Brown and White Vol. 133 no. 8

              The Brown and White Vol. 133 No. 8
Tuesday, October 3, 2017 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
Architecture class designs pedestrian bridge
By CHRISTOPHER D’AGOSTINO
B&W Staff
Architecture professor Anthony
Viscardi and his class have start-ed
conceptualizing the design of a
pedestrian bridge that will connect
North and South Bethlehem.
The idea, which is still in its
preliminary stages, stemmed from
a partnership between Lehigh’s
South Side Initiative and the Lehigh
Valley Sierra Club, a local organiza-tion
that promotes environmental
initiatives.
Over the past year, the South Side
Initiative and Sierra Club sponsored
five public meetings where sever-al
community groups discussed the
project. Through the meetings, they
generated public interest and pre-pared
a document to present to the
state of Pennsylvania.
This document, called the “Bridge
Package,” includes a vision state-ment
that defines the purpose of the
bridge.
According to the document, the
Courtesy of Anthony Viscardi
Architecture professor Anthony Viscardi and his class discuss ideas for the design plan of a
new pedestrian bridge in Bethlehem. Viscardi’s class has partnered up with Lehigh’s South
Side Initiative and the Lehigh Valley Sierra Club to construct a pedestrian bridge that will
connect North and South Bethlehem.
community groups envision “a
bridge that allows safe passage for
all community members, including
walkers, bikers and runners, and
unites North and South Bethlehem’s
neighborhoods and businesses,
allowing them to flourish as one.”
The document also states that
an “architecturally beautiful bridge
that promotes recreational enjoy-ment
of the river is essential for
Bethlehem to become a true walking
city.”
With this vision statement in
mind, Viscardi created a course ded-icated
to conceptualizing the bridge.
Now, several civil engineering,
architecture, and earth and envi-ronmental
studies students are col-laborating
on a design and “look” for
the bridge.
“The first thing we did was walk,”
Viscardi said.
He took his students on an explor-atory
tour of the community, to
parts that are seemingly unknown
to most of the Lehigh student body.
Viscardi said the students looked
shocked as they walked to destina-tions
like ArtsQuest, Sand Island
Park and the North Side.
Andy Lachler, ’18, an architecture
major, and Quinn Boothe, ’18, a
product design major, are enrolled
in Viscardi’s course. They share the
goal of involving the Lehigh student
body to make the bridge a possibil-ity.
“The community wants to know
what the bridge is going to look
like,” Lachler said. “Our job is to cre-ate
a model of the bridge and show
See BRIDGE Page 3
Registered on-campus parties, explained
By MARISSA MCCLOY
Designer
This past weekend there were
eight registered fraternity par-ties.
In a possible shift in social
culture, parties that are often
held off campus could be moving
back on the Hill.
The 2017-18 Student Senate
survey of Lehigh students found
campus unity was ranked the
third most prominent issue on
campus.
“We do have some work to be
done with regard to our sense of
community,” said Ricardo Hall,
the vice provost for Student
Affairs. “Parties aren’t the end
all, but parties are a part of it.”
Registered parties are consid-ered
open events and are held in
buildings that can accommodate
large numbers of students.
Student Senate president Matt
Rothberg, ’18, said Senate found
the Experimental Party Weekends
last year to be inclusive. These
weekends, also called “Epic Party
Weekends,” were Fridays and
Saturdays when several fraterni-ties
hosted open, registered par-ties
on the Hill.
“I think inherent in the nature
of the facilities, on-campus events
have the opportunity to be much
larger and thus can afford to
enable more students to attend,”
Rothberg said.
Mark Shterk, ’18, the vice pres-ident
of campus relations for the
Interfraternity Council, said if
students are turned away from
registered parties, it’s because the
party is over capacity, which has
been a problem at some events.
Shterk said it falls on each fra-ternity
to make inclusion count,
and the council is pushing the
individual organizations to pro-mote
inclusivity.
“Definitely registered parties
are promoting unity within the
Greek community, hands down,”
Shterk said. “Within the school,
IFC is starting to try to engage
more and more of the different
groups and organizations on cam-pus
to get more than just people
in the Greek community to come
out to registered events.”
Senate and the Office of Student
Affairs are also working to engage
other student organizations by
promoting different evening
options for students.
Rothberg said registered events
do not have to be exclusively host-ed
by Greek organizations.
“It’s not just a Greek issue,”
Rothberg said. “Everyone puts on
events, and not everyone has the
facilities such as those on the Hill.
That’s where Senate comes in: to
help the 60 percent non-Greek
students to feel like they have a
place to socialize on campus.”
Rothberg said Senate-recognized
organizations holding
events on campus with alcohol
is a relatively new initiative. He
said Senate is working to compile
a list of locations for events and
create guidelines on how to host
and fund these events. Senate
plans to send this information out
to organizations this week.
Hall said allowing other organi-zations
to host parties in campus
facilities will lighten the burden
on fraternities.
“The weight of party planning
See PARTIES Page 3
Photo Illustration by Roshan Giyanani