Advanced architecture and interior design students once again made the community their classroom, and presented the results at an open house held April 23. This year, for the second year in a row, the students used the streets and buildings of historic Nazareth borough as the template for their design work.

Represented were works from students in Ken Trionfo’s architecture design studio class, Dan Ebner’s materials and methods of construction course, and Glenn Boerstler’s commercial interior design studio class.

Trionfo’s students took on parking issues around Nazareth, as well as the intersection of Main and Belvidere Streets and the redesign of a local park (above). Ebner’s students revamped whole city blocks, building by building (right). And Boerstler’s class turned their attention to redoing the interiors of locations like Lily’s Tacos and the interior of the yet-to-be-completed Center for the Arts, formerly a 1902 firehouse that students also worked on last year.

Interior design student Iris Bunk and her team took on the challenge of turning the old Nazareth Pharmacy building into a spa (below). “We went in to survey the building’s interior, got the dimensions, and then designed the space.”

This is the sixth year that NCC’s architecture students have used communities in the Lehigh Valley as their canvas. They’ve also taken on projects in Bethlehem and Easton. “We’re blurring the line between the college and the community,” Trionfo told the crowd after playing a short video in which the program was aptly described as “the epitome of service learning.”

“We want to stay linked to the community,” NCC President Dr. Art Scott told students, parents and community attendees, “and it doesn’t get any better than this.” He congratulated the students on their “extraordinary work.”