The Roger Williams University campus is on a peninsula, and to accent this waterfront quality the university created a path made of white shells.  The “Shell Path” is commonly used by students and faculty to exercise and get to the small beaches that line the edge of campus.  It is viewed as somewhat of a tradition to walk the Shell Path at least once while attending the university, and the path even leads to some freshmen events held on the school athletic fields.  The Shell Path is therefore a central part of Roger Williams University.

This project prompt was quite vague, and never specified any exact outcome.  Professor Vincent only instructed us to a choose a location and use to light to inspire design.  Although the open nature of this assignment allowed for me to design something interesting, it also made this project quite challenging.  One of the easier parts of the assignment was deciding on a location for inspiration.  I picked the Shell Path because it has more meaning to me personally than simply a university tradition. 

I did not know exactly where I should start at first.  I attempted some preliminary research at the university library on the history of the Shell Path, but unfortunately it was to no avail.  It was almost as though it just appeared one day.  I then thought that perhaps, like myself, other students had personal stories of their connection to the Shell Path, and I could create a history based on each individual’s experiences.  This was also was a dead end, however. Although students did have stories, they were generally about the freshmen events, or simply using the path for jogging.  Since the Shell Path means so much to me, I decided that my experience would be sufficient to explain why this place is so magical.  I wrote down several personal stories, but did not know how to turn them into an appropriate project for the class.  With some direction from Professor Vincent, I found carousel books, and planned on how to make one myself.  This project was rough and full of dead ends, but in the end I created a book filled with light about a place I love.