfilling project.

*A section of a design for the UW Farm’s World Culinary Garden, designed by Miguel Symonds Orr and Keya Roy. Section drawn by Keya Roy over reference provided by Miguel Symonds Orr*

While my design journey at UW has largely been apart from my Honors classes – I’ve often used my Honors classes as opportunities to explore themes or ways of learning that contrast with my design education – there are some moments of overlap. In HONORS 211: The Politics and Practice of Making: Art as a Tool for Creating Change, I explored making practices in part through 3D modeling using Rhino, a tool I used in design courses as well, and learned about alternative art schools.

*A model of an iPhone I made in HONORS 211: The Politics and Practice of Making with an image of a lone tree on a razed landscape within – meant as commentary about* *the environmental impacts of cellular technology.*

My first Honors Experiential Learning project was a very rewarding design project – a native plant garden for the Prosser Historical Museum in Prosser, Washington. In this design, I studied the ecological and social histories of Prosser and the surrounding “Columbia” Basin areas and selected plants with historical relevance to the area – all native plants except for the grape species planted at the back. I worked closely with museum Director-Curator Alys Means as I designed the garden.