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UNCG Home > School of Health & Human Sciences

909 Dillard: From the Ground Up

by Linda B. Wilson

It is an ordinary autumn afternoon in Greensboro: a train whistle blows in the distance; a driver parked in front of a house on Dillard Street blows his horn, impatient for a passenger to join him; an elderly resident returns from a walk, unlocks her front door and disappears inside, giving only a quick glance to her temporary next-door neighbors.

It is an extraordinary afternoon on Dillard Street in Greensboro: students outfitted with ideas, tool belts and hammers talk busily about life in general while contributing to the task at hand; their professor walks and works among them—teaching, guiding, building; a photo taken each hour records their progress. Welcome to Urban Studio 01.

PART ONE

James and Lillie Marshall lived at 909 Dillard Street for over 40 years. Due to a leaking roof, no heat and shoddy wiring, their dilapidated home was demolished in 2006. About one year ago, Robert Charest, assistant professor of HES’s Interior Architecture (IARC) department, approached Greensboro’s Department of Housing and Community Development concerning a location for his interior architecture class to build a house.

When Charest learned of the situation on Dillard Street, he felt it was the perfect solution for his class, and at the same time it would provide the Marshalls with a comfortable home. Construction is now complete and the couple should be settled into their finished home and back in their neighborhood sometime in January 2007.

Everyone knew that this project would require not only donations and grants but also support, including monetary support, from the city and community: the City of Greensboro’s HCD has funded the cost of construction materials through its rehabilitation program; paid for demolition, grading the site and moving the Marshalls. Guilford Technical Community College’s (GTCC) students prefabricated the girders, interior partitions, stairs and porches. Loflin Concrete donated some of the insulated concrete forms (ICFs), concrete, concrete pumping services and expertise. Boedicker Construction in High Point provided its contractor’s license for the project as well as their expertise.

More students from HES, led by Maura Nsonwu and the Social Work Department, organized the Marshalls’ move by helping them with packing and transition issues. The move back may be traumatic as well because of their familiarity with “how things were before.” This is a true demonstration of human environmental sciences and interdisciplinary activities between departments.

This first house built by UNCG students since the early 1960s affords IARC’s five-year degree program students an excellent real-world opportunity. They are involved in the community by designing and building a home for a couple in need of housing, and at the same time they benefit from an optimal education experience. The project, Urban Studio 01, is a joint effort of Greensboro’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and IARC. The groundbreaking ceremony was September 1 and an unveiling celebration was held December 15.

Charest, a licensed builder in Québec and a trained carpenter, has taught at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture and before that in his native city of Montréal. “I believe that design education, research and service come together naturally in design-build environments such as the Urban Studio,” Charest said. “I love UNCG because it affords a ‘scholar’ such as myself the opportunity to implement and explore new paths, much like this one.”

“The work I produce in one semester becomes the laboratory for my research the remainder of the year,” Charest noted. “Typically, the apprenticeship of architects and designers focuses on drawing or representing buildings—in the urban studio students and faculty focus on building them.”

The 1,000-square-foot house with two bedrooms, one bath and an unfinished basement has a budget of $43,400 from a federal grant and many supplies have been donated to help the students stay within that budget.

Charest gave his students a summer 2006 project to design a house to be built in an inner-city neighborhood. When school began in August, Amber Snipes’ design was the one chosen to build. Amber, from Oxford, is a fourth-year student. “Amber’s design seemed to embody the spirit of what will become the Marshall’s home,” Charest said.

Snipes, unlike her professor, wasn’t automatically convinced. “I was very nervous about presenting my design and when it received such a positive response and was chosen I thought ‘Are you sure?’, Snipes said. “The class as a whole refined my design and created together the actual house that will be built,” she added.

The class was ready and felt prepared to begin the building process. “I was not at all apprehensive about physically building a house even though I have never built one prior to this experience,” Amber said. “My professors have consistently emphasized the importance of designing how structures and finishes come together and all students in the department have to present construction details with their designs.”

In the Glenwood neighborhood, an inner-city area of Queen Anne style, craftsman and bungalow homes, how will a new modern house fit in? Snipes visited the neighborhood before she designed the home. “I was very conscious about combining traditionalism with modernism,” she said. “I felt that this project should be responsible by creating a structural language that the neighborhood could understand and appreciate while simultaneously introducing a modern aesthetic that was inoffensive but progressive.”

Charest saw Snipes’ design as a great connection between the past and present. “We believe that the house is a nice bridge between 2006 Greensboro and the nostalgic era of the neighborhood,” he shared.

The house is constructed with insulated concrete forms (ICF), hardiplank on the outside and standard drywall inside. “ICF is more progressive,” commented Charest. “We are staying away from oriented strand board and glues as much as possible. I would call this house responsible more than sustainable or green. We are looking at the process of this house, its longevity and also its life-cycle cost,” he added.

Twenty students, 15 women and five men, worked five hours each day to complete the Urban Studio 01 project. Their reasons for joining Urban Studio were probably the same as Snipes’. “This is a real project to help people and learn at the same time, with a direct benefit to the community.”

For project updates, more photos and a list of donated goods and services, visit the Urban Studio [us].

For more information, contact the Interior Architecture Department by phone at (336)327-5989 or e-mail Adrienne Garwood.

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