New student design project gets town approval

“We were able to move forward, and it went quite well”

By Katherine Nettles

As so many things have been this year, a much-anticipated high school student architecture project has endured postponements and cancellations, leading to some major disappointment. But the students and teachers rallied with creative adaptations and ultimately found a way forward.

The unique partnership between Crested Butte High School and local building professionals has come through with yet another real-life project that will benefit the community. Even going online partway through the process didn’t stop anyone.

The Crested Butte Community School Applied Architecture class embarked on a mission this year for a dual-purpose design: two buildings for one small piece of property in the northeast corner of town. An Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant residential unit for the town of Crested Butte to use as a rental property would be in front and a snow cat storage barn with a public restroom for the Crested Butte Nordic Center would be in the back.

Eight students were enrolled in the class this year with their beloved teacher, Todd Wasinger. The design class, coupled with the building construction class that normally follows, is considered at the pinnacle of the “Was” classes. Many of his students have been taking prerequisite classes such as civil engineering, robotics and design software with Wasinger since they were in the eighth grade. And the 2020 class of mostly seniors about to graduate was well into the design process when the COVID-19 crisis shuttered their classroom for the remainder of the school year.

Few students had the advanced software to continue at home, but they worked through the kinks by collaborating on Zoom and Google Meet.

Kye Matlock, a senior, summarized the shock. “To have it end so abruptly, it makes you realize how good you’ve had it. This class was the highlight of my day every time,” he said.

Seniors Dalton Huckins and Finn Smith agreed. “It was sad not to be able to finish our project,” said Huckins.

“When you would walk into that classroom it didn’t feel like work,” said Smith. “And it’s not the same doing it online with everyone. I did miss the class.”

Even Wasinger felt that way. “Whenever this group would meet, it was really special. It’s such a fun group to be with,” he said. “For me, this class in particular was like a group of peers.”

Senior Bridget Kearney pointed out an upside to going remote, though. “Something that was cool was my parents were actually really interested. They had no idea what I was doing in that class until I started having to do it at home, and they got really into it.”

Senior Vernon Walker said of the process, “It has definitely been a big change. It’s so easy to learn in class, especially for this project. But Was did a great job with us.”

While the project build has been postponed, Wasinger says his students saw things through to the end of their mission. They also helped the town of Crested Butte figure out how to conduct its first virtual Board of Zoning and Architectural Review (BOZAR).

“At some point in March, we realized that they wouldn’t be able to pull [the construction] off this summer. It was at that point that we decided to follow through so the students could have the satisfaction of finishing this class,” says Wasinger.

The students were almost done with the design when school closed, so everyone did what they could remotely, and the project went through its design review process with the town. The adjacent property owners were notified, and there was an on-site meeting, or “charrette,” last fall with the neighborhood. The students were in charge of talking through all the issues and how to solve problems and concerns. Then the lot was re-zoned for public use. Last came the building design review.

“We definitely wanted to get the students who are on this project the ability to see it through to the end of the BOZAR process,” says Jessica Early, assistant design review and historical preservation coordinator for Crested Butte. That happened on April 28, when BOZAR approved the project, contingent upon an elevation certificate with a surveyor because the site is in a flood plain.

“We were able to move forward, and it went quite well,” says Early.

The town has decided to postpone the project to reallocate the funds to other things, but their hope is to move forward with construction in the summer of 2021. This month the class concluded with a Zoom meeting on May 21. There were a lot of glowing reviews of the students and their teachers—including local architect Andrew Hadley.

“It was so great to have [Hadley] on an almost weekly basis. He’s really good at seeing the connections between all the parts of a building,” said senior Avery Bernholtz.

“He did a really good job of not trying to control us,” said Huckins.

“If we had a bad idea, he never told us it was—he just allowed us to flesh it out and figure it out on our time,” added Smith.

Senior Owen Berv said he appreciated the real world experience. “Our client was the town, and they had to work with the Nordic Center. It wasn’t just about what we wanted,” he reflected.

Myles Cress, the only junior in the class, said it meant a lot to her to learn from her more experienced classmates.

“I don’t think I talked at all the first month,” she joked. Yet Wasinger said Cress will be a leader next year based on what she accomplished.

Wasinger says if the school is allowed to reopen this summer he will make sure students are able to come in and use the software to complete their project portfolios that had to be set aside. He also might be able to have next year’s class go through with the build. Like his students, he has adapted to the changes that were beyond his control.

“Every year is different anyway,” he says. “This might be a great opportunity for my next students to become familiar with the process [that remains]. We have scheduled another Applied Architecture class for next year. We might be able to double up for students who would like to be a part of a build before they design. We actually did the full design with Andrew Hadley, so it is the building that ideally will get built.”

All of the student projects are hosted through the Student Organization Achieving Results for Community (SOAR) non-profit, run by John and Karen Stock. “They are so fundamental to the project and the whole organization, including the financing and the construction,” says Wasinger.

The other heavily involved person, Andrew Hadley, has been in on three of these projects now. Hadley shared his thoughts on this year’s class as well.

“It was nice to see how raw their talents were. They hadn’t developed a lot of what they thought about architecture before, but the very specific sort of style that would come off of one kid’s computer, you could tell who it was versus someone else,” he said. “Architecture is not an exact science. Every architect brings their own sense… and this class was more individual from student to student than it had been in the past. I enjoyed watching them think outside of the box and then slowly form it into a design.

“And when it came to this project, everybody was just so inspired by the overall idea. Some would work on a floor plan, someone else on a bathroom, someone else on the elevations,” Hadley explained. “Everyone got a piece of ownership on the project.”

Continuing, Hadley said, “It’s an incredible program that Todd has set up for these kids in high school. Kids in college rarely get to do something like this that is so relevant to the science, the art and the reality of building. I have been lucky to be part of it. It is just completely unique. And it’s one of those things about growing up in a small town… it mirrors a lot about this community and how people work together. I think I will keep doing these as long as I can.”

“We have a lot of professionals who participate in these builds,” said Wasinger. “This time, that included people in town hall. It’s been really important, just how eager people are to make it work. It’s pretty exciting, to see it all come together each time.”