CHILDREN AND FAMILIES THROUGH INCLUSIVE AND UNIVERSAL DESIGN

by Alexandra Garrity AIA, Architect and Universal Design Specialist, CSArch

When dealing with our youngest and most vulnerable population, it is paramount that designers consider how the built environment impacts users mental, physical, and emotional state. These considerations were at the forefront of the design of the new Family Resource Center in Utica, New York. This resource center is the first of its kind in many ways. Born from a unique and mutually beneficial partnership between ICAN and the Utica Children’s Museum, the Family Resource Center provides a centralized location with access to a variety of traditional and non-traditional services and programs. Located in Utica’s Parkway District, families in the Utica and surrounding regions can receive support, youth and family services, and enjoy all that the Utica Children’s Museum has to offer. Once completed, the Family Resource Center will receive its Innovative Solutions for Universal Design Certification from the University at Buffalo’s Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access, making it the first isUD Certified Children’s Museum in the country.

Site Considerations

Located on Memorial Parkway, along the path of the Boilermaker road race, the site and existing building chosen for this project are in a location that receives high vehicular and foot traffic from nearby neighborhoods. Due to its location in the Parkway Historical District, the design needed to pay respect to the original building, built in 1969, while also providing a modern space that was accessible to all visitors in the community. In order to provide a welcoming space for guests and improve access for individuals with mobility impairments, a large rotunda was constructed to the rear of the building to serve as the new main entrance to the Family Resource Center and additional exhibit space for the museum.

While providing a set of site stairs and a small ramp to meet ADA requirements and mitigate the 2’-10” change in grade between the parking lot and rotunda floor, the design team worked to redesign the site to create equity between able bodied users and those with mobility impairments. The redesign incorporates two ramps that descend from the most prominent access points off the parking lot, down to each of the main entrances, making them the most convenient paths of travel access the building. This design change encourages all visitors to use the ramps rather than the stairs and does not ostracize those who would have to use the ramps out of necessity. This site feature makes access to the site more convenient for not only those with mobility issues, but also for parents with strollers, smaller children, and delivery personnel with rolling carts.

Wayfinding and Intuitive Signage

Once inside the building, wayfinding strategies were carefully implemented to direct visitors through the space. Because two very unique programs occupy the building and use one combined entrance, it was important that the wayfinding was simple and intuitive for all users. The design includes ample interior glazing from the entrance vestibule to each of the two different program spaces so it is clear to guests which doors they should use to reach their destination. This glazing is also accompanied by graphic signage that is easy to comprehend without the need to be able to read for young children or those with a language barrier.

The shared elevator for the building posed a unique wayfinding design challenge. Both the ICAN offices and the Utica Children’s Museum have access to the same elevator, but enter and exit from different sides and require access to different floors of the building. Access control systems were implemented to prevent museum visitors from entering an office space, with simple graphics to make the operation of the elevator more intuitive. Using color and simple, easy-to-identify icons, users know exactly which button to push to get to their destination and which way the doors will open.

Within the ICAN office spaces, paint colors and subtle changes in flooring materials help to identify main circulation paths and nodes. Common spaces such as restrooms and reception are located in the same area on both office floors, so navigation is simple and consistent between both floors.

Accommodating Diverse Needs

The modern, open office spaces are supplemented with breakout rooms for individual conversations as well as designated spaces for collaboration. By providing several different types of spaces within the office floors, each staff member can be accommodated whether they work best in a quiet space or in a more open environment.

While the ICAN staff are accommodated in the office spaces, there are still two main groups of visitors that the building needed to consider, each with their own unique set of needs. Visitors to the Utica Children’s Museum may be full of excitement, while visitors to the ICAN offices receiving family services could be in a very different emotional state. The team at ICAN does a great job of providing a safe, comfortable, and nurturing atmosphere within their organization and it is critical that the built environment supports that. Soft, cool tones provide a relaxing space in the Family Services suite complete with soft seating for maximum comfort.

