AFHA is still hard at work in the English Avenue community! As plans continue to develop, we remain committed to providing support and design assistance for the English Avenue School.  Tomorrow morning, Saturday May 19th, volunteers armed with paper, tape measures and flashlights will help us mark another key milestone, the full building measure! We will gather at 9:00 am, split into teams and set out to measure all 40,000 +, yes 40,000 square feet of the building interior and exterior.  This is a major step for program development and we are super excited this day has arrived!

In addition to the project milestone, we are also marking an important step for our chapter.  The building measure will be our first project that qualifies for IDP credits! Championed by chapter volunteer, Andrew Telker and supported by AFH national, we are now approved to offer architecture students IDP credit hours.  You do have to join the AFH chapter network as a paid member so please don’t hesitate to contact us with questions about the new process.  You can reach us at volunteers@afhatlanta.org.  This is super great for our chapter and for the folks that need it.  However, AFHA remains come one, come all, architect or not where our volunteers are concerned.  We will keep you posted on plenty of  volunteer opportunities as we plan for post measure work.  For tomorrow, keep your interwebs peeled for progress tweets and pics by following us on twitter @AFHAtlanta!

For more information on the English Avenue School project, visit our “Projects“page.

Posted by: Chandra, Southface Events Manager by day, AFHA Communications Chair and TEDxPeachtree Events Manager by night.

We are proud to announce that we have been selected as the recipient of the Architecture for Humanity September micro grant!  Funds from the award will be used for the Oasis Project, our proposed solution to the recognized shortage of proper public transportation amenities in Atlanta.  This project is exciting because it was developed from our initial open forum meeting as a chapter in May of 2009.  Following a yearly, open call design competition for bus shelter designs, the chapter collaborates with local community organizations including Atlanta NPU’s and hosts a jury to select the winning design.

The 2010 installment resulted in 7 entries from Atlanta, Washington D.C. and California!  The winning design, submitted by SSA + D (Sarah Green and Daniel A. Echevarria), is currently under review with a structural engineer.  The funds from the grant will be used to hire a surveyor to complete site surveys and purchase materials to construct a prototype.  Hey volunteers! Get ready!

This is such a big milestone for our chapter and we couldn’t have done it without the tireless work of our chapter leadership, volunteers and supporters.  The light of success and sense of achievement shines on all of us today.  Thank you for believing with us.

Learn more + check out our progress over the coming weeks.

If you are interested in supporting the project’s completion, please contact frederikazipp@architectureforhumanity.org for information.  She is Chapter’s Coordinator at the national headquarters in San Francisco.

The AFHA Oasis committee invited some architects and an industrial designer over to Southface for the Oasis Design Project selection jury.  We battled it out over affordability, adaptability and creativity.  All while keeping the voice of the people present with results from our people’s choice poll.  The jury representatives included MARTA, AIA, NOMA and USGBC and they finally narrowed it down.  We’ll be announcing the winner at our Monthly Social, Thursday September 16th, 7:30 pm at Apres Diem.  View design submissions and get more information about this project on the Open Architecture Network.

In updated news:

We are full steam ahead for the 2010 Birdhouse Social.  You have until July 18th to forward your “intent to design” to curator@afhatlanta.org.  Need a way to pass this information to your friends? Well, have them text “AFHA” to 50500 to receive Birdhouse Info.  As always, standard text messaging rates apply.

Soon, you’ll be able to “Like” our newsletter just like you do on Facebook and other sites.  MailChimp, the service that we use to send our newsletter will provide us with a way to place the “button” in our newsletter.  It’s exciting stuff according to our Technical Director, so look for it in the AFHA August newsletter release.

The Oasis project is still getting buzz after the design competition phase, so keep an eye on our project page for updates.  I can’t wait until we get all the submissions posted on the Open Architecture Network.  They were truly inspiring  and a little inspiration is just what the doctor ordered for MARTA.
 

AHFA is proud to announce Oasis 2010! Building on the momentum from last years buzz, the project is off to a big start.  From submission deadlines to charette dates, permitting and volunteeer builds, AFHA is dedicated to take Atlanta’s public transportation cause even further.  Please visit the Oasis Project page on the Open Architecture Network and on our own ”Project” page.   

http://openarchitecturenetwork.org/projects/oasisatl

Two new sessions have been added to the schedule:

October 24: Design Work session
November 14: Design Work session
November 23: Final Submission Deadline
December 5: Final Design Selection
(* All work sessions will be held at the Emory Master Planning Studio from noon to 2pm)

If you’re unable to attend one of these meetings, but would like to participate in the design competition phase of this project, please submit your name (and those of any others on your team), contact information, and the selected shelter/bench site of the three (identified below) to Rick Glassman at rick@afhatlant.org no later than October 31, so we have an idea of how many submissions shall be considered. Designers may submit separate proposals for more than one design, and may submit designs for any or all of the sites.

Architecture for Humanity Atlanta is holding an open design charette for the Oasis project on the 19th of September at 10am and you’re invited.

If this is your first introduction to the Oasis project, we are hosting a design competition for public bus stop benches and shelters. Our goal is to assist those who rely on public transportation to make a living, but have no place to sit while waiting on that next bus to come.

The project will be conducted in two phases. In the design phase we will accept submissions from any person or team that would like to submit, as many designs as they like. To facilitate this process we will host a series of charettes from mid-September through mid-October. Three designs will be chosen. And the selected designers will get the chance to build and install their prototypes. Selected designers will be provided some materials and volunteers for the purpose of expediting the construction. Our goal is to have enough resources to build not just the prototypes but additional structures as well.

Our first design charette is scheduled for Saturday, September 19th, at 10 a.m. The charette will be held at Emory University’s Master Planning studio conference room (see pdf for directions).

We hope to see you there!

On the agenda for this meeting we’ll be discussing the time frame and requirements for these two projects:
1) Bus Stop shelter designs and 2) the Guggenheim Shelter design project contest.

When:
June 29th @ 6:30 – 7:30

Where:
Emory Campus – Bldg. C first floor Master Planning Studio (see attchaed pdf for location)

Note that the map identifies 5 visitor parking spaces; at this time of day you can park anywhere in the area (more than 5) where the visitor spaces are signed. In other words, you too can be a permit parker or a reserved parker, just not in the handicap spaces.

Once parked, walk to the east side of the building and come in the first floor glass door entrance.  The Master Planning Studio is in the middle, right side of the building. For all you Googlers and GIS folks our building address doesn’t work. But if you put in 20 Eagle Row, Atlanta, GA (a fraternity house) you will get to the last intersection prior to heading downhill on Peavine Creek Road. At the bottom of the hill turn right into the parking lot and park. The first building past parking on the right is Building C.

See you then!
- AFH Atlanta