UDRF

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Joseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison

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A Carousel for Columbus

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Presented by Columbus Area Visitors Center

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UDRF ● Joseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison ● A Carousel for Columbus ● Presented by Columbus Area Visitors Center ●

A Carousel for Columbus is a locomotive love letter in-the-round. Shapely silhouettes sampled from the city’s iconic architecture huddle together to form a curious carousel, a backdrop for public life in the city. Supergraphics, also sampled from the city’s architecture, animate the walls and ground surfaces of the plaza. The graphics sync into and out of optical alignment with the carousel as it spins in place or as visitors circulate around it.

When programmed as a stage, the rotating platform offers the flexibility for performers to reorient themselves outwards toward a festival crowd along Fourth Street or inwards toward a more intimate audience within the plaza. During un-programmed times, the carousel provides an active platform for physical engagement and visual play. Taken together, the carousel, supergraphics, and performances offer a locomotive landscape that celebrates the power of shape, color, character, and sound to generate a public platform by design.

Accessibility

The general exhibit space is accessible and located off of the sidewalk. An interactive carousel can be accessed by stepping up onto the platform or sitting on an external bench.

A man taking a photo of three children standing on a colorful outdoor stage with a vibrant pink, orange, and yellow mural in the background. The children are smiling and posing, with one girl in a pink shirt and floral skirt jumping in the air.

Where do you find joy in the city?

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A Carousel for Columbus Installation Credits

University Design Research Fellowship

Presented by

Columbus Area Visitors Center

Site Collaborator

Ovation Technology Group

University

School of Architecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Design Team

Joseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison, with Amir Zarei (Could Be Design)

Fabrication Team

Ignition Arts (carousel installation)
Andrea Jablonski (lead muralist)
Driftwood Builders (benches and planters)

Materials

Steel, Cedar, Plywood, Mirrors, Paint, Carpet

Fabrication Supporters

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Fine and Applied Arts
Illinois School of Architecture
Columbus Museum of Art and Design
Columbus Area Arts Council
Driftwood Builders
Office of Downtown Development

Additional Credits

Ovation Technology Group: Chris Chandler and Jill Hoeltke 
Community Painting Volunteers

Site: Ovation Plaza, in collaboration with Ovation Technology Group

Empty parking lot with a small construction cone, surrounded by buildings and parked cars on a clear day.

Curatorial Question

Where do you find joy in the city?

A man with curly hair and glasses hugging a large pink foam roller against a pink and orange wall.
A man with glasses and curly hair holding pink cotton candy, wearing a yellow shirt and a yellow visor, smiling outdoors under power lines with another person in the background.

“From storytime to bathroom breaks and everything in between, they always look for new ways to make friends with their architecture.”

Joseph Altshuler (left) and Zack Morrison (right) are both parents of young children who keep them on their toes when they’re not working on design projects -- and even when they are. Joseph has an 8-year-old named Rafi and a 4-year-old named Sonia, and Zack has a 4-year-old named Evelyn. Their kids are also their best design critics, often invading Zoom meetings and backseat driving during collaborative 3-D modeling sessions. As Sonia would say, “Make that architecture more fuchsia, please!”

The team takes pleasure in being generalists, working on various design projects ranging in scale from furniture to installations to interiors to buildings and even festival landscapes.

For their first commissioned client project, they designed new public restrooms inside an existing synagogue facility, noting that sitting on the toilet is the most intimate architectural experience a person can have.

While strolling around downtown Columbus in October 2022, they stumbled upon the Ovation Plaza space and were immediately smitten. The diagrid pavement! they said. The stepped, cascading parapets! The walls with rounded corners! The triangular soffit! The existing surfaces of pavement and walls were abounding with tasty shapes. And yet the whole space was washed in beige paint as if to disappear into the background. It was like this corner of the city was challenging them to celebrate its existing quirks, to animate its edifices in full color, and to awaken it to live its best life.

