COLUMBUS, Ohio — OSU grad Nolan Leber built a dream by the shovelful at Parkmoor Elementary School. He’s an architect and there aren’t many architects who design a building and then build it themselves; but then again, Leber isn’t your typical architect. For the last two years, he spent countless hours at his computer working on the Parkmoor Peace Pavilion.
“It’s definitely inspired from Japan,” said Leber.
Making minor tweaks in between, Leber would go to the site to work on the project. He said he took what he learned in school, with a little help from a professor to build it. He said it was, “definitely rewarding.” “There’s always a little but of anxiety to make sure nothing’s happened to it,” he added.
Focused on the road ahead, Leber said it was a lot of work and always thought about how he could make it better. Describing pieces of it, he said, “the motif of the circle has always been something that through my graduate work was interesting to me…you don’t see it a lot in architecture cause of the difficulties that are associated with it.”
The woman behind the project was school principal Charmaine Campbell. She said they’ve been working on getting a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) designation from the state. As a part of that, she said, “We wanted to incorporate science in all of the content areas to produce and implement some cross curricular lessons.”
Campbell asked Leber to help with the project long before COVID-19, since district financial constraints wouldn’t allow for a new school building. Making the best of it, she said the pavilion is now an alternative space for kids to learn with COVID-19 around and a place to observe, reflect, and journal. She added that the peace pavilion isn’t just for the school, but the community that surrounds it.
When asked about the toughest part of the job, Leber said, “It’s a lot of hard work especially digging the pits for the gravel.” Even though it was a tough job, he believed it was a learning lesson for him. Now, he just hopes kids, teachers, and the community will enjoy it.
The project is complete. Some plants just need to grow in so that it looks like the official computer design. This was Leber’s first major project as a freelance designer. As he continues to add on to what he’s already built, Leber hopes to land a job at an architectural firm soon. In the meantime, he plans to write a few books on architecture.
