As the fall semester progressed and our designs started to advance in promising directions, a rather sobering thought began to plague the studio morale. The basis was simple; we began to question our legitimacy and involvement in the project. For all intents and purposes, it seemed as though we were doing nothing more than creating furniture for a rather small office, housing no more than two or three permanent users. Workflow certainly differed from the ambitious design work that encompassed the projects in our earlier years as undergraduate designers. We began to question the integrity of the design problem, viewing it as a seemingly rudimentary process for a group of fifth year graduate students, seeking their Masters in Architecture upon graduation in May. As these thoughts grew publicity, our professor, David Dowell of el dorado inc, instilled his due diligence as a scholarly advisor and ensured us our involvement was significantly more important than our apprehensions, simply building office furniture. These assurances gained merit as the semester unfolded and corralled studio spirit, generating a newfound fervor in designing with purpose.

 

The first week in December of 2013 altered the studio culture immensely. We were privileged enough to take part in the ground breaking ceremony at Hardesty Renaissance, the future home of our in-progress office design. Present at this ceremony were people from all over the city and a plethora of backgrounds, including; politicians, lawyers, business owners, property owners, land developers, elected officials and architects alike. It was here that our involvement developed a clarity and assurance previously unknown. These assurances found merit after multiple city officials and the President and CEO of AAFE approached our group, and with zeal and excitement, explained their passion and visions for not only our project, but the entire revitalization efforts in Northeast Kansas City. Until this point we hadn’t yet gained a full grasp on the grandeur and significance of our involvement in this overall process. At first glance, this project seems out of scale for a typical graduate architecture students thesis project, but after tireless effort put forth in understanding the project at a deeper level, its benefits are unparalleled to the traditional scholastic realm of education. This studio structure allows us to be involved in all components of the design process(budget, prototyping, client relations, situational constraints, etc) typically not ventured in the scholastic world.