#LarimerAlive Back to School Brain Teaser!

Funded by our friends at Remake Learning!

Funded by our friends at Remake Learning!

The Larimer Consensus Group
August 7-17, 2018

In this"End of Summer Camp," students learned how to design buildings, make models, and use computer design software by designing their own one-bedroom homes! Their final project will be to propose designs for new businesses on Larimer Avenue in Pittsburgh, PA!

Students completed their housing designs and will resume designs for the Larimer Ave. Business Corridor in 2019

HomewoodChildrensVillage_logo_main.jpg

Summer
Learn & Earn

June 26 - August 4, 2017

Drafting Dreams served as a work site for the Homewood Children's Village's Summer Learn and Earn Youth. Drafting Dreams engaged Learn and Earn scholars in its standard curriculum, which reinforces math skills and teaches architectural drafting, spatial arrangement, and building design. Scholars were challenged to complete math problems related to proportions and fractions. Scholars also learned how to use architectural drafting tools and design software, Google SketchUp Make to design one-bedroom homes and their dream homes. Following this activity, students created massing models of the one-bedroom homes. Subsequently, scholars learned perspective sketching and building measurement as a means of understanding how to accurately document buildings. Scholars used an abandoned building at the corner of Homewood Ave. and Bennett St., Homewood AME Church and Everyday Café, also located on Homewood Ave., as subjects for sketching and measuring.

As an added bonus, scholars learned architectural software, Autodesk Revit, which is a component-based design-build software. Scholars replicated their one-bedroom homes in this software, allowing them to understand the construction of their structures. This software allowed for scholars to select various materials and furnishing for their homes and to create photo-realistic images of interior spaces.

barbie-i-can-be-architect-barbie.jpeg

Architecture Barbie

Propel Schools

March 30, 2017 - 9am - 2:30pm - The Kingsley Association

In 2011, as a part of the “Barbie I Can Be” series, Mattel released the “Architect Barbie” in an effort to inspire girls to consider the profession of architecture as a career choice. This was a befitting solution by Mattel to the diversity epidemic in the profession of architecture, a profession of which women comprise roughly 18% of the profession. The Barbie includes a link to an online program that allows for girls to build Barbie’s Dream House.  
 
Given the alarming disproportion of women professionals in the profession of architecture, it is crucial that girls are exposed to the profession as a viable career choice at an early age. The Architecture Barbie Workshop exposed fourth grade girls to architecture through a day of creative design exercises. Girls were tasked to design and model Barbie’s Dream House, using arts and crafts materials and architectural drawing conventions.

Preservation Podcasts

The Young Preservationists Association, Pittsburgh, PA - February - April, 2017

With generous funding from The Sprout Fund's Remake Learning Initiative, Drafting Dreams partnered with The Young Preservationists Association (YPA) and SLB Radio Productions to produce "Preservation Podcasts," a YPA youth outreach initiative. Preservation Podcasts engaged high school students enrolled in Perry Traditional Academy's Audio Recording Class in a semester engagement that taught the students Historic Preservation and allowed for them to document their findings in the form of podcasts. This initiative further challenged the students to discuss preservation as it relates to their health, safety, and civic dignity and responsibility regarding their neighborhoods.

 

To listen to the podcasts, visit: http://www.youngpreservationists.org/preservation-podcast/ 

#STREAMstation - L.A. Kids

The Larimer Consensus Group, Pittsburgh, PA - June - October, 2016

Located on the USX Plaza at Grant St. and Sixth Ave. in downtown, Pittsburgh, PA, the students of LA Kids (Land + Art + Kids) have designed, constructed, and installed a spaceship that is a solar-powered USB cellular phone charging station! This effort was a partnership between the Larimer Consensus Group, Drafting Dreams, Carter & Associates (a Pittsburgh-based, woman-owned construction firm), and The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP). PDP funded this endeavor.

The Architecture of Life - A Summer Experience

The L.I.F.E. Male S.T.E.A.M. Academy, Pittsburgh, PA -
June 28 - July 28, 2016

The Living Intelligently Fulfilling Expectations (LIFE) Male Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) Academy was founded and incorporated in March of 2015 by Dr. Darryl T. Canady and Taleeta Canady, M. Ed. The Mission of the academy is to educate boys K-12 using an integrated, project-based science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics curriculum, emphasizing core values that facilitate the social, economic, and intellectual development of boys. In its early stages, LIFE Male STEAM Academy is in the process of building partnerships and establishing its STEAM Curriculum. This curriculum is objectified to: evaluate student success beyond higher standardized test scores; and use technology to support creativity, critical thinking, collaborative problem solving, and personalized learning.

With funding from the Sprout Fund through their Remake Learning Initiative, The L.I.F.E. Male S.T.E.A.M. Academy partnered with Drafting Dreams to host The Architecture of Life -  A Summer Experience. The Architecture of Life - Summer Experience was a summer enrichment initiative for young men that taught principles of architecture and urban design through STEAM principles and career exploration. Young men visited the Homewood Branch of the Carnegie Library to explore careers they were interested in and propose designs for the work environments of their selected profession. 

Initial Program Video

 

 Culmination Ceremony Video

Kingsley STREAM (Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Agriculture, Mathematics) Bootcamp!

April 9 - June 16, 2016

Drafting Dreams has partnered with The Kingsley Association to implement their STREAM Bootcamp, an accelerated version of their STREAM Program (see below) for High School Students.

YouthPlaces - Moorish Culture Architecture - Re-imagining Casa Blanca, Morocco

March 8 through May 18, 2016

YouthPlaces of Pittsburgh, PA, a non-profit organization with a strong history in reaching, mentoring, and educating Pittsburgh's under-served youth, has partnered with Drafting Dreams to create and implement a STEAM Curriculum for its 17 sites!

About YouthPlaces:

YouthPlaces has a successful history of reaching the unreached, and working with teens that are at-risk and underserved, improving their opportunities for a successful transition to the next phase of life. YouthPlaces will ensure that underserved, high risk youth ages 12-18 engage in quality after school programs within their own neighborhoods that are shaped by the community and youth leaders in order to develop the skills of youth and increase their opportunity for success, is the foundation for the programs and services that we offer to youth.

Visit their website at: http://youthplaces.org/

CHECK OUT SOME OF THE AWESOME WORK THAT YOUTHPLACES STUDENTS HAVE CREATED!

Our Founder,
Christian J. Hughes, NOMA, Associate AIA,
A Storyteller for the Green Building Alliance of Western Pennsylvania's Inspire Speaker Series - February 11, 2016

Our Founder, Christian J. Hughes, NOMA, Associate AIA, was invited to tell his personal story behind his work in "Creating a Sustainable, Vibrant, Healthy and Just Region" in Pittsburgh, PA on February 11, 2016. His story's theme was, "It's Good to be Good to People" - an account of how in his tough times, the people to whom he had been genuinely kind were his strongest allies. 

 

Kingsley STREAM (Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Agriculture, Mathematics)

February 3rd, 10th, 24th, & March 2nd, 2016, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Drafting Dreams' Debut Event with The Kingsley Association             6435 Frankstown Rd., Pittsburgh, PA (Larimer). 

Scholars learn principles of architecture through: the assembly of Lego Architecture Set, Villa Savoye; learning architectural scaling, the mathematics behind designing to scale, and drafting techniques; architectural model-making; and BIM (Building Information Modeling) through the use of Autodesk Revit architecture software. 

Let your student design the future!