NDSU Freedom By Design recently hosted a brainstorming and sketching design session to form ideas to improve accessibility at the Lewis and Clark Elementary School playground. The group’s latest project was open to all NDSU students and faculty to sketch out ideas and concepts for potential renovations or additions to the school. In addition, faculty, staff and parents from the Lewis and Clark school talked about their visions and specific needs for the school at the meeting.
“We are interested in this project because it is an opportunity for design students to work with real clients, learn about construction and learn about cost. It is an opportunity for us to grow as students, and it is an excellent way to raise awareness about accessibility issues while enhancing the play experience for many children in the community,” said Ginnie Hausladen, architecture student and captain of Freedom By Design at NDSU. “If all goes well, we would like to see a project built by this spring.”
Lewis and Clark Elementary School is looking for playground equipment that could be geared toward its students with autism and Asperger’s syndrome. The Fargo-Moorhead Rotary Foundation is working with the design group on the project.
Freedom By Design is the community service program of the American Institute of Architecture Students. They are a group of design students (including architecture, landscape architecture, interior design and construction management) who work to fundraise, design and build projects for people in the community with physical or mental challenges. Their goal is to improve safety, dignity and comfort for those they help.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.