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Up to bat

UH Design/Build Studio steps up for the kids

By Charity Halphen
The Daily Cougar

Hoping to score a home run for community service, first year graduate students at the UH Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture have accepted the challenge to create a "Structure for Storing and Scoring" as part of their Graduate Design/Build Studio. 

With a budget of $30,000 for construction, the graduate students will create the structure to house baseball equipment, offer shade and provide a scoring platform for the official score keeper to score games for the Neartown Little League of Ervan Chew Park. With Little League season beginning in September, the race is on.

In its 14th year, the Graduate Design/Build Studio designs and constructs site-specific solutions to climate-influenced building problems for non-profit organizations. 

Funding from project recipients, the services of Walter P. Moore and Associates, CBM Engineers, Inc., United Galvanizing, Tolunay-Wong Engineers, Inc., donated student labor and additional fund donations have supported the community projects over the years. 

Students assume all roles for designing and constructing the Storing and Scoring Structure. 

"It's fun to get to do everything," said Design/Build student Rashmi Murthy, who was cutting steel with the other 12 students in the shop. "We obtain the permits from the city, decide what design we will use, and build the structure; it's all a valuable part of our education." 

After only a semester and a half of training in architecture, the students created a design in the spring.

"Many of us have baccalaureate degrees unrelated to architecture," said Design/Build student Laura Nesbit. "I majored in art, and another student majored in psychology."

Instructor Patrick Peters describes the Design/Build Studio as a "pressure cooker environment."

In the beginning of Spring 2003, each student had two days to formulate his or her plan for the structure. Afterwards, the students were grouped into four teams according to similarity of design.

The teams planned for a week and then presented their Storing and Scoring Structure designs and models before a panel of architects and teachers for critique.

Finally, the students, teachers and park officials came to an agreement on an ultimate design. However, even this will change as the students' knowledge and creativity develops.

The 12 Design/Build students are currently constructing the structure in the Architecture building under the supervision of Peters and Co-Instructor Greg Bruegger. 

The structure must be capable of withstanding the climate and heavy use by the little league. These limitations along with the suggested budget have led students to make the structure from a modified steel container with a steel awning supported by steel pillars on pier foundations. 

"Decisions are made more profound when they are determined by constraints rather than preconceptions," Peters said. 

In addition to creating the structure, Design/Build students have developed a master plan for the Ervan Chew Park located at Dunlavy St. and Highway 59. The students recommended building a new shade pavilion to enclose the existing pool deck, demolishing the tennis courts, planting trees and creating new walkways throughout the park. The Friends of Ervan Chew Park have approved the master plan, making it a guide for future development.
 

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