Advanced 3D Design (AD3DD) students have been learning about Fay School history as they embark on a project to design a monument that honors an important moment, individual, or theme from the School’s 157 years. Students embarked on the project by researching a well-known monument from anywhere in the world to understand how and why that monument came to exist. Students studied India’s Taj Mahal, Mount Rushmore, China’s Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, and the Christ the Redeemer Statue in Brazil and created presentations using their personal style and branding guides. The class also listened to a podcast to learn about the history behind the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery, a monument with a simple design but a complex backstory showing how a monument’s meaning to people can change over time.

While ninth graders might be very familiar with Fay today, it was essential to understand Fay’s history before they started brainstorming designs. Director of Marketing & Communications Erin Sullivan visited the AD3DD class to share “15 Decades of Fay History in a Little More than 15 Minutes,” a presentation that starts with Fay’s founding and early years under the leadership of sisters Eliza Burnett and Harriet Burnett Fay. Erin highlighted some critical transition points in Fay’s history, such as the decision to go fully coed in 1977 and the buildings and spaces that have represented Fay to different generations of students. She also discussed the key people and events that shaped the School and the different types of memorials or monuments that already exist on campus. 

Technology and design teacher Andrew Shirley asked students to brainstorm and create design sheets for three Fay monument ideas. He asked students to consider how people might interact with their monument, the location, why this event or person is worthy of a memorial, and whether the materials are essential to the design. He also noted that one of the challenges to consider when designing a monument is that the audience will bring their own meaning to the design once it is built. “Once the monument is built, it doesn’t belong to the designer anymore; it belongs to the people who will visit it, and they will get out of it what they get out of it.”  

Of course, any monument at Fay needs to resonate with other students. Therefore, the AD3DD students took turns presenting their three ideas to the class, who held a roundtable discussion on each idea, asked questions, added suggestions, and weighed in on which design they thought was strongest. One student proposed a monument to the storied history of the Fay wrestling program with red and white chain links that form an abstract puzzle and link together to show how the team’s strength is that everyone is connected. Another student proposed an interactive zoetrope, a cylindrical spinning device that creates the illusion of motion for an observer with images in progressive motion stages. In her presentation, Adalynne M. ’24 noted that the zoetrope design would “represent the way the community grows closer together over the course of the year and, by the end of the year, we are one cohesive team who loves and supports one another.”

When students return from winter break, they will focus on building their chosen design. We can’t wait to see what they come up with!