Orange Coast College students constructed a 7,000-square-foot entryway made of aluminum tree trunks and triangulated fabric that welcomed guests to the International Film Festival in Santa Barbara early this month.

The main concept of the Tessellated Gateway came from Britton Jewett, a 51-year-old architect from Santa Barbara, who collaborated on the project with OCC instructor of architectural technology Dean Abernathy.

Jewett and Abernathy, who have been friends for 23 years, wanted OCC students to build the entryway for the international film festival and gain  experience from the project.

The Tessellated Gateway reflected the film “Breathless,” which used jump cut editing.

“You get introduced to the personality of the main character through the designs of the entryway,” Jewett said.

The OCC students involved were from the Design and Build 201 class and volunteers  enrolled at OCC.

“We got a taste of real professinalism,” Daniel Nielson, 34, an OCC architecture major said. “The project was very hands-on.”

There were about 40 OCC students involved in the construction of the entry and this year’s festival was the third year OCC students worked on the project.

Jesus Deloya, a 22-year-old architecture major, contributed a lot of time to the Tessellated Gateway, and worked on a project for the festival last year, too.

“I was more involved this year, and helped with the design for the tree trunks on the entryway,” Deloya said.

The entire production of the Tessellated Gateway took about 100 hours to complete, and a CNC router machine was used to cut materials.

“It was falling apart the day we set it up, and this year it was extremely challenging due to the delicate fabrication,” Jewett said.

There were many preliminary tests at OCC and in a warehouse in Santa Barbara to see if the concepts and designs worked effectively.

“We are provided a few thousand dollars each year for the materials but the material we use is very cheap to work with,” Abernathy said.

An interview backdrop was also constructed where actors like Geoffrey Rush and James Franco were interviewed.

OCC students will find out in November if they will do another project for the festival next year, Nielson said.


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