Judson students offer ways to make The Greens greener
It's a win-win situation, according to Judson University adjunct professor Christopher Lauriat.
The Greens of Elgin, a 90-unit condominium complex for seniors on Elgin's northwest side, has received three proposed plans for beautifying its surrounding acreage - for free.
Plus, the 10 Judson graduate students who drew up the plans as part of their studies toward a master's degree in architecture got more practical experience.
The connection between students and seniors was arranged by Greens resident James Didier, who also happened to be president of Judson when the college started its architecture program in 1997.
When The Greens named Didier to lead a committee to upgrade the grounds of the 15-year-old campus, he decided to ask Judson students what they would recommend. He approached David Ogoli, department of architecture chairman, who immediately thought of putting Lauriat's summer class to work on it.
Each summer, students in Lauriat's ARC 575 class take on similar real-world projects to exercise their creative skills. Each of the 10 has just received a bachelor's degree from the university's architecture program after spending most of their senior year interning for a private firm of architects.
The students devoted a week to the project. They started the week by touring the condominium complex and finding the problems the landscaping committee thought should be addressed. Splitting into three teams of three or four students, they worked with Lauriat and Ogoli to draw up potential plans, complete with artist sketches. Each team presented its plan to The Greens residents at the end of the week.
One team recommended building a gazebo, removing a large tree, adding a garage to house the complex's van and lawn care equipment, adding flowers, improving signs and completing an asphalt walkway around the building so residents don't have to partially walk along a driveway.
A second team also recommended a gazebo and completing that walking path, but also proposed a golf putting green, sign improvements, a sloping path that residents could walk down to the creek bank, a retention pond and a pavilion where visiting grandchildren could play.
The third team proposed a putting green, a boardwalk, a patio with tables and chairs, a shed for lawn equipment, a parking area for the van, more visitor parking, a ramp to the creek, and moving a driveway to eliminate a blind corner.
But "at the end of the day, it's what you want, not what we want," student Will Morris of Danville, Pennsylvania, told the residents.
When Didier asked what the committee's most urgent priorities should be, Morris suggested the sidewalk extension because of the potential danger of people walking along the driveway, plus changes to the entrance sign and front-door oval driveway, and a shed to hold new lawn equipment.
Lauriat told the condo owners "your next step would be to engage a professional architect and start to drill down on the costs." The students did not estimate how much their proposals would cost, and the condo owners board didn't supply them with a budget.
"These are beautiful drawings," said Coral Reinert, chairwoman of the owners board. "And I'm so happy you aren't licensed yet because we couldn't afford you."
The students have moved on to an even more ambitious multiweek project in downtown Rockford. Lauriat said that, working with a Rockford civic group, each student will pick one downtown building - perhaps a theater, an office building or an unused church or store - that could be redeveloped into something more useful or more beautiful.