Good Will Reconsidered – Sarasota, FL

Project Objective

The Goodwill Job connection and donation center is located at 1765 Dr. Martin Luther King Way, the center of the Newtown community. The location is understood to be the center of the community and the most vibrant in terms of population density. Plenty of shops including Jetson’s Barbershop are located within walking distance and establishments such as fresh fruits and vegetables are sold across the street under umbrellas and tents. In a time where things may be rough with new establishments breaking ground and threatening their community, Newtown has managed to find solutions to generate revenue. Martin Luther King serves as a central location for all activity and with that lies the true strength of their community.

Students studied the history and cultural identity of Newtown seeking to translate community heritage into a place for experimentation in art, music, dance, cinema, and other forms of human interpretation and expression. The proposed cultural arts center will be a venue to strengthen community identity, nurture local talent and provide a launching pad that can extend beyond the neighborhood through events, exhibits, and workshops. In addition to featuring local talent, the arts center could attract regional and national artists, musicians,  and thinkers – as agents of positive change.

Project Development

The goal is to bring to the site what already exists within the community but to unfold all these possibilities within a meaningful design. The Goodwill organization has strived to make an impact within Newtown and the goal is to establish the identity of the community and history in a method that can bridge the people of Newtown with the outside world. Through opportunity, remembrance and economic prosperity community members will help the community strengthen through social responsibility.

The academic work was built around three interrelated investigations – context (site and culture), typological precedent, and inspired design proposals. Students explored the physical and cultural context through site visits, field studies,  precedent studies, stakeholder presentations and discussions, and traditional scholarly research.

Students developed philosophical and conceptual ideas that were personal, collective,  and drawn from the project context. These core ideas provided the basis for scheming: master planning, architectural form and language, scale,  light, interior/exterior, and building systems. 

Students used a hybrid design process including traditional sketching and schematic physical models along with computer-aided design (CAD)  software, parametric plug-in analysis software,  and rendering software to translate contextually driven ideas into schematically resolved architectural proposals.

The studio required ever-advancing design iterations that become more complex in their architectural detailing,  philosophical exploration, and refinement of emergent architectural vocabulary. Intermediate informal class reviews, desk critiques, and formal presentations that included stakeholder meetings and academic critiques were the primary evaluation mechanism of student work.

Groups Featured:

Phases of Development

Phase 1: Research, Analysis, and Program Proposals

The work was organized into three connected phases: (1) move quickly into learning about the issues, concepts, and ceremonies associated with death; (2) research and select an appropriate site for the location of the arts center as a civic element; and (3) engage the reciprocity between an architectural form, program and context within the arts center and site.

Team and individual research on cultural arts centers were conducted to evaluate their impacts on the communities they serve and measure the variety of program elements typical. Teams conducted an area analysis of the context including transit infrastructure,  auto access, hydrology, unique landforms, building inventory (what uses are in place), and general characterization of the neighborhood through drawings and images. Teams evaluated the potential for renovation vs reconstruction of the existing structure. Teams evaluated the potential for LEED-ND  and rehabilitation. Teams assessed the impacts of sea-level rise assuming 10’ at the year 2150. Teams developed comprehensive neighborhood design proposals that advanced the vision and future as expressed by the community. Teams prepared a summary context and potentials report that was used in later phases.

Phase 2: Conceptual Response

Teams initiated conceptual design proposals based on their work in Phase 1. Proposals were iterative and alternatives were suggested in the early part of this phase. Teams made conceptual phase presentations that showed the relationship of the project to the context, and site, in addition to sketch level diagrams of the program spaces and organization.

Phase 3: Architectural Proposals

Teams translated concepts into architectural proposals using context diagrams, site plans, plans, elevations, 3D models,  sections, physical models, orthographic architectural drawings, renderings, and analytical diagrams. Teams produced diagrams, drawings, and images that illustrated the project parameters, strategies, and tactics in support of their architectural proposals. Students provided a complete submission package for the final presentation that was presented in Gainesville and in Sarasota.

