Alfred State third year architecture students enrolled in a historic preservation studio will be working on a project at the Almond Community Church. The semester-long project will give students hands-on experience collaborating with a client.
Video: Architecture Students working with local church
Architecture visit to Almond Community Church Photo Gallery
Professor Matt DiRado and his students began the process by meeting with Pastor Scott DuMond and members of the leadership team on Friday. The students were given information about the history, the layout, and thoughts on future expansion ideas.
“They'll do a lot of field work like this when they graduate,” commented DiRado. “A lot of times we have somewhat hypothetical projects in the architecture department, and this puts them with a real client and working under restrictions. This idea of coming out to an existing building to measure and document either for an addition or interior work is extremely common.”
Jackson Volosik (Long Island, NY) is excited to be one of the students working on the project. “It's interesting to have a project that is based in reality, especially with the fact that we can talk with clients and get a feel of what the real architectural world is going to be like.”
After the initial fact-finding conversation, the students toured the facility and started to measure various areas of the church. The students were introduced to scanning equipment that produced digital representations of the space. Each team of three will also document the outside of the building before beginning work in the studio.
DiRado continued, “They'll measure and document existing conditions now and create detailed drawings of the existing conditions using preservation standards. Then they will generate visual concept proposals for new design work based on their discussions with stakeholders."
“Before we present our ideas back to the church, we're going to have to go through the full architectural process of idea generation,” added Volosik. “We will solidify what ideas work and what ideas will not. We will work together as a studio to refine these ideas to essentially what is the final product that can be presented in front of these church members.”
The group will bring back their ideas and concepts for an interim presentation in a few weeks before presenting final ideas towards the end of the semester.
DiRado concluded, “Students will present their final designs here at the church. This presentation is open to the public to view and comment on what the students produced. Presenting publicly will be a great experience for them as this is common in the field.”
Volosik knows the impact that projects like this can have on the local community. One of his friend’s family is on the board in the Village of Cuba where students in an urban design program presented redesign ideas. “The board still talks about this project years later and are trying to implement some of these ideas.”
Last semester, architecture students worked with the Village of Friendship and the Alfred Box of Books on similar projects.
Caption: Architecture Professor Matt DiRado shows students how to use a scanner. A group of DiRado’s students will be working on a design project at the Almond Community Church.