A Carousel for Columbus is a proof-of-concept for a broader design research project called “Supergraphic Landscapes.” They’re interested in building a body of work that playfully combines 2D graphics and 3D forms in dynamic and animated ways that might be considered graphic design at the scale of the city or architecture that flickers between flatness and deeper space. Whatever it is, they hope to make a lot more inhabitable public art in the future that doesn’t just decorate or beautify the city, but reorganizes the city’s operation and that expands the ways city-dwellers find companionship and love for their city and its architecture as much as each other.

One word that is conspicuously absent from most conversations about architecture in the profession and the academy, they said, is “love.” Exhibit Columbus is a profound exception to this tendency. From Paola Aguirre’s Love Letter to The Crump (2019) to Joyce Hwang's To Middle Species, With Love (2021), for example, they hope that A Carousel for Columbus, their locomotive love letter in-the-round, continues a multiyear collective conversation about the intersection of love and civic space and of affection and architecture.

This excerpt is from the 2023 Field Guide. Download it here.

Activity Guide for kids and families to explore the Exhibition.

Pile of printed activity guides for the 2023 Columbus Exhibit, featuring maps, design prompts, and information about public design projects.

Download the activity for the installation A Carousel for Columbus. Print at home, or stop by any Infohub to pick up a free guide.

Creating A Carousel for Columbus

A man working on a metal frame in a workshop, wearing gloves and a light blue t-shirt. The workspace contains tools, a red welding screen, and various machinery and materials, indicating an industrial or construction environment.
Two young men are crouched down painting on a flat surface outdoors, one in a neon yellow shirt and the other in a blue shirt, both wearing caps and glasses. There are people in the background also involved in painting activities, using brushes and paint supplies, with colorful walls behind them.
A woman with long dark hair smiling, wearing a pink bucket hat with a Jumpman logo, standing against a multicolored wall with pink, white, orange, and red sections.
Two men working on a construction project outdoors. One man is counting on his fingers, the other is pointing at a level tool on the ground. Various tools are nearby.
A man working in a woodworking shop, using a drill to assemble a wooden structure, surrounded by various tools and wood pieces.
Man working on a woodworking project in a workshop, sanding a large wooden box.
A man with a beard and wearing a gray t-shirt, with yellow and black ear protection, is looking down and pointing at a blueprint or technical drawing on a table in an industrial workshop. There is a water bottle and a pen on the table, and red welding screens are set up behind him.
A color map or chart taped to a wall painting with pink and beige sections, secured with green tape at the top and bottom.
People painting a colorful mural on a pink wall.
Three men unload wooden benches from a flatbed trailer on a city sidewalk. One man is standing on the trailer, another is handing objects to a man in a bright yellow shirt, and a third man stands on the sidewalk. The background shows trees, buildings, and street tents.
A person kneeling on the ground, assembling a large wooden cornhole game board on a concrete surface with orange traffic cones and additional game parts nearby.
A person working on the construction of a boat's bow inside a workshop. The boat is elevated on wooden supports, with a large wooden deck and a partially installed cabin structure. Various tools and equipment are visible around the workshop.
Three people painting a large, colorful mural on an outdoor wall. The mural features pink, yellow, and orange shapes, with some areas still in progress. They are using ladders and scaffolding to reach higher sections.
A man wearing a face shield labeled 'Painting Squad' paints a large wall with pink paint using a roller brush.
A man on a ladder painting a red arrow on a wall, with other electrical equipment attached above
People painting a mural on the side of a building with orange, pink, and yellow geometric shapes, while others work under a tent nearby in a parking lot.
Four people standing on a sidewalk engaging in conversation, while a young woman sits on a wooden bench with her phone in hand. The background features a brick building with a sign that reads "The Forge" and an upper outdoor seating area with an awning.
Two people working on a large, colorful, circular structure inside an industrial workshop with exposed brick walls and high ceilings.
A group of women painting a colorful mural on an exterior wall, using various paint tools and roller brushes, with painting supplies spread on the ground.
A woman with gray hair wearing yellow safety glasses, a red t-shirt, paint-splattered black pants, and boots, standing on a green scissor lift. She holds a remote control and appears in a painting or construction setting with painted walls in the background.
Four men assembling a large circular metal structure outdoors at a colorful mural wall. One man in a gray shirt kneels with a measuring tool, another in a neon yellow shirt kneels nearby, a third in a black shirt sits on the ground, and a fourth in a blue shirt and brown pants stands holding a red measuring post. Various tools and equipment are nearby.
Two men are assembling wooden tables on a sidewalk in an urban area with brick buildings in the background. One man is wearing a cap and glasses, while the other has dark hair and a beard.
A man wearing a gray hat and black T-shirt bends over to adjust a wooden bench made of varnished planks, set against a colorful pink and orange mural background.

