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Fourteen students from Texas A&M University’s College of Architecture will present their research and design concepts
for a new sustainable homeless shelter for Bryan’s Twin City Mission on Wednesday (Feb.
21) from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Texas A&M
System’s John Connally Office Building (north of the Hilton Hotel at 301 Tarrow Street). George Mann, architecture professor and
holder of the Skaggs-Sprague Endowed Chair in Health Facilities Design
and co-adviser for the project, notes that its educational purpose is to
expose the architectural students to the process and experience of
working with actual clients on a real project and on a real site.
“Working on a new design for Twin City
Mission has been an incredible project that clearly addresses a pertinent
need in the community,” said architecture student Jenny
Holzer. “It has been such
a privilege to work on a project where we are able to exchange ideas and
collaborate in order to come up with a design that might be conducive to
the needs of those who come to the homeless shelter.”
The 16-acre site purchased for a new facility
is located in the 500 block of West 31st at the intersection of South Sims Avenue in Bryan.
It will be the site for the mission's homeless shelter, community
cafe and offices, according to Doug Weedon, executive director of the
Twin City Mission.
For example, last fall students and
faculty successfully
presented ideas for design of a women’s shelter in Hempstead.
Other design presentations have included students’ ideas for
Scotty's House, projects at St. Joseph Regional Health Center, Brazos
Valley Rehabilitation Center, Texas A&M Health Science Center campus,
Our Saviour's Lutheran Church and the Texas A&M Student Health
Center.
The homeless shelter project "kick
off" took place on Jan. 22, and Weedon and other members of the Twin
City Mission staff, its clients and community leaders articulated the
need and their vision for a new shelter for the homeless. The original
shelter was destroyed by fire in August, 2006, having been in the same
collection of seven north Bryan downtown buildings since its founding in
1963. The mission shelters
more than 1,000 men and women each year.
Following the kick-off presentations,
students visited the existing shelter and the site of the proposed
shelter. On Feb. 2, shelter
staff visited the students’ studio at the College of Architecture for an intensive mid-point review and input
into the student’s designs. In just 11 days, the students had
prepared space programs, site analyses, flow diagrams, preliminary plans
and study models. After constructive feedback from the staff, the students
fine-tuned their designs to better respond to the client’s
needs.
Shelter plans call for a reception area,
chapel, men's sleeping area, women's sleeping area, family facilities,
cafeteria and kitchen, administration offices, classrooms and
multipurpose rooms.
The students have been asked by their
professors to design with sustainable concepts aimed at a future with
limited, if not declining, energy resources.
Directing the project for the College of
Architecture are Mann; Joseph McGraw, architecture professor emeritus and
founding head of the department of landscape architecture and urban
planning; and Shannon Van Zandt, assistant professor of landscape
architecture and urban planning, who specializes in housing for those in
need.
The exhibit is open to the public.
Contact:
Phillip Rollfing, proffing@archone.tamu.edu, 979-458-0442 or
Judith White, jwhite@univrel.tamu.edu, 979-845-4645
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