Students envision design for studio
By Robyn Kriel
Staff Reporter

The tenant of a dilapidated building in the south side of Fort Worth is drawing inspiration from TCU students to design his dance studio, although most of the students are designing anything but.

Interior design students from adjunct professor Julie Ballantyne’s design concepts class became involved in this project when Ballantyne learned that Todd Edson was looking for fresh ideas to design his studio.

The building, located on Park Place Avenue in the Fairmount district, is being revitalized by Edson, a former principal dancer for the Fort Worth Dallas Ballet.

Ballantyne said that as one of the four major assignments for the class, the students had to go to the building, measure the rooms, draw the blueprints and then just let their imaginations take them wherever they wanted to go.

“The only stipulation is that the area has to be designed for a place of work and study,” she said.

The students have to create an imaginary client and design the space on Park Place Avenue to meet the client’s needs, she said.

Ballantyne said one group of students is designing the space to be used as a spa, and another group is designing it as a film studio.

Ashley Visser, a junior interior design major, said her group envisioned the space as a fitness studio on the Gold Coast of Australia.

“We are designing it as a Mediterranean-style building,” Visser said.

Edson is a faculty member of the Bruce Wood Dance Company and will be teaching various dance and fitness classes, Ballantyne said.

“There is a definite art to interior design, and we as artists are always delighted to help out another artist in need,” she said.

Ballantyne said her class was a conceptual class and that the student’s work could be totally free and as imaginative as possible.

“This is one of the last opportunities the students have to let their imaginations run wild,” she said. “In the real world, one always has to work within certain boundaries.”

Liz Levy, a sophomore interior design major, said she has really been enjoying the assignment.

“We are pretending that the space is in New York,” Levy said. “We have decided to make it a children’s art studio.”

Levy said she is planning on making an actual model from the blueprints, and her group has visited stores to pick out different wood samples and paint colors.

“It is great being able to work with a real space,” Levy said. “It makes it a lot easier to imagine.”