He has conceived an interactive, environmental work creating an air of openness when you enter the San Francisco State University campus. We are talking about a different kind of Sather Gate here. It is something that is not your traditional archway. Rocha's work is indeed something special, agreed a panel of judges for the competition. Its form seems to come out of the ground, while abstracting the institutional buildings around it.
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They came from firms large and small as well as from individuals. I have been amazed at the response and elated that we received designs that people really put a lot of thought into. Birt, who has a doctorate in American Studies with a concentration in American architecture from Yale, created the design competition as a way to help the university celebrate its Centennial year during 1999. With backing from the university's Centennial Advisory Committee, Birt devised the competition's rules, produced brochures, helped create a Web site and pulled together a respected jury to judge the entries. After word went out last April, the Web site received more than 3,000 hits and Birt answered several hundred direct inquires, either by telephone or e-mail.