In the architecture studios in Slocum Hall this semester, Wang Young played Michael Jackson music for hours. He couldn’t get enough of the King of Pop.

‘He thought (Jackson) was alive there somewhere in the world,’ said Pascale Baladi, a freshman architecture major at Syracuse University. ‘He would play his music in the studio. He played Coldplay, too. It would drive all of us crazy.’

Baladi said the little things that Wang was passionate about, like Michael Jackson music in the early hours of the morning, is what she will remember most about him.

‘I can’t even listen to Coldplay anymore,’ Baladi said.

Wang, a freshman architecture major, died Nov. 24, in a one-car accident in Oneida County while traveling to New York City for Thanksgiving break. Oh Saem, another freshman architecture major, also died in the crash. The two were friends.

The driver, Chang Hyunsung, and passenger Shin ChaeWan, both freshmen in the School of Architecture, survived with non-life-threatening injuries.

Originally from Korea, Wang moved to New Jersey to attend high school. Baladi said Wang socialized with many people in his studio class at SU.

‘He was kind of shy in the beginning. This girl and I would say that we were the only Caucasian friends that he had,’ Baladi said. ‘He felt really comfortable around Korean people, but we would always have fun together.’

Wang’s studio professor, Daniel de Riva, said that the bond between Korean students in a class is common, but Wang worked hard to communicate to the entire class.

‘I was very proud of Young’s progress in the semester, especially with his language,’ de Riva said. ‘I could tell Young was struggling at the beginning and was shy with speaking up. You don’t only know the architecture, you learn the language.

‘He was beginning to improve his ideas and design skills. He was determined and diligent to improve.’

De Riva said that Wang and Oh were very close – something he could see from the first day of classes.

‘Young and Saem sat back-to-back,’ he said. ‘On the first day of school I asked them to write their names on big signs and put them on their desks. They both wrote their names at the same time with the same colored marker. That bonded them a bit. With both of them, there was a good chemistry.’

Baladi said one of the things she will remember most about Wang was his laugh. It was spontaneous and very contagious, she said.

Wang would go on his computer while students were working on their projects and use his Photobooth program. Baladi said his favorite thing to do was to take pictures on ‘warped’ settings and show them to people in the studio.

‘He loved Photobooth,’ she said. ‘He would show me this video that he did with so many of the photo distortions on the program. He would laugh so hard. He would laugh and laugh. Nobody would really know why he laughed so hard.’

Baladi and de Riva said that that the long hours associated with being an architecture student bonded Wang, Oh and the rest of their peers, much like a family.

‘I’m so lucky to have gotten to know them,’ Baladi said. ‘They’re so funny. They appreciate simple things. They would laugh about the smallest things. I was really happy to be with them.’

smtracey@syr.edu

Published on November 30, 2009 at 12:00 pm