2023 Design Presentations

Two men engaged in conversation at a public speaking event, with one speaking into a microphone and the other listening attentively.
Illustration of an outdoor musical performance with people sitting, dancing, and children playing, featuring a small stage with musicians, against a colorful abstract background with orange, pink, and purple hues.

A Carousel for Columbus installation design concept by 2022–23 University Design Research Fellows Joseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison from Urbana Champaign and Chicago, Illinois.

“For us, Public By Design suggests working toward collective spaces that welcome diverse audiences—spaces to encounter and interact with people different from yourself. Our work positions friendly shapes, vibrant colors, and bold graphics that translate ideas of identity and belonging into architectural forms that invite broad communities to develop new relationships with the built world.” — Joseph Altshuler (left) and Zack Morrison

2022 Symposium

Two men seated on orange chairs participating in a panel discussion, one holding a microphone and the other listening with his hand on his chin, with a blue and white abstract patterned background.
Group of five people standing in front of a patterned wall, smiling, with orange chairs behind them.

Joseph Altshuler (right) and Zack Morrison in discussion with other UDRFellows and the Curatorial Team at the 2022 Symposium in October. Take a look back at the 2022 Symposium here.

University Design Research Fellows

Joseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison

School of Architecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Urbana-Champaign and Chicago

Joseph Altshuler is Assistant Professor of Architecture at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Co-Founder of Could Be Architecture, a Chicago and Urbana-based design practice. He is the Director of the Architectural Companionship Laboratory, a design research lab that works at the intersection of architecture, public art, environmental graphics, adaptive reuse, and tactical urbanism. His teaching, practice, and scholarship explore architecture and public art’s capacities to build lively audiences, initiate serious play, and amplify participation in civic life. His first book Creatures Are Stirring: A Guide to Architectural Companionship was published in 2022.

Zack Morrison is Co-Founder of Could Be Architecture, a Chicago- and Urbana-based design practice that designs seriously playful spaces that build solidarity among multiple communities. Zack is also a design educator who leads participatory architecture workshops around the nation, including the educational video series “Animate Architecture” commissioned by the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Zack is the Co-Founder of the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival, a public art exhibition that includes multiple pavilion installations, designed and built in partnership with community organizations; it celebrates the cultural heritage of the neighborhood and builds new community connections.

Existing work by Joseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison

A red modern art sculpture with circular cutouts, shaped like a house, outdoors on a lawn near a stone building, with people gathered underneath.

Pomegranate Sukkah welcomes visitors to pop their head under its outstretched walls, inviting playful engagement and immersion inside its light-infused perforated enclosure along the shores of Lake Michigan. Credit: Could Be Architecture.

Two women sitting on a pastel green bench with a house-shaped backdrop, pink curtains behind them, and a dark polished floor beneath.

McCormick AfterParti positions pink curtains that reenact the original floor plan and vibrant mint furnishings that re-stage the original domestic activities of Mies van der Rohe’s historic McCormick House, inviting visitors to experience the building’s history through participation and interaction. Credit: Steven Koch

Outdoor art exhibit with display boards featuring photographs and information, set on a pavement with a red carpet and wooden display structures under a clear blue sky.

Billboard Buddies is a family of versatile exhibit display units that pop-up in Indiana parking lots to host cultural programming during pandemic times. Photo by Art + Action Lab.