FAIRMONT – Josh Merritt found himself in lofty circumstances this past summer at Fairmont State University.
How lofty?
Try more than 30 feet up on scaffolding, as he helped craft a massive mural at the Falcon Center.
Merritt, an architecture major from Wayne County, was part of the team that worked on “The Living Bridge, Rooted in Fairmont,” which was commissioned by art professor Joel Dugan.
Dugan is known for his community art projects that span from the Mountain State to Michigan.
The above-mentioned mural depicts the school’s spatial relationship with the city and its iconic Jefferson Street Bridge.
Meanwhile, Merritt worked with his professor on honing the architectural details of many of Fairmont’s century-old buildings that show up in the painting.
“Everything is all textured and kinetic,” Merritt said. “It’s like it’s moving, breathing.”
The National Architecture Accrediting Board, the organization that oversees architectural programs in colleges and universities across the country, breathed some life of its own into Fairmont State’s master’s program earlier this week.
That was when the board bestowed Fairmont State with an eight-year continuing accreditation, which the school can use both for bringing in students – and then again for helping them as they go forth line up jobs after graduation.
“Most of our graduate students work in offices locally,” said Bob Kelly, who directs Fairmont State’s architecture program.
“This accreditation helps us expand regionally, so we can recruit more effectively beyond the borders of the state,” Kelly continued. “We are developing relationships.”
In-house, the program is already doing that, in a multidisciplinary way.
Merritt, for example, has worked with Dugan on other art projects across north-central West Virginia.
“The Living Bridge” mural is 18 feet high and 46 feet across, and was installed high over the heavily used swimming pool at the Falcon Center.
At the unveiling two months ago, the student who wants to launch his own firm someday grinned and said he knows exactly where he’s going first, when he comes back to his alma mater for visits.
“You can’t miss it,” he said. “It’s gratifying to know that I was part of something that’s going to be here for as long as the school is.”
