The Building Narratives: Installations for Transitional Space course at California College of the Arts just finished up its second week! In just two short weeks, great conversations are already starting between the students. We are very excited for the coming weeks of research and the opportunity for the students to connect with the Esparto community.

The first week consisted of introductions, a general overview of the course (if you are unfamiliar with the course you can view the course description here) and some background information on Esparto, the station and community. We also introduced the companion book for the course, Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees by Lawrence Weschler.

This week, the students presented some of their initial research on Esparto, the station and ideas for their particular areas of interest. We also were lucky enough to have Randy Ruiz, Architect and CCA Professor give a fantastically engaging presentation on the history of Southern Pacific Railroad development and train depot architecture. For homework, students will continue their independent research and will be preparing to discuss the assigned readings and a refined idea of interest areas. To wrap up the update, I’d like to introduce our 10 graduate students.

MArch = Architecture

Mike Atherton, MArch

Casey Carroll, MA Visual & Critical Studies

Aubrey Davidson, MArch

Tre Hurst, MFA Design

Jordan Karnes, MFA Writing

Tammy LePham, MArch

Kenneth Lin, MArch

Susan Lin, MFA Writing

Nastaran Mousavi, MArch

Sonia Otalvaro, MA Visual & Critical Studies

We’ll be posting weekly updates to keep the community informed of activity and upcoming dates.

Until next time!