University Design Research Fellows

Cornell University
School of Architecture

Michael Jefferson and Suzanne Lettieri
Apart, Together

Ithaca, New York

Site: Ovation Plaza
Partner: Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center and Ovation Technology Group

Apart, Together is an urban cinema screen consisting of multiple colors, each capable of being chroma-keyed to display different images and films. Drawing from Columbus’ iconic architecture and the formal and experiential qualities of kinetic op art, the scenographic installation undulates to reveal forms and sightlines as one moves around the piece.

Running parallel to 4th Street, the screen establishes a new visual and spatial boundary to enclose Ovation Plaza. Embracing the Yes And theme, the Yes acknowledges the site's existing live public performances and its vision for outdoor film screenings. Meanwhile, the And takes shape as a hybrid physical-digital screen, designed to amplify content from our community partners, YES Cinema and the Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center.

The multi-experiential installation celebrates the plurality of individual interests, sensibilities, and preferences of the Lincoln-Central Neighborhood and consolidates them within a shared civic space to allow Columbus’ residents to be Apart, Together.

Meet the UDRFellows

  • UDRF-Michael-Jefferson

    Michael Jefferson is a Lecturer at Cornell University and co-principle of JE-LE. Jefferson held appointments at The Cooper Union, Penn State University, the University of Michigan, City College of New York, and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where he was the 2019–20 Innovation in Design Fellow. In 2019, Michael received a residency fellowship at MacDowell in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He practiced at Adjaye Associates, CODA, Studio SUMO, and Office for Metropolitan Architecture. Jefferson holds a Master of Architecture from Cornell University.

  • Suzanne Lettieri (Team Lead) is an Assistant Professor at Cornell University and co-principle of JE-LE. Her work focuses on educational justice by creating inclusive design tactics that bridge the gap between aesthetics and socially conscious design. She worked at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, CODA, and Biber Architects and is a co-editor of Junior Architects. Lettieri earned an M.Arch. at Cornell and a B.F.A. in Interior Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2007.

2024 Symposium

University Design Research Fellows

Previous Work by Jefferson and Lettieri

Between the Lines

The preponderance of trim and molding in Detroit’s architectural salvage yards speaks to the extent of housing foreclosures in the city. Between the Lines reimagines these materials as a DIY project writ large. A familiar, domestic, and at times excessive material used to outline doors, windows, and walls acquires mass and playful contours that serve as both a subliminal reminder of its past and a renewed identity in its reorientation. In repurposing trim and molding, Between the Lines flips the orientation of the common material to reveal its profile edge. Layers of molding are compiled together to form impromptu extended edges that when milled and stacked compound to an articulated mass. The voids between stacked profiles are pronounced through the articulation of color, with the linear surfaces of the molding painted fluorescent pink to reinforce the objects’ interiors. In doing so, the relationship between moldings’ cut edge (its profile that is typically hidden) and its surface is flipped.

Prom Picture

Prom Picture was created as part of the Michigan-Mellon Fellowship in Egalitarianism and the Metropolis at the University of Michigan with Detroit ArcPrep students. In tapping into the American phenomenon of high school prom and the social media ecology surrounding it, Prom Picture enlists contemporary image culture as a foil to envision a culture of its own. The project constructs an image that is both unique to the prom-goer while celebrating the larger collective and emerging cultural phenomenon surrounding prom in Detroit. The installation features a set of physical chroma-keyed objects upon which patterns generated by an image-based algorithm are mapped. The three-dimensional, chroma-keyed backdrop allows Prom-goers to thoroughly imagine their aesthetic sensibilities by customizing their environment through digital overlay

School’s Out

The pavilion is a collection of outdoor classrooms exploring the capacity of “placeholding” in architecture. The installation is a lightweight wood structure and uses the residual painted fabric and plywood from a previous workshop with local youth. Its form, construction logic, and aesthetic qualities introduces architectural thinking that empowers students to engage with their built environments (for example the painting of the fabric). Important to the project is co-making the space with high school students, providing them the opportunity to occupy space and be positively acknowledged in an esteemed environment. Harnessing the knowledge developed during the Imagining Material Realities workshop two months prior and working with the materials used to create Painting Public Surfaces, School’s Out leaves a conceptual and material index of the high schools who co-created the work on the Cornell University Arts Quad to be viewed and inhabited throughout Fall 2023.