by Ursula Zarate
News Reporter
A group of University of Houston interior design students took their talents and skills outside of the classroom last week to offer their design ideas to New Hope Housing Inc., a project that provides low-cost, one-room apartments to former homeless and other disadvantaged individuals.
The final sections of the housing facility are under construction, and New Hope board members were looking for ways to make the residents feel more comfortable.
"Our involvement with New Hope was to help choose colors and finishing touches that would make the public areas of the building look less sterile and more like a real home," said UH interior design Professor Gail Schorre, who led the group of nine students in the out-of-class project.
New Hope is a nonprofit community project started by volunteers from the Christ Church Cathedral to give residents social services and emotional support after experiencing difficult times.
After taking a tour of the first completed phase of the building and visiting with some of the residents, the students spent almost two weeks putting together ideas and creating four finish boards which were presented to New Hope executive board member Cylette Willis April 28.
Willis, also a professor of urban education at UH-Downtown, said the students listened to the residents' needs and made some suggestions for adding color and warmth to many areas of the building.
The students will make another presentation to the remaining board members and several architects later this month, Willis said.
"It was a welcome change from the hypothetical projects in class, and the students really jumped in and worked together," Schorre said. "For many of the students, this was their first chance to work with a real client."
Tiffani Epperson, a junior interior design major, said she felt honored by the opportunity to work on a real outside project, since most of her experience to that point consisted of building models in a studio.
New Hope is a 43-unit apartment complex in downtown Houston that opened its doors in March 1995 and will house 90 residents once all phases of the building are completed in July. The residents living in Phase I range in age from 18 to 80 years and come from a variety of backgrounds.
While the students spent time getting to know some of New Hope's residents, senior interior design major Monika Cavazos said she realized that real people would be affected by the decisions she and the other students made.
"Once we got into the our project, we began thinking more about the people that would have to live there and look at their surroundings every day," she said.
Schorre said the students chose colors ranging from shades of red and blue to earth tones, and in the room arrangements, they added many places for indoor plants.
The students also proposed an idea that would bring the residents together as a group. For a central living area, they suggested that the residents put painted handprints and stenciled inspirational sayings on a border around the top section of the room.
New Hope manger and former resident Joe Pate, who had not yet seen the designs, supported the efforts and involvement of the UH students.
"I don't like a hospital look," he said, "and I'm sure the students have some ideas that would benefit our building."