Coastal Library

Recently, the Design Committee entered a design competition which had some interesting site and building constraints. Our committee chairman, Joshua Steere, found this opportunity through arcbazar.com and was inspired by the challenge. What made this particular project difficult was the fact that the site is located in a flood plain. Due to this, the community was looking for a structure that would be elevated to protect both the building and it's contents. The odd shape and somewhat small area of the site added to the constraints.

This competition was open to everyone which means that our design team was up against not only students, but also professional designers and architects. There were 129 entries vying for the approval of the community leaders and when it was all said and done we were not included in the top 12 entries. Although our team did not gain any recognition in this endeavor, we did gain experience. I also think that it brought more understanding among us as to what our shortcomings are and where our strengths lie.

Overall I feel that the experience was a great one. I had a lot of fun working with the design team and, it seems to have brought interest and camaraderie back into the group. I think that projects like this are important to the continued growth and prosperity of our chapter.

Credit must be given to Joshua Steere who headed the design not only with his creativity and vision, but also managed to keep us on task and on schedule.

Thanks to Melvin Kellog, who's awesome work with the elevations really helped to bring the vision to life.

Thank you Renata Pfeifer for working out several technical issues, and lending your creativity to the final project.

Also, a thank you must go out to Skye Croff. Although she is no longer an official member of the organization, her renderings (done by hand!) were the centerpiece of our design board and really helped the visual presentation.

The following are the results of our design committees' hard work. If you find the pictures are too small to see clearly, this link will allow you to access the full size files. Please feel free to comment on the design and it's execution; we can not improve without feedback!