Students in Architecture 374C this winter are working
on a genuine problem and entering a professional design
competition.
     The project is to design a wheelchair accessible
visitor facility for Woodside National Historic site in
Kitchener.
     Woodside was the boyhood home of William Lyon
Mackenzie King, Canada's 10th prime minister and the
longest serving P.M. in the Commonwealth. King was prime
minister for 22 years from 1921 to 1948 except for a few
months in 1926 and for five years in the 1930s. Woodside
sits on an eleven-acre site at 528 Wellington Street North.
     All government buildings must be wheelchair accessible
by 1995, so the staff at this well-known Victorian home,
have started to look at how to do that.
     Educational programs are held in the basement. The
first idea to make the home wheelchair accessible was to
cut a ramp into the basement, says Karen Cvornyek, who
teaches the course and is herself a graduate of UW's archi
tecture program. But that would mean "major architectural
modifications" so that the house would no longer be typical
of its era.
     It would also mean visitors in wheelchairs would come
"in the back door", something Cvornyek calls unacceptable.
     A major part of the course - open to all architecture
students - is the professional design competition sponsored
by Parks Canada, and the government services ministry.
     Evaluation will be based on workshops and assignments
dealing with site analysis, and the development of
innovative approaches to "legibility and accessibility" as
qualities of public architecture and space, as well as for
the competition entry, worth 70 per cent of the mark.
     Architecture students who aren't registered in the
course can also take part in the design competition, says
Cvornyek.
     Thirty-five students are taking the course They come
from every year - except second year, since there are no
second year students on campus this term.
     "Students have to present their design in a clear
manner and solve the problems related to site," she says.
"Students find solutions to accessibility through their
designs, not through codes for accessibility."
     That means the most important element of the
competition is the conceptual design so first year students
wouldn't be disadvantaged: students "don't have to work the
building out. That's where upper-year students would have a
distinct advantage."
     Third-year architecture students say they are taking
the course because it's a chance to work on a real-life
problem on a real site.
     Marsha Spencer also says that in their design courses
accessibility isn't a major component but that
accessibility is important in the workplace.
     Grant Hutchinson says that government rules stating
that their buildings must be accessible by 1995 is now
forcing architects to examine the issues of accessibility.
It means archi-tects will be responsible for considering
everyone who might use the facility. "The issue of
accessibility can't be avoided in this project."
     Artia Golestani agrees. "We usually have an ideal
situation. (For Woodside) we're under more pressure in this
course to design in a realistic and responsible manner."
     The winning design "will be built. The project has a
budget," Spencer says. "There's more to deal with."
     "We're dealing with two sensitive issues - a specific
user group and the heritage aspect of historical sensitive
site," Hutchinson says.
     The competition closes on March 14, Cvornyek says.
Winners will be announced by the end of March.
     The competition will be judged in three stages. First
a technical jury will review and screen all entries for
compliance to the building program, codes and standards. In
the second phase, UW architecture professors will select 15
designs. Then the final jury - consisting of officials from
Parks Canada, architects, people from the National
Accessibility Committee and two faculty members - will
select the winning three designs.
     First prize is $1,000 and consideration for a co-op
work term with Parks Canada to help develop the design into
full working drawings, specifications and tender documents
for construction in 1995. There will be some flexibility
into fitting the work term with the student's academic
schedule, Cvornyek says.
     Second prize is $750 and third prize, $500.