A Garden Memorial at MAST for a Fine Man and Teacher

After John Robert Ruppel, Jr. died in June 2009, so many people--family, friends, colleagues, former students and parents of those students--attended the memorial service at MAST Academy that we had to open up the entire Auditorium to accommodate everyone. In the following weeks, many of those who knew and loved John donated money for a garden to be installed at MAST in his memory. The president of the PTSA at the school, Annabel Delgado, an architect, suggested a way to guarantee that the garden dedicated to John would be both functional and beautiful: an alliance between MAST and the Alumni Design Studio of the School of Architecture at the University of Miami.

Working with the UM architects has already transformed how all of us involved in the project see MAST's campus. While we have come to view many areas around school as radically underutilized, we have also come to understand the vast potential of the campus as a practical and welcoming site for the Sloop John B Garden.

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle the project and reflect on what we learn going forward as we work together--educators and architects--to design and build a memorial for someone who inspired generations of young people.