Hoekstra, an associate professor in UCF’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, was recently named an associate professor of art and is co-teaching this spring with art professor Robert Reedy to bring both fields together in the class Advanced Design Lab. Hoekstra is the first at UCF to share a joint appointment between the art and engineering colleges.

The class has 44 students, with about a third of them engineering students.

“What we’re trying to do is have engineering come together with art,” said Hoekstra, who has a bachelor’s in English, a master’s in design and a doctorate in engineering.

“Engineering has marched so far down the road, and art has too, that’s it’s not possible to have one person be both. The solution is not to develop a new industrial design program. The solution is to respect what artists bring to the party. And we can do that by literally getting them into a room and having them work together.”

For centuries, engineers and artists were mostly the same people, but as technology emerged the disciplines began to separate.

But that’s changing at UCF.

“To the best of my knowledge, this isn’t being done anywhere else,” Hoekstra said. “It’s never been done within a traditional university structure.”

In Advanced Design Lab, all is being done in the names of creativity and innovation. Reedy cites the need to “adapt, improvise and overcome” and warns the students to expect the unexpected from the client.

Hoekstra preaches creative exploration. “Creativity is at the very core of engineering,” he said. “I want students to explore 100 ideas before they arrive at one solution.”

In the class, students are being asked to work on projects in partnership with an Orlando theme park that will challenge them to create solutions for real-world scenarios.

“Art students who go into industry need to know how to work with engineers,” Hoekstra said. “They might need to know how to speak some of the language; they have to have some basic engineering and physics concepts. That’s the communications link. The artist can have the discussion with the engineer. And that’s what we’re trying to teach here.”

UCF’s new Maker Space Labs in the Engineering II building and the Advanced Design Lab in the School of Visual Arts and Design illustrate the new approach. Each area is designed to foster collaboration across academic lines. “While many universities are looking at this, UCF is the first to make it happen in this way,” he said about the labs.

Reedy said it is his goal to establish a place where these kinds of experiences can continue. “It’s critical that artists understand the importance of science and math and what engineers do, and even business. And the reverse is true for engineers and businesspeople,” he said.

Michael Shears, a senior in mechanical engineering, said he is looking forward to working with the art students.

“Their different backgrounds may give an alternative view on a problem,” he said. “They often ask questions on whether or not something technical can be done. And so far, many of the ideas in my group have come from one of the artists asking the engineers if a process was possible, and after discussion we found new ways that it may be accomplished that we hadn’t entertained previously.”

For Hoekstra, who came to UCF as an assistant professor in 1993, the move is a natural. Aside from his multiple degrees in art and engineering, and before he became an academician, he conducted advanced research at IBM in artificial intelligence, designed cars for Penske Racing, and ran an award-winning media production company that won an Emmy.

His quest at UCF is to foster the kind of synergy and exploration that ultimately lead to breakthrough creativity: “It’s getting engineers and artists to work together…It brings the artists out of their studio into industry.”

Thirty teams made up of more than 150 freshmen and sophomores in the Advanced Design Lab course made their class-project presentations, where they shared their ideas on how to convert the former Davis Park Motel, now owned by Park Lake Presbyterian Church, into Faith Arts Village Orlando. The downtown church wants to turn the 1955 building into a hub for visual, musical and performance arts.

With a bit of brick façade here, a café there, and a trellis above the drive-through entrance, the students of Team CAVO wowed the panel of nine judges made up of artists, church members and the city’s economic development director.

“Their craftsmanship, attention to detail, model-making, research and verbal presentation were impeccable,” said Rod Reedy, professor of the ADLab in the School of Visual Arts & Design. “This shows what these students are able to do in the right learning environment – an accelerated, nontraditional learning environment.”

The design chosen was submitted by Amber Zimmerman, Meghan Grimm, Darline Bencosme, Christine Tu, David Molina and Shanna Stiles. The name Team CAVO stands for Colonial Arts Village of Orlando because the old 59-room motel is at 221 E. Colonial Drive, across the street from the church.