Not only are all bathrooms in the building ADA compliant, but they are generously sized to better serve all users. Each restroom in the Family Services suite is single user, gender neutral, and provides features such as full height mirrors and baby changing tables. On the museum side, one of the restrooms was also equipped with an adult changing table to accommodate those with special needs who require additional assistance. The museum space is also equipped with a New Parents room, which provides a peaceful space for a new parent to feed a child in private.

To truly capture the energy embodied in a children’s museum, the design team HandsOn! Studios was contracted to design the exhibits. Their design not only caters to curious and adventurous children with hands on activities and colorful

As the City of Utica continues its revitalization efforts, the new Family Resource Center is slated to become a cornerstone of the community. The unique partnership between ICAN and the Utica Children’s Museum provides the public support and services that promote equity and inclusion. The design of their new shared space ensures that any individual, regardless of physical ability, can partake in their range of services and comfortably engage in all the community has to offer. l

Construction is currently underway on the Utica Children’s Museum. The design of exhibit spaces will be publicly unveiled as it reaches completion in January 2024.

Alexandra Garrity AIA, Architect and Universal Design Specialist

An architect and Universal Design Specialist at CSArch, Alex graduated with a Master of Architecture in 2018 from University at Buffalo’s Center for Inclusive Design. Since joining CSArch, Alex has focused her architectural expertise on her passion in Universal Design to create inspiring spaces that are supportive of all users and abilities. She has worked with ICAN on the design of

KIND OF BLUE: APPLYING THE PRINCIPLES OF DEAFSPACE AT THE NEW AMERICANS’ PAVILION

by David R. Shanks, RA, Co-founder, ASDF

The sign-language interpreter in our design progress meeting on Zoom wore a bright blue dress. It was almost Yves Klein Blue, the kind of blue that flattens most variation in light and shadow when seen on a computer screen. After I complimented her striking dress, the interpreter told me that the color was both a stylistic and a functional choice. Sign-language interpreters, she informed me, are always careful to wear solid-colored clothes and to choose colors that contrast with their skin tone in order to facilitate visual communication with their hands. A major user group for the New Americans’ Pavilion—the project my practice was engaged to design—is a community of refugees and immigrants that are deaf or hard-of-hearing. They call themselves Deaf New Americans, and consideration of their particular needs was an essential part of the design. Sign-language interpretation was necessary during our meetings in order to properly solicit their feedback and ideas.

The New Americans’ Pavilion is located at Salt City Harvest Farm (SCHF) near Syracuse, NY. SCHF provides farmland, educational resources, and job training to refugees and immigrants in the Syracuse area, many of whom are deaf. Referencing the local agricultural vernacular, the pavilion is designed as a “double-shed”—the northern space accommodates the functional necessities of the community farm, including washing and packing spaces, refrigeration, and a dry storage enclosure; the southern space hosts more flexible uses of education, dining, and social events. At the seam between the two sheds, the storage enclosure becomes a backdrop for the commu- nity functions, which are often conducted either entirely in sign-language or with an interpreter. So, when deciding which color to paint the cladding of the storage enclosure, the needs of the Deaf New Americans were especially relevant. Which color would best facilitate a clear visual environment for sign-language? For people with light skin tones, a dark color creates good contrast, whereas for people with dark skin tones, a light color creates good contrast. The Deaf New Americans are a diverse population, with origins ranging from Nepal to Eritrea to Cambodia, so their skin tones are equally diverse.

Based on my experience with the sign-language interpreter, I proposed a bright blue color for the storage enclosure, which would contrast with a broad spectrum of skin tones. I took inspiration from the bold color palettes of architect Luis Barragan, as well as the work of artist Amanda Williams, whose “Color(ed) Theory” project uses bright colors to draw attention to inequity on Chicago’s South Side. However, when I presented this idea to the Deaf New Americans in a later Zoom meeting, they did not like it very much. The saturated blue color, they told me, would cause visual fatigue if people had to look at such a large area of it for an extended period of time. While the bright color worked well for a dress that appeared in a small square on a computer screen, it would be counterproductive in this architectural application.

