Fourteen students from Texas A&M University’s College of Architecture presented their research and design concepts for a new sustainable homeless shelter for Bryan’s Twin City Mission on Feb. 21 at Texas A&M System’s John Connally Office Building.

George Mann, architecture professor and holder of the Skaggs-Sprague Endowed Chair in Health Facilities Design and co-adviser for the project, noted that the project was designed to expose the architectural students to the process and experience of working with actual clients on a real project and on a real site.
 
“Working on a new design for Twin City Mission has been an incredible project that clearly addresses a pertinent need in the community,” said architecture student Jenny Holzer. “It has been such a privilege to work on a project where we are able to exchange ideas and collaborate in order to come up with a design that might be conducive to the needs of those who come to the homeless shelter.”
 
The 16-acre site purchased for a new facility is located in the 500 block of West 31st at the intersection of South Sims Avenue in Bryan. It will be the site for the mission's homeless shelter, community cafe and offices, according to Doug Weedon, executive director of the Twin City Mission.
 
Last fall, students and faculty successfully presented ideas for design of a women’s shelter in Hempstead. Other student design presentations have included ideas for Scotty's House, projects at St. Joseph Regional Health Center, Brazos Valley Rehabilitation Center, Texas A&M Health Science Center campus, Our Saviour's Lutheran Church and the Texas A&M Student Health Center.
 
The homeless shelter project got under way Jan. 22 with Weedon and other members of the Twin City Mission staff, its clients and community leaders articulating the need and their vision for a new shelter for the homeless. The original shelter was destroyed by fire in August, 2006, having been in the same collection of seven north Bryan downtown buildings since its founding in 1963.  The mission shelters more than 1,000 men and women each year.
 
Following the kick-off presentations, students visited the existing shelter and the site of the proposed shelter. On Feb. 2, shelter staff visited the students’ studio at the College of Architecture for an intensive mid-point review and input into the student’s designs. In just 11 days, the students had prepared space programs, site analyses, flow diagrams, preliminary plans and study models. After constructive feedback from the staff, the students fine-tuned their designs to better respond to the client’s needs.
 
Shelter plans call for a reception area, chapel, men's sleeping area, women's sleeping area, family facilities, cafeteria and kitchen, administration offices, classrooms and multipurpose rooms.
 
The students were asked by their professors to design with sustainable concepts aimed at a future with limited, if not declining, energy resources.
 
Directing the project for the College of Architecture were Mann; Joseph McGraw, architecture professor emeritus and founding head of the department of landscape architecture and urban planning; and Shannon Van Zandt, assistant professor of landscape architecture and urban planning, who specializes in housing for those in need.