Compiling more than a century of school history: Preserving DSA
BY JAKE HILLYGUS
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Durham School of the Arts first opened as Durham High School all the way back in 1906, over one hundred years ago. With DSA now relocating to a new campus, one teacher and her students are working to preserve its rich history.
Heather Pendrak, a teacher of Digital Design and Animation and Game Art and Design at DSA, has a plan in the works to render DSA’s campus in 3D so that it can be experienced in VR and 3D printed to be displayed on DSA’s new campus. Using the latest technology and partnering with Epic Games, Pendrak will instruct her students as they incorporate all aspects of their teachings into the project. This project will serve as an homage to the long history of DSA and its campus. “A lot of people are very emotionally attached to the school: it’s historic, it’s been around for a really long time, [and] there’s a lot of history at the school itself,” Pendrak explained. The idea for this project first came to her when she went to school board meetings where parents and community members passionately advocated for DSA not to move and to remain on its current campus. Though this will not happen due to logistical and safety concerns, Pendrak hopes that her project will maintain the history of the school that people were so afraid to lose. “We can look at all of these historical aspects and put them in and then incorporate everything I’ve been teaching in my curriculum,” she suggested. The final product will be a VR experience where users will be able to walk around DSA’s campus and learn about its history through informative lessons from past or current students and teachers. Pendrak’s students will use 360 degree cameras, iPads with LiDAR scanning, and Unreal Engine to model the campus. |
PHOTO CREDIT: JAKE HILLYGUS
Before starting work on the Preserving DSA project, Pendrak’s students are working on making 3D models from other blueprints and floor plans. This gives them practice for when they eventually build DSA’s campus using a combination of the school’s blueprint and 3D scanning. 
PHOTO CREDIT: JAKE HILLYGUS
On a typical day in Digital Design and Animation, students develop 3D models and converse with each other. Pendrak’s students will use all of the skills that they have learned over the years from her class and put them towards this project. |
“If you use VR, you would basically be [immersed] in the school. It’s going to be preserved in a digital format, so you could walk through the school as it is now,” Pendrak envisioned.
Pendrak has a lot of experience with 3D scanning and modeling: prior to the pandemic, she had a business where she worked with artists, art museums, contractors, airlines, and inventors to model 3D objects and people. She teaches these skills to her students through her usual classes, and they will apply those skills to this project.
“We’re gonna do goofy stuff and we’re gonna work with Epic Games and I’m gonna write music and it’s gonna be really fun!” Joseph Konar, a Digital Design and Animation student, chimed in.
The project will aim to incorporate skills from other departments within the school as well. For example, the theater department could act out historical scenes, the music department could write music, or the writing department could write about historical information.
“We’re gonna be going around photographing everything, looking at blueprints and how we need to make those, then hopefully maybe at the end of the year we’ll at least have a roughed-out 3D model of the school,” Pendrak concluded.
