Two years ago, an accident left one Jamestown woman nearly immobile. It also left her wondering how she would successfully navigate her 115-year- old cabin in the woods 18 miles northwest of Boulder.
Her refuge had become her prison, and she realized that if she ever needed to leave the house quickly – in the event of a wildfire, for example – she was in big trouble.
On her limited income, the 61-year-old had few options. But in December, a group of architecture students from the University of Colorado at Boulder (under the auspices of the American Institute of Architecture Students) came by to see if they could help transform the cabin.
The woman, who asked that her name not be used for security reasons, soon discovered that the students were as good as their word. This spring they built a patio deck and replaced her stairs with a wheelchair ramp.
The students are part of a national community service organization, Freedom by Design, started in 1999 by Denver architect Brad Buchanan and his colleague Leslie Acosta.
Like many great ideas, Freedom by Design was born in an unusual way.
Buchanan had begun to notice that some project teams at his firm, Buchanan Yonishew ski Group, struggled with their jobs while others were successful. The difference, he discovered, was that the successful projects were done by teams to whom he had clearly explained the project’s impact on the people and the neighborhood. The less successful projects were simply jobs.
“When teams could see the contribution their project was making, they worked differently,” Buchanan said.
Then he applied that concept to a philanthropic model.
“It’s wonderful to make a difference,” he said, “but I wanted to make a difference where that was the only agenda, rather than profit or prestige.”
Buchanan identified the disabled as the population most in need of help “interacting with the built world,” and he posed a question: “What if we could find a way to connect with the low-income disabled population and make modifications for their homes at no charge to them? That would be a valuable contribution.”
Thus Freedom by Design was born, and in 2000 Buchanan and his firm began widening doorways, building ramps, lowering light switches and making sinks wheelchair-accessible. They did the work with donated supplies, and Buchanan has spoken passionately at national architectural forums about his concept.
Firms in other cities adopted the idea, but the program picked up steam in 2004 when student architects expressed interest. The American Institute of Architecture Students invited schools with active chapters to apply for seed money. Six universities were chosen that first year. After all, who could benefit more from learning that lines on paper don’t always translate into workable design?
For CU’s architecture students, the Freedom by Design project was an extension of their dedication to community service.
“We’ve always loved working with Habitat for Humanity,” said Jessica Hehr, the project team captain. “But with Freedom by Design, we get to design and build.”
They contacted Boulder’s Center for People with Disabilities to find potential clients and were especially moved by the Jamestown woman’s story.
“She was trapped in her own home,” Hehr said. “She could no longer sit outside because the ground was uneven, and she often fell when she had to walk from the house to the driveway because she had to navigate two small steps and a rocky sidewalk with her walker.”
The students decided she needed a ramp to get out of her house, and, with it, they would build a small deck so she could sit outside and enjoy nature.
With advice from their faculty advisers, they proposed a low-impact wood ramp with Trex decking (made from recycled plastic) as the surface material. They also designed a small patio made of natural wood.
They solicited about $1,500 worth of materials from Alpine Lumber, Boulder Lumber and Sutherland Lumber. And although the project wasn’t huge, it took until April to complete because the students could only work weekends. The woman loved watching them learn.
On the day they finished, she invited them in for a celebration.
“She almost cried,” Hehr said. “She was so happy to finally be able to get in and out of her house easily.”
The impact of the job was no less significant for the students. “We learned about building to code,” Hehr said, “and about construction, which you don’t necessarily learn in architecture school.”
She and her fellow students also came face-to-face with the heart of their chosen profession: Design is for real people whose lives are deeply affected by the buildings they live in.
They’re now working on their second project and looking for another to do in the fall.
Buchanan is pleased with what student architects are doing with Freedom by Design. But he’s impatient.
“People tell me my idea is moving at the speed of light,” he said, “and I’m asking, ‘Have we even left yet?”‘
But for the homeowner, who sits on her deck looking at the trees and sky, the velocity is just perfect.
