MONDAY,AUGUST 18,2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
Class project creates home
Studio 804 students help one needy family get a much-needed house
By Zack Hemenway
zhenmenway@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Tears start to well in Connie Frazier's eyes at the memory. She knew her husband meant well, but she just didn't see it happening.
ing. "We can't do it," she said when Roy Frazier told her he was trying to find their family a house on his school bus driver salary.
"I promised you when we got married that I was going to buy you a home," he told her that fall, their 21st year together. "And I am going to find a way."
going a day a year later, the Fraziers' school-new home helped the School of Architecture's Studio
804 win a $25,000 grand prize from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. Studio 804 is a nonprofit organization that was formed by architecture professors to help students to get building experience and provide affordable housing.
During the last five years, students in Dan Rockhill and Kent Spreckelmeyer's architecture and urban design classes have designed and built homes in the Lawrence area. The students spend the fall finding a site and financing, then design and build during the spring semester. Tenants for Homeowners, another nonprofit group, reviews applicants and procures low-interest loans to help their chosen residents. Roy Frazier went through this application process and was chosen to live in the house before construction had even started.
LEFT: Roy Frazier relaxes in his new Studio 804 house. Built last spring, it was created and designed by 20 architecture graduate students. The wood floor was recycled from an old gymnasium.
BELOW: Roy and Connie Frazier stand next to their Studio 804 house on 1718 Atherton Court. Many of the materials used to build the house were salvaged from demolished buildings.
The Fraziers visited the construction site almost every day, befriending the students and professors who worked on the project. The house they saw rise up from the dirt on 1718 Atherton Court was unlike any they'd ever seen. Well, almost any.
seet. "It reminded me of a Frank Lloyd Wright house," Connie Frazier said with a smile.
Zier stand wärmer.
When giving directions to their home, Roy Frazier always tells people, "You can't miss it."
people. Corrugated steel siding makes up the outside panels, and windows take up nearly every other visible area. The roof slopes in from both sides to lead to an open patio in the center of the house. Inside, the house is no less unique. The sun seems to penetrate every square inch during the daytime, as only two rooms have conventional ceilings, and the hardwood floor comes from a gymnasium. Stainless steel industrial fans hang from 20-foot ceilings, purring softly to fight the sun's heat.
More than 1,500 people attended the opening, and since their July move-in, the Fraziers said they have had visits from numerous architecture students and journalists. Connie Frazier has become a practiced tour guide, opening her door to curious onlookers almost daily.
"Everybody's welcome in our house," she said.
The house is especially good for their large family. The Fraziers, both in their 50s, have five grown children and 24 grandchildren. But the Beauty and the Beast bedspreads next to the "cellular insulated window shades" aren't for occasional visits to grandma's house. The Fraziers have three adopted children, a boy and two
girls, ages 8, 9 and 10, all of whom have some form of mental illness. Connie Frazier said the openness of the house was good for the children.
aren't
"There's just so much light," she said. "You don't have a chance to get depressed."
chance to get up and go. Frazier said her children love the house too, but for entirely different reasons. She estimates there are 30 children in a two-block radius of her house, and it seems as if all 30 have spent some time at 1718 Atherton. Some of the students who worked on the house also check in with the family periodically, and the Fraziers meet with Rockhill and Spreckelmeyer regularly. The professors said the project is unique to the University.
University. "We're the only program to basically build an entire house in one semester," Rockhill said.
one semester, Rockwell Institute Studio 804 submitted this house as their example project in the contest, and provided snapshots of previous projects. They received the grand prize award for Creative Integration of Practice and Education. Spreckelmeyer said integration was important to preparing architecture students for their careers.
"The project connects them with the realities of construction and design," he said. "That's something that rarely happens in architecture schools."
For Connie Frazier, the reality of construction and design was too much to take. The first time she saw the completed house, Frazier broke into tears.
"She was crying, and then the students started crying." Frazier said. "They had a little boo-hoo session."
Roy Frazier swells with pride at the fulfillment of his twenty-year-old promise.
"It was a dream we never thought would happen," he said. "And now it's a dream come true."
— Edited by Ashley Marriott
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