Carry a big stick

Benjamin Piascik

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There’s a new contender in the ongoing arms race among Yale schools and colleges to produce the most distinctive and imposing mace for the commencement procession. This year, the School of Architecture debuted a new mace designed and built by Timothy Newton ’07MArch and Nathan Burnell, faculty in the school’s fabrication labs. The mace shows off the labs’ 3-D printing capabilities and features iconography taken directly from the school’s home, Paul Rudolph Hall. Atop the mace is a 3-D printed aluminum model of Rudolph Hall itself; below that, the neck is a model of a column on display inside the building from a Louis Sullivan building, adorned with a silver relief of a statue of Minerva from the fourth-floor studio. At the base of the wooden shaft is a shuttlecock, representing the tradition of badminton tournaments in the studio. Take note, professional schools: the birdie’s in your court.