Visioning and Program  Alternatives

As part of the research for this project students and the project team visited the neighborhood,  met with stakeholders and residents, and conducted case studies of other important cultural arts centers. The work led to a set of potential gravitational centers that could hold a constellation of diverse activities such as oral history, music and dance, visual arts,  commercial incubation, urban agriculture, and education. The new arts center will also house the paths to employment and career support programs of the current Goodwill facility and will seek connections or linkages between that mission and the arts center. The question to be  addressed was:

How can the arts center be a vehicle to launch careers beyond Newtown while also offering a vibrant set of nurturing activities on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way?

The following pages illustrate an exploration of that question through case study research and evaluation of arts centers (what could happen there) and how those centers are catalytic for the improvement of neighborhoods and communities that they occupy. With insights from these studies, the idea of an arts center was reconsidered and then developed schematically through the architecture that might house emergent activities. The students sought to

Studio 941: Music Program

Alex Pujols, Esteban Sanchez, Tania Trujillo

After visiting the site and doing an analysis of the Newtown city we decided that incorporating a music program would be the most beneficial program for the community. Music is something that brings people together no matter what genre. The precedent studies helped us to better understand how to achieve the quality of space and light depending on the room and use.

Using thick concrete and thin glass created a contrast between the two materials. Most of the glass in the project was placed toward the courtyard which makes it feel like you are part of the outside. The courtyard was the primary space for the project. We also wanted to design around the existing oak trees located in the middle of the site.

We kept all the existing Goodwill programs and spaces and gave them additional space so they could expand operations if needed. The  Goodwill spaces were placed on the west side of the site to match the scale of the buildings nearby. The east side of the site was used for the theater/gallery that also matched the scale of the nearby buildings. Sustainable features were incorporated to collect rainwater for irrigation.  We also created skylights in the theater/gallery that allowed for north light and for solar panels facing south to create energy to power the building.

Urban Porch

Rochelle Alphonso, Mani Karami, Shelby Taubenkimel

When we first came to Newtown, we were searching for something both real and metaphorical that we could base our project around and that would embed it in Newtown.  The porch is something that is present and perhaps iconic in the places of Newtown, but we needed to define what a porch was in the larger sense of a cultural artifact.

When searching for definitions, we realized that most only focused on the architectural aspects of the porch, and not all the activity that happens there, so we decided we needed to redefine ‘porch’. The  “covered and enclosed” threshold between the outside and inside (public & private), forms a sort of vestibule within the main wall or projects out with a separate roof.  Porches allow a sufficient space for a person to comfortably pause, interact with their neighbors,  and observe their surroundings.

Our proposal became Urban Porch: a project for Newtown,  Sarasota, and Goodwill Industries. It is a cultural center for the heart of Newtown that acts as a  space for learning, performance, introspection,  and conversation. Aesthetically, we wanted could really play with some of the forms in our building and create an overlapping relationship between the activities that happen in the spaces and the spaces themselves. Making a strong relationship between outside and inside became the main focus of our project, and we worked to develop this into an urban porch allowing for public performance space, but also the flexibility to serve smaller groups or even individuals.

Newton Exchange Center

Eric Eslinger, Jasmine Jimenez, Kenneth Nti

The Newtown Exchange Center has been designed to maximize community impact but also designed to minimize environmental impact as well. Using cross-laminated timber, repurposed steel, and green roofs, we managed to attain the LEED Gold certification for our community-based site.

To take things further and maximize the community-based learning opportunities we have decided to expose many energy-efficient systems to introduce them as learning opportunities. The green roof and garden, solar panels, and water-retaining systems will allow community members to understand the importance of preserving energy sources and reinforcing resources that can be reused.

Newtown Exchange Center is a place for the people of the Newtown community to explore their culture and exchange education,  resources, and social events. The idea of exchange is organized through design and enhances the identity of the community of  Newtown. After research and interviews with community members, we found that Newtown is rich in culture.

