Treatment/Process Book by Madison Alford Project by: Madison Alford, Jordan Lakomiak, Camrin Arreseigor, and Sam Griffiths
INTRODUCTION Disney Imaginations is a competition where students are given a prompt and to design an experience based on that prompt. We were given the prompt to create an outdoor space that would fit the needs of students, faculty, and visitors while also being a respite from college life. Thus we created, Resurrection Recreation.
Story Behind the Design: Savannah, Georgia is known for being one of the most haunted cities in America. Ghost tours are among the most popular attractions in Savannah, but are not always child-friendly. With Resurrection Recreation, we want to appeal to a large demographic because Savannah is filled with locals, visitors, and students. Through interactive activities and a place of relaxation with an openair pavilion, charging stations, and multiple shady spots to escape the heat.
RESEARCH
We did research on Savannah and its tourism to get an idea of what to center our respite around. • April, May, and June are the busiest months out of the year. St. Patrick’s Day brings in a large crowd of over 300,000 people every year. • 7.6 million people visited in 2014 who stayed overnight and 5.8 million people visited for a day trip. • Kids don’t have much to do when they come to Savannah, so we wanted to make our area interesting for children to go to and make our activity child friendly. • There are 11,693 SCAD students in all four campuses, 6,331 Armstrong students, and 4,645 Savannah State students. Savannah is one of the most haunted cities in America, so the obvious choice for us to center our respite on the idea of ghosts. To get a good idea of how haunted the city is, we decided to go on a ghost tour of the city. These are a sample of my notes (bolded items were used in our project): • Nathanael Greene haunts Johnson Square and hated Spanish moss. • The Marshall House used to be a hospital for the War of the Blue and Grey (Civil War). Some claim to see apparitions without a full body, hear screaming, and children running up and down the halls on the second floor. • Colonial Cemetery is the oldest standing cemetery in Georgia. • Wright’s square was execution square. Alice Riley was a servant for the abusive Mr. Wise. She and her lover, Richard, slit Mr. Wise’s throat and strangled him. The police hanged Richard, but waited to hang Alice because she was pregnant. After she gave birth, they would not let her see her child. Alice cursed the city and continues to haunt Wright’s Square as the oldest ghost in Savannah. Her child died a few weeks later due to malnutrition. • Enhatchment: people claim Alice Riley follows them home. She gives them nightmares and paralysis. Location: The not-so-abandoned lot on Oglethorpe across the street from the Civic Center. It is between Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and Montgomery St. We chose this location because it’s right in the middle of the Historic District, near Bay Street and City Market, and close to a lot of SCAD buildings.
concepting
We had to meet a lot of needs when creating our open-air pavilion. Students need a place to relax, because a lot of the spaces on our campus get booked quickly due to club meetings and events. Students also need more places to do homework. Because, as students, we are always striving to do our best, workspaces fill quickly as well. Savannah is built around nature, but sometimes it feels closed-in because of the large buildings. We decided to combine our two ideas, ghosts and relaxation, and use them to fulfill the needs of our story. Thus, Resurrection Recreation was born. Recreation When you first approach the pavilion, you will be greeted with asymmetrical public gardens. This allows for beautiful plants and gardens to grow inside and outside our pavilion. These gardens and bodies of water will create a seamless transition between the interior of the beautiful greenhouse pavilion and the exterior areas. The greenhouse itself will be made of glass solar panels that can open and close because of the inclement weather in Savannah. The second level will have indoor and outdoor balconies that students can work in. Resurrection The pavilion itself is an interactive mystery. Guests will meet Skippy and will be enticed to collect tarot cards of the ghosts of Savannah. Each of the cards will connect them with the ghosts to help solve the mystery of Skippy’s death and the mystery of why the ghosts of Savannah can’t pass on. Guests can collect the tarot cards and go through a series of pre-established interactions, or they can download a free app to get the full experience. Guests will be able to talk with the ghosts with the glass technology that is on the solar panels of the greenhouse and also placed in certain areas around the pavilion. It will seem like the ghosts will appear out of thin air! A scanner will be able to scan the QR codes on the cards and on the screen of your phone for the digital cards. Guests will be able to send the ghosts to the screens and use their phones to interact with the ghosts. SKIPPY, a recently dead-tour guide, knows everything to know about all the ghosts in Savannah. He is charismatic and playfully sarcastic. He would love to help you with solving the mystery, but he’s a little too pre-occupied with figuring out his own death. He will be introduce guests to the mystery of Savannah’s dead and why they all still reside there. He will entice them to collect tarot cards, which will lead them to other areas of historic Savannah. Guests can go at their own pace in this non-linear experience. Nothing is forced. They can even choose not to participate and still be able to relax in the pavilion on their own time. To collect other tarot cards, guests will have to go around historic Savannah to find them in local businesses. There are a set of five ghosts that will always be permanent, but there are ghosts that will only be around during certain seasons. This will allow SCAD to create a collaborative ongoing group project for the students of the entertainment arts. The students will be able to create more ghosts and more stories; because it will be important to maintain this amazing experience.
THE GHOSTS We have a collection of four permanent ghosts that create the overarching story of Resurrection Recreation. Skippy and Savannah’s mystery will always be around for guests to interact with.
JAMES HABERSHAM JR.- James Habersham Jr. was the owner of The Pink House, a well-known restaurant in Savannah. He is among the only ghost who passed along peacefully and doesn’t understand why he is still here. His area includes a sitting area for students to rest and do homework. The tables and chairs transition from white to pink as the day goes on and the area almost looks like old English tea time.
NATHANAEL GREENE- Nathanael was a general in the Revolutionary War. He believed he was going to catch yellow fever because of the growing Spanish moss. His area is four feet into the ground where you can go and sit underneath the roots of a tree that, of course, has no Spanish moss.
ANNA POWERS- Anna is a ghost at the Bed and Breakfast 17Hundred90. She died be being pushed out the window by one of her suitors and now just steals underwear from unsuspecting guests. Her area consists of a small creek and elegant changing dividers to keep her privacy. You will meet her by the waterfall below ground.
ALICE RILEY- Alice has the worst death of all the ghosts in the lot. She and her husband were hung but not until she gave birth to her child. We are lead on to feel terrible about Alice’s death, but realize in the end that the curse she put on the city before she died is the reason the ghosts cannot leave. Alice’s area includes the biggest tree on the property with many rope swings and chairs hanging off of it. The area is kind of isolated from the rest hopefully making students and visitors to believe that she is just sad and withdrawn.
THE PAVILION
When guests walk onto property, they are greeted with asymmetric public gardens. The lot we have chosen is one of the more open spaces in Savannah and will allow beautiful plants and gardens to grow out side and within our open aired pavilion. If guests walk to the back of the building there will be an opening waterfall for guests to walk through to get into the open-air pavilion. The glass panels that create the pavilion will be solar panels and glass technology. The glass technology will allow guests to interact with the ghosts. For guests to interact with the ghosts, they will be able to scan the QR code on the back of their tarot cards with a reader that will send it’s information to the panels. Guests will also be able to use the app to interact with the ghosts on the panels. With the scanners, there will be pre-determined interactions with the ghosts. But if guests use the app, there will be more interactivity with the ghosts with pre-determined and seasonal interactions. Because of Savannah’s drastic weather patterns, the panels will be able to open and close depending on the weather. In the center of the open-air pavilion will be an elevator tree with a staircase wrapped around it. On the second floor there are walkways that lead outside to balconies that look over the different ghost areas. On the balconies, there will be tables for students to work outside and close to nature.
The environment we create should be as creative as the students of SCAD are, designed to inspire creative thinking, and provide a memorable college experience.