FRAME
Spring 2018 | Coastal Heritage Preserve | Galveston Island TX
Project Team: Pei Wei Chang, Maria Pia Navarrete Garcia, Maggie Gaudio, Danlin Huang, Iyengar Sudarshan, Reuben Joesph, Miguel Rodriguez, Jordah Sheets, Derek Smith, Andrew Stone, Brandon Tharp, Claire Townley, Angela Vanella
A special thanks to Brax Easterwood of Brax Easterwood Designin Galveston for his generosity and expertise.
Advanced design students are partnering again with Artist Boat this spring to design and build a second outdoor gathering area at their Coastal Heritage Preserve (CHP). The Galveston based non-profit hosts groups of many ages for guided walks, birdwatching and kayak excursions on their 690-acre coastal prairie site. Among the many activities offered, Artist Boat focuses on ecological literacy for inner-city middle and high school students. To realize this, students are taken out into the landscape where they are taught about the local environment, and in doing so encouraged to become better stewards.
Yet, the CHP is currently not an ideal place to teach about native barrier island ecology. That’s because decades-long cattle ranching destroyed much of the quality of their coastal prairie landscape. To heal the land, Artist Boat is re-establishing native prairie and wetland grasses and planting new live oak. This strong land ethic, will result in a hands-on laboratory for field investigation.
After their walks, students need a place to gather together and discuss their experiences. To accommodate this, UTSOA students are designing and building a shaded area where twenty-five + students can examine grasses, insects and wildlife they observed and collected on their walks. They’ll also watercolor what they saw. An area is also needed for two pizza ovens where visitors can make their own pizza while learning about locally sourced food and healthy eating habits. For these varied activities, the design will include custom-made tables, benches, shelves and storage along with a large blackboard for group discussion. To protect from mosquitoes, a movable fabric screen is being designed that, when closed, will fully enclose the roofed area. Landscape students are researching and designing gridded plots for native grasses that will be used as a teaching tool in describing the prairie. A grid of yaupon holly is planned on the south side of the structure for shade and a screen from a neighborhood to the south.
The City of Galveston recognized this project with a Design & Planning Award for 2019
The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture recognized this project with a Design Excellence Award for 2018