Alumni/Student Architecture Project

There’s nothing like practical, hands-on experience to bring educational ideas into the real world, and two KSC alums are offering six architecture students just such an opportunity. Steve Fortier ‘86 is executive director of Meeting Waters YMCA and president of the Board of Directors of the Great River Co-op.

Jedd Pellerin ‘01, an architect and graduate of KSC’s architecture program, is on the Board of Directors of the Great River Co-op and one of the four developers of the complex on Route 12 in Walpole that will be the home to the Great River Co-op, Meeting Waters YMCA, an active older-adult living community, professional offices, and a restaurant.

The pair invited students Michael Helmer, Kevin Enright, Ryan Ullrich, Stacy Glover, Ramsey Mellish, and Jamie Martin to design buildings for the Meeting Waters YMCA and the Great River Co-op in Walpole, New Hampshire.

Cooperative efforts like this are a great for the community, which gets a competently designed building without paying a professional architect, and for the students, who get real-world experience that extends their learning far beyond the classroom. “In other classes, we strictly design buildings that have already been built; here, we are jumping into something that is real and more hands on,” Stacy Glover said