Dr. Seider’s Civil Engineering class is working on a project that consists of remodeling the city’s recreation center. The class is full of mainly juniors with a few seniors in the bunch.
This course originally had two separate projects, one is to renovate an unused space in a town to make it more useful, and the other is to build a community building that the town needs.
“The original project in the curriculum is to renovate a library based in Indiana,” Seiders said. Since the Indiana idea was “not relevant to our students for many reasons,” she decided to combine these two projects.
The new project requires students to reimagine what Everett’s recreation center could be. The current location is two stories tall and the gym takes up most of the space of the first floor, while the second story is used for storage space.
Since the building is only two stories tall the students are looking to build up. “They actually want to build a whole other level on top of the gym and imagine what the community could use that area for,” Seiders said.
The class is separated into multiple groups of at least five students so this design is going to look different for each group. Each group is made up of students that have been assigned stakeholder roles. Some are architects or cost estimators, while others are landscape designers and so much more.
“The group has to take on their job roles to help plan with their team,” Seiders explained. Students will use an architect software that allows them to replicate and add onto the building, as well as design the interior.
This project is very fun and hands-on. However, there are plenty of academic components. These components include structural efficiency, commercial planning, landscaping, as well as zoning rules and regulations.
“They’re using the Everett city codes to figure out what they need,” Seiders said. “They also have to use literal calculations to determine what types of walls they are going to choose, how many columns they need, and if the building will stand properly.”
Senior Jonatan Chavez is an architect within his group. He believes that deciding the layout is the most difficult part about being an architect.
“The community garden or the pantry for the community are the most vital inclusions of our remodelled rec center,” Chavez said. “The peer tutoring center also has to be one of the most vital parts.”
At the time of writing, the class was only halfway through the process of this project. Only in the first phases are they learning an expansive amount of information that will help them to redesign the space to serve as a community hub.
Maybe the city will even take some of their designs and make real renovations to the rec center.
