In the media: FIU grad students’ work with Celebrity Cruises

Miami Today recently featured the work of four Panthers working on giving a design makeover to one of the cruise liner’s upcoming ships.

Four graduate-level FIU Interior Design students have a unique opportunity to leave their mark on one of Celebrity Cruises’ new ships now that they’ve been asked to update the design of the cruise liner’s fifth Solstice-class ship debuting in 2012.

The four Panthers are part of the university’s accelerated five-year interior design program in which students transition quickly from undergraduate to graduate classes, department chair Janine King says. All four are in their second year.

The School of Architecture’s Interior Design Department offers a six-credit cruise ship design studio taught by Greg Walton of RTKL, one of the design firms that helped to create the Solstice-class ships.

“The students were chosen by Mr.Walton and were the ones that performed the best at the design studio,” King said. All four reside in Miami but come from different backgrounds. Two are from Colombia, one from Argentina and one from Cuba. They returned to Miami on June 26 from a seven-night cruise to the Caribbean aboard a Celebrity ship for their studies.

From right, instructor Charles Boggs, Ismabys Senra, Andrea Leano, Sabrina Ocner and Jenny Valencia visit with the bridge crew on board the ship.

The design process the students will be involved in will include brand immersion, concept development and analysis of the space, according to Celebrity, mirroring any professional cruise ship design process.

“In the end, students will deliver a full design package. Celebrity’s own Newbuilding Architectural Design team will then partner with the shipbuilder, Meyer Werft, to bring the students’ plans to life.

Due to the interest in interior ship cruise design, FIU is looking to start a 15-credit certificate program in cruise ship interior design this fall, King says. “It will be the only one of its kind in the nation. For the first few years we will only be choosing students already enrolled in the interior design program and then we will open it to the public.”

Two cruise ship studios and one industry-wide internship will comprise the 15-credit program. One cruise ship studio will be taught in Miami and the other in Italy.