So, I went back and did some more research. I learned that a set of principles similar to those that guided the interpreter’s sartorial choices also apply to architectural design for deaf and hard-of-hearing populations. The architect Hansel Bauman founded the DeafSpace project at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. in 2005. DeafSpace research explores architectural design strategies that produce better experiences for people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing. An important guideline of DeafSpace is to create simple, contrasting backgrounds for sign-language. The colors that researchers recommend are calm shades of either green or blue because they contrast well with a variety of skin tones without causing visual fatigue or distraction. The architectural practice Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis, for example, worked with DeafSpace researchers in the design of the Living and Learning Residence Hall for Gallaudet University, and chose a pale shade of blue for the walls of classroom and social spaces.

On the basis of this research, I purchased some paint samples in a range of blue tones and applied them to a piece of cladding for the Deaf New Americans to review. They were much happier with these colors, and voted amongst themselves to select a cool hue of wood stain called “Polar Blue.” We stained all four sides of the enclosure in this color, which gives the completed building a handsome visual identity. The color also produces DeafSpace, a visual environment which accommodates the needs of the Deaf New American community, who have made use of the pavilion for farm-to-table meals, nutritional education programs, holiday celebrations and more. l

David R. Shanks is an architect and an Assistant Professor at Auburn University’s School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture. He is co-founder of the award-winning architectural practice ASDF, which was named among the best new firms in the United States by The Architect’s Newspaper in 2021. David received his M.Arch from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 2009, and he has practiced in several globally recognized offices, such as Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Gluckman Tang Architects, Preston Scott Cohen, and Office for Metropolitan Architecture. He has exhibited, presented, and published his work both domestically and internationally, in venues such as the Boston Society of Architects, the Biennale di Architettura di Pisa, and the Journal of Architectural Education. From 2018-2020, he served as Architecture Program Director at Syracuse University’s study abroad campus in Florence, Italy. David has been a resident fellow of the Cape Cod Modern House Trust and the MacDowell Colony.

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UNIVERSAL DESIGN: THE LIMIT DOES NOT EXIST WHAT CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF PITTSBURGH MUSEUMLAB TAUGHT US ABOUT UNIVERSAL DESIGN AND ADAPTIVE REUSE PROJECTS

by Danise Levine, AIA, R.A., CAPS Assistant Director, IDEA Center

Throughout my 23-year architectural career I’ve been involved in many projects. Some were simple and small in scale, while others were larger in scale and more complex. Although they are all memorable for different reasons, there are a few projects that are more notable and invoke a special level of fulfillment and source of pride. The new Museum Lab at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh is one of those projects. I started working on the project in February 2017, and what I anticipated as being just another accessibility/universal design consulting job turned out to be so much more. It was clear from the outset that the team from the Museum was innovative in their thinking. Their goal was to create an environment that would not only encourage learning and creativity, but also would allow equal access and celebrate human diversity. This shared vision and passion is why Museum Lab and the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDEA Center) became an ideal partnership and the IDEA Center’s new certificate program, innovative solutions for universal design (isUDTM) became the tool for implementing universal design solutions.

Too often designers and building owners are easily discouraged at the thought of implementing universal design in older, existing buildings because of the perceived costs and challenges involved. This certainly could have been the case with this project based on the conditions I observed firsthand when I made my initial visit to the downtown Pittsburgh site in October 2017. The building had been left vacant since a 2006 lightning strike damaged the roof, and the years of abandonment were obvious in the spalling of the concrete walls, crumbling floor tile, and the peeling of painted surfaces. To make matters worse, the building underwent a renovation in the 1970’s, and those repairs were done poorly and masked much of the beauty of the original architecture. Nonetheless, underneath the erosion and cosmetic bandages I could still see traces of a beautiful building with potential. I just didn’t know how the potential was going to translate into success. Those thoughts were quickly erased during a guided tour of the building with the design team. As we walked around the building and explored each space, different members of the team provided details outlining the future plans for each room. Listening to the vision of what was planned and seeing how everyone involved was so engaged and committed, it was truly inspiring. I clearly remember at one point we were standing in the main gallery space, a room that was dim and dusty with a high ceiling, beautiful archways, and towering columns. Although I was trying to focus on what was being said, I couldn’t help but stare down at the original floor tile with the name “Carnegie Library” integrated in the intricate mosaic pattern. I asked if the tile floor was going to remain in place and Chris Cieslak, the Project Director, informed me that it was staying, along with many other features of that spectacular room. It was at that moment that it became very apparent that the Museum Lab design team, including Koning Eizenberg Architecture and PWWG Architects, had fully embraced the exceptional character of the building, and instead of feeling discouraged by limitations of the existing building, they viewed it as an opportunity to preserve the historic integrity of the past and incorporate modern building concepts to accommodate current user needs. One of those modern concepts is universal design and the isUDTM Certification program.

