Charitable design
Architecture students collaborate their skills to design a
ranch-style center for the deaf, called Isaiah’s Place
By: Mindy Riffle
Issue date: 2/21/08 Section: News
A group of Texas A&M architecture students went to Dallas to present
a master plan for Isaiah’s Place Inc., an equestrian learning and
retreat center to serve the deaf community.
“Our project is two-fold. It is a master plan for a 40-acre training
facility for an equestrian center for deaf kids that will teach them
how to work with horses which we emphasized specifically on the
equestrian center for,” said Boon Bowling, a senior environmental
design major involved with the project.
Cousins Diane and Susan Frederickson, who purchased the land and a
log-cabin home in 2002 near Whitney, Texas, established the
non-profit corporation. The brochure stated that it is intended to be
an educational center providing enrichment experiences, activities and
materials geared toward building communication skills, confidence,
self-esteem and developing relationships with an appreciation for a
country, or ranch, lifestyle for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Isaiah’s Place board of directors met in 2007 to lay out the future
of the corporation and realized the need for a master plan that would
allow efficient use of the land. This is where the A&M architecture
students came to help.
Senior architecture major Teri Whitney explained how the project
began at the beginning of the semester and how the students have
worked to meet the client’s visual ideas.
“They presented a slide show to us explaining all their
needs, their desires and their vision,” Whitney said. “We have met
with them every week since then and basically said ‘OK, this is what
I hear you saying visually,’ and so piece by piece, every week, we
have put more stuff together.
“It’s interesting because we all hear them say the exact same thing,
but each of us has a completely different interpretation of what they
are saying and come up with ideas that are all different in their own
way.”
Whitney said the variety of ideas allows the client to pick and
choose particular aspects from each student’s project and combine
them to mold their vision.
She said that she has enjoyed the project and was excited to find out
how the client felt about their work. “I am really excited to see the
reaction of the people that haven’t seen the progress we have made on
the project yet.”
Mark Burgess, a senior environmental design major, said that the
project is done on an individual basis, but the students often work
together to collaborate on ideas and contribute what they learned to
help others.
“One of the more interesting things about it is to be able to see how
what we do can affect a community,” Burgess said.
Jessica Williams, a senior environmental design major, said that the
nine students who are participating in this project are all part of
George Mann’s architecture 406 class.
“We are all just excited about the opportunity to be able to help
them [Isaiah’s Place] to carry out their master plan,” Williams said.
Mann, who is the Skaggs-Sprague endowed chairman in health facilities
design, said that he was proud of the group. He said that a
Washington, D.C., architecture professional thought that the work the
group had done in three weeks of focused collaboration was worth two
months of material.
Plans for the equestrian center include a 12-stall barn, tack storage
area, feed storage and riding arena. The equestrian center will be the
centerpiece for Isaiah’s Place to help carry out its ranch lifestyle
theme.
Isaiah’s Place is a facility that seeks not only to meet the special
needs of the deaf and hard of hearing, but of their families as well.
Therefore, in addition to the equestrian center, they plan to include
six family cabins, a commercial kitchen and dining hall, a gymnasium
and an indoor gameroom. The future plan is to expand the
Fredricksons’ existing pond with a boardwalk for fishing activities.
Link:
http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2008/02/21/News/Charitable.Design-3224798.shtml
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