Will Benton, the church organist and executive director of the redevelopment project, said several teams had great ideas, but Team CAVO’s presentation “was sleek, contemporary, had clean lines and just a different concept.”

Benton said the renovation will be done in stages as money becomes available, and next semester the church plans to work with the class to perfect the design details.

“We hope with a great design we will be able to show the City of Orlando how FAVO will impact downtown and the Orlando communities,” Benton said. “Cleaning up this part of Colonial Drive will make a huge difference to the Orlando locals, plus tourists who will be visiting FAVO from all parts of the world.”

Supporters of the project say it also will complement the downtown creative arts village at the site of the former Amway Arena, where the city is working to develop a neighborhood for educational, high-tech, digital-media and other creative organizations.

The small Davis Park Motel once was an overnight stop along busy Colonial Drive, also known as State Road 50. The business started experiencing hard times in the 1990s, and the church purchased the property in 2002. Three years ago the motel management company left, and the building started to fall into disrepair.

The Rev. Helen DeBevoise came up with the idea for the arts village as a mission outreach where the faith community and local artists can work together to share their gifts of inspiration, beauty and spiritual expression.

“There are all kinds of great things that are going to come from this,” Reedy said.

Park Lake Presbyterian Church enlisted the help of the ADLab – a program that takes art out of the classroom and into the workplace – to help turn the 1955 Davis Park Motel into a vibrant hub for visual, music and performance arts.

“It’s something Orlando has always talked about having but has never been able to pull off,” said Rob Reedy, a professor in the School of Visual Arts & Design.

Thirty teams of students will display their renovation designs to the public 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, April 20, at the church, 309 E. Colonial Drive, which is across the street from the arts village. The winning design, as chosen by a team of judges including the city’s economic development director, will be announced at 7:30 p.m.

The small motel, at 221 E. Colonial Drive, was an overnight stop along what was once the city’s major east-west highway, State Road 50. After the business started experiencing hard times the church purchased the property in 2002, and then three years ago the motel management company left.

The church considered several options for the property before the pastors suggested the arts village as a mission outreach. The church’s website calls it “a place where the faith community and local artists can work together to share their gifts of inspiration, beauty, and spiritual expression to promote peace, understanding, and well-being in the larger community.”

Will Benton, the church organist, also serves as executive director of what is now called Faith Arts Village Orlando, which started gaining steam last year. The motel rooms now have some studios for artists, and the village participates in the downtown Third Thursdays arts events to showcase works.

He said they also have talked about having “studio spaces for artists to possibly live and work here. To have a place for people to come and share their talents. A garden to relax and a place to hold events.”

Enter the ADLab.

Reedy met Benton at one of the village’s art events. They started talking about the possibilities, and the idea evolved to have UCF’s 3D Design students take on a project to propose renovations for the motel. The course’s final component involves students working in an interdisciplinary atmosphere with a real-world client experience.

The rebranding competition was created by Reedy along with professor Deborah Starr-Leitch and Melissa Bush, a graduate teaching associate and instructor.

“My mission is to create a bunch of seniors that when they graduate are like gladiators – they’re armored and prepared for anything that comes their way,” Reedy said.

Reedy said the students came up with ideas such as a portable band shell that can be taken down and stored, which he had never seen before, a master suite for well-known artists-in-residence to temporarily stay in, and a new entrance framed with an oversized paintbrush, book and guitar.

“Some of them are more true to the architecture, a 1950s retro look,” he said of the structure that has been painted a golden yellow with cobalt blue accents. “Others are expanding things and contracting things.”

Benton said Faith Arts Village is committed to carrying out the winning plan, which may be a faith decision all of its own without knowing now what design will be chosen.

But whatever plan is selected, the project is worthwhile for students, Reedy said.

“These are projects that mean something other than just academic information,” he said. “They’re client-driven and there are other influences and demands. This reinforces the kinds of things like deadlines, craftsmanship, quality of work and ‘no excuses.’ This establishes a learning environment that prepares students for what they’re going to walk into when they graduate.”