The goal of this center is to nurture the social infrastructure within the community and to influence future development.  This social infrastructure approach to design will strengthen the relationship between developers and the community of Newtown and will foster a foundation of trust for its people. Newtown neighbors will utilize the center in the way they see fit and there will be an exchange in resources.  Our hope for Newtown Exchange Center is that it will bridge the gap between the community of  Newtown and surrounding communities.

Newtown Cultural Artifact

Greta Crispen, Pietro Mendonca, Frank Moore

A collection of architectural follies is prop neighborhood that could be as simple as shaded benches or water kiosks or more complex such as business start-up incubators or small sports courts. In this fashion, the ‘Cultural Artifactosed offering respites throughout the’ is proposed as a large-scale urban folly. This strategy establishes multiple physical points of reference in the community to nurture diversity and attract residents to participate in the program.

This is also intended to reinforce the Newtown Alive historic marker initiative. Inspired by the power of oral history, the project offers a unique oral history repository as the focal point of the cultural arts center. The ‘artifact’ is a central undulating space that is defined by free-form walls with embedded video screens, listening stations, seats, and displays of physical objects that recall Newtown’s past.

The project extends across Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way to the south incorporating the Office of Economic  Development program into the design scheme.  This strategy establishes a large exterior civic arts space that spans the street to host community-wide civic events on special occasions while providing space for a farmers market and other entrepreneurial activities regularly. The building and follies offer a constellation of civic elements that both reach out to and pull in the community through visual markers and activated civic spaces.

Agri-Culture

Jose Castaneda, Sara Culpepper, Vishal Singh

Looking to the future, this proposal seeks to advance the lineage of self-sufficiency and entrepreneurship that is Newtown’s past. In this case, horticulture at scales appropriate to the neighborhood is used as a catalyst for both boutique farming and the support of emergent culinary arts.

Agriculture is quite diverse including algae farming for direct use of biofuel (minimal processing), an aquaculture-horticulture nutrient cycle (optimizing nutrient use), passive thermal strategies, and civic gardens that bring the poetry and production of the garden together.  The project considers that neighbors, with a bit of assistance and knowledge, could use their land for the production of fruits, vegetables, and herbs for their own use and for sale in support of the robust restaurant industry in the area. In this manner, the project seeks to promote investment,  a personal work ethic, and a real opportunity for an economic return on those efforts and commitments.

The cultural arts center would provide education, and demonstration projects, and act as an intermediary for the distribution of local food production. Event spaces and educational spaces are provided in addition to those program elements offered by Goodwill Industries. Agri-  Culture seeks to find poetry, cultural integrity,  and economic security by producing food and energy for the neighborhood and beyond.

Eco-Campus

Alex Musil, Nyatoti Kudzi, Kalie Shwar

On visiting the site and other buildings of architectural significance in Sarasota, the team decided that the project would contain design features that juxtapose the inside and outside spaces which was a common theme among the buildings we studied in Sarasota. During the second visit to the locale, on speaking to the neighborhood residents we realized that the area was devoid of a means for local business people to rent small multifunctional spaces which could offer an opportunity to start an enterprise.

“Eco-Campus” features all the design elements to support startup businesses. This included the use of the “Living Building  Challenge” (LBC) to maximize the building as a sustainable model. The “Eco-campus” would be named so for its impact on the ecology, and economy (use of small incubators to help small businesses) and create an eco-system where a  visitor can understand the past, experience the present, and speculate on the future of Newtown,  Sarasota.

Inspired by our “half-houses” case study, we planned to design spaces that can be used as  “hatcheries” for small business ventures that require a permanent shelter but cannot afford a market-rate lease yet. The campus’ main eco-design feature would be a woven mechanical fabric/PV roof. This roof is capable of opening and closing on demand. It has been designed so the material of the roof can be one of three options: thin-film PV panels, fabric, or empty.