Live, at Peggie's Bell

In 2015, as part of Lehigh's Hammerschlag Design Series, Anthony Viscardi, professor of art, architecture and design, worked with visiting professor Richard Kroeker of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia to design and construct a permanent installation in the grove near Alumni Memorial Building.

The result was Peggie's Bell, an acoustical shell featuring an adaptation of “timbrel vaulting,” a self-supporting tile arch system introduced in the United States by Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino.

Viscardi and Kroeker dedicated nearly three months of painstaking labor to design and build the shell, named for Kroeker's mother-in-law, Peggie Sisson, a dance teacher and music lover who died in 2015.

Students participated during their structured class times and whenever else they were available.

After anchoring rebar to serve as a visual guide, they constructed the thin inside layer of the dome by interlocking square tiles at different angles, holding each in place until the plaster dried and the dome-like structure began to form. A second layer of mortar provided additional strength to the structure, after which horizontal terra-cotta tiles were placed in a herringbone pattern.

The bell came to life in November 2015 when a choral group from the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts performed inside. Viscardi describes that experience as incredibly moving.

“As a professor of architecture, I gain great satisfaction providing these design-build projects for my students,” Viscardi said. “They experience, firsthand, the blood, sweat and tears that go into making something meaningful.” —Kelly Hochbein