To ensure that universal design was given appropriate attention throughout the entire planning and design process, the design team frequently sent design documents, drawings, specifications, cut sheets, and other materials for my review. It was clear from start to finish that the team was committed to universal design and that every decision they made was thoughtful and had intent. That commitment didn’t just apply to the built environment, but extended to the programming, function and maintenance of the building after its completion. Those efforts were on full display when I had the honor of attending the Museum Lab grand opening in 2019. Walking into the same building two years after that first visit and seeing what the Museum team had accomplished was awe-inspiring. Although I knew the project was going to be groundbreaking as the largest cultural campus for children in the US and the first museum in the country to receive isUDTM Certification, it was beyond anything I could have ever imagined. It was a thing of pure beauty and purpose. The building was bright, functional and the perfect blend of the old and new. As I walked from room to room, I could see that the universal design solutions were subtly incorporated into the building, which created a more welcoming and inclusive environment for everyone. I believe the most noticeable UD features to visitors were the generous allocation of space in rooms and circulation spaces, along with the comprehensive and consistent wayfinding system, designed by Pentagram, that guides visitors throughout the building. I was particularly drawn to the way the modern, illuminated room signs and corner-mounted directional signage contrasted with the discolored, crumbling brick behind them. They created a certain visual appeal that immediately attracted my attention, as well as others who entered a room or needed guidance in finding their destination. Most of the other UD features throughout the building were cleverly integrated into the overall design. For example, all-gender restrooms are dispersed throughout the building for use by anyone, which among other benefits, provides an opportunity for people with disabilities to receive assistance from someone of a different gender. One particular restroom features an adult changing table that allows caregivers to assist weakened or disabled individuals who may be unable to fully care for themselves. Another feature is the multi-zoned heating and cooling system within the building which enable users to modify room temperature within +/4 degrees to maintain their comfort.

As I continued my way through the museum, I found myself once again back in the middle of the main gallery space (now called the Grable Gallery), standing on that same tile floor I stood on 2 years earlier. It was now brightly lit from the sun streaming through large new windows in the adjacent Studio

Lab and the floor had been polished to shine. Above was a new layered, textured ceiling installation made of laser-cut fabric. I could still see many patched and peeling surfaces, but this time, instead feeling the results of decaying walls around me, I couldn’t help but marvel over the subtle timeline of events everywhere I looked. Instead of trying to restore the building back to its original state, they preserved and celebrated its history. The team was able to create a magnificent space that is welcoming, functional and empowering to all users in their pursuit of learning, creating and playing. It was truly an honor and privilege to be part of this innovative project and work together with a talented and passionate group of people who were not afraid to be innovative and who were committed to creating an inclusive environment for all. l

About the architect: Danise Levine, AIA, CAPS, is a Registered Architect and a Certified Aging in Place Specialist (CAPS). She is also the Assistant Director of the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDEA) in Buffalo. During her more than 25-year architectural career she has made an impressive contribution to the fields of accessible and universal design. She aspires to be a change-maker, actively working to change peoples’ lives and alter the way they interact with their environments. Most of her work focuses on problem solving and providing practical solutions to accommodate people of all abilities.

About the IDEA Center:

The IDEA Center is not your ordinary design firm, university research center, or R&D company. It is a globally recognized center of excellence committed to creating and implementing inclusive design policies, practices, environments, and products. We’re a dynamic group of researchers united by our shared values. We’re committed to creating a more inclusive world – for our clients, our team, and our community.

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