While learning about building foundations in his architecture class last semester, Mikhail Grinwald '13 could walk out of Rand Hall and see the footings taking shape for the College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP)'s Paul Milstein Hall. And for a current class assignment, he modeled a section of the college's new three-level addition with an added feature -- a terra cotta facade.

As the 47,000-square-foot building takes shape, AAP faculty members have been drawing on the construction project as a teaching tool by incorporating it into course assignments and inviting key players in its design and development to visit their classes.

"Rather than vicariously experiencing the building process, we can really see it at the time we're learning about the more technical aspects of architecture," Grinwald said.

"Milstein Hall has the advantage of being a state-of-the-art building not only from its design but from a technical standpoint," said Jonathan Ochshorn, associate professor of architecture. "It's a really good case study for students to look at. It's not a five-year-old or 10-year-old or 20-year-old building; it's brand new. And students have motivation to understand it since they will be occupying it in 18 months."

Ochshorn assigned students in his Building Technology, Materials and Methods class to study the Milstein Hall construction documents in the Fine Arts Library and to draw a cross-section of the building. For the final project, the students designed a new facade and curtain wall system that would be different from the glass-and-stone veneer the building will use.

The assignment taught the students how to be creative architects by adding something new to the design and not simply copying it, Ochshorn said. "What happens in architecture is that there are all sorts of precedents and rules of thumb that you might find in handbooks," he said. "But you're always confronted with the challenge of how to do something new."

One of his students, Paul Joran, M.Arch. '12, organized a site tour attended by a dozen students and AAP Dean Kent Kleinman.

"Here you are in that class, and they're talking about footings and all that construction technology, and here was this building," Joran said. "A lot of students get into that technical jargon. It's one of those things that if you're really interested in, you find fascinating."

Visiting critic in architecture David Mah is using the building in a Professional Practice course co-taught this semester with two colleagues. Mah invited several key players involved with the Milstein project -- including the deputy building commissioner for the city of Ithaca and Andrew Magre, B.Arch. '90, associate university architect and former project manager for Milstein Hall -- to visit the class and discuss such issues as obtaining government approvals and using consultants.

Shohei Shigematsu, a partner with the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, the New York- and Rotterdam-based firm that designed the building, also visited the class recently to discuss managing a global office.

"I remember when I was going through all these things when I was a student; it was all so abstract," said Mah, a registered architect in the United Kingdom. "With Milstein, it's very clear for them when they see this building coming up from the ground to relate all these professional practice issues and processes that we cover in class to a real, tangible project."

Sherrie Negrea is a freelance writer for the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.