If you were asked which is the oldest building in use by Iowa State, you would certainly answer the Farm House, built in 1860, but you would be wrong.

 

The latest addition to the university's pool of office and classroom facilities was constructed 300 years earlier, when only the Ioway Indians were enjoying what is now our campus. The 16th-century Palazzo Cenci, built on the remains of a medieval castle that rose from the ruins of a Roman circus, is the new home of the College of Design's Rome Program. In January 2005, 60 ISU architecture students and their professors set up drawing boards and computers in a suite of rooms where once the barons, bishops and princesses of the ancient Cenci family conducted their banquets, trysts and intrigues.

 

"The new facility is a very impressive edifice," observed architecture assistant professor Jason Alread, one of the instructors spending spring semester in Rome. It's a massive Renaissance building entered through a colossal portone framed by an arch of travertine blocks. Inside you encounter a stone spiral staircase from the Baroque period--the Italians call it a scala alla chiocciola, a "snail stairway"--which leads up to our suite of rooms on the piano nobile, the first floor.

 

Wall murals painted in the fresco technique decorate the entrance hallway and many of the rooms. Elegant classical carvings in stucco on the ceilings and black marble panels around the doorways reveal that a 16th-century Martha Stewart amused herself here.

 

"Each room has a uniquely decorated ceiling and special features ranging from fireplace hearths to panelized walls with detailed plaster relief," explained Cal Lewis (BA 1969 Architecture), chair of the architecture department. In addition to smaller chambers for offices, conference areas and storage space, there are five main rooms used for studios arranged in a row in enfilade style.

 

"The grand doorways are aligned and create a natural circulation path through the studios," Lewis said. At the end of the suite is a lecture hall that can seat 60 people.

 

The studios all have large windows facing east, overlooking a piazza. "This allows early-morning sun to stream into these studio spaces, which is a rarity in the Roman environment due to the narrow streets," Lewis said. In addition, a charming outdoor terrace can be accessed from the studios. "That will be great when it warms up a little," observed fourth-year architecture student Jonna Gane.

 

Gane's opinion of the new facilities? "Wonderful!" she said. "It's in a great location next to lots of nice lunch spots, the river, and, of course, cafés."

 

The Palazzo Cenci is very close to the banks of the Tiber in the heart of the Ghetto, the traditional Jewish neighborhood of Rome "with a storied, sometimes horrific past," Alread remarked. Restricted to this quarter by papal edict in 1554, most of the Jews of Rome were dispersed or deported by the Nazis in 1943, but their culture survives in local jewelry shops selling hand-crafted silver menorahs and restaurants serving the delicious carciofi alla giudea, deep-fried artichokes.

 

The busy square in front of the entrance portone is known as the Piazza delle Cinque Scole, referring to the five rival "schools" or synagogues that once flourished in this area.

 

"I like best the procession you feel moving through the Ghetto into the piazza, up the huge staircase and into the series of studio rooms," Alread said. "It's a very choreographed and beautiful experience."

 

The College of Design shares the building with several other prestigious institutions, including the Pasteur Institute of Paris and the Rome studios of the Rhode Island School of Design. Students and professors agree that the new space represents a great improvement in layout, ambience, lighting and decor over our former studio in the Via Arco della Ciambella, home of the College of Design Rome Program for the last 10 years.

 

Nevertheless, there are challenges ahead in adapting a 16th-century palazzo to the needs of 21st-century designers. Fitting the studios for wireless Internet access, taken for granted by laptop-toting students today, is not an easy task in a building designed long before the birth of Edison, let alone Bill Gates. Setting up enough work tables and drawing boards for our Rome students, whose numbers increase every semester, has always been a problem and will be more so in a historical structure whose murals and delicate carvings need to be respected.

 

"Many arrangements are possible," Alread observed, "and we're working through the best ways to use the space we have." Students also learn (sometimes the hard way) about the realities of living in a congested urban area, where loud music and boisterous conversation can draw complaints from neighbors on the other side of the wall or courtyard.

 

"The students are adapting well so far," Alread reported early in the semester. "The studio space, like the experience of Rome itself, requires re-thinking how a studio is done. We'll know more as we begin to do more work on the space."

 

In the spirit of the old Italian proverb, Vivendo s'impara, e il mondo è di chi ha pazienza--living is learning, and the world belongs to those who have patience--our students and professors are prepared to adjust, adapt and enjoy their grand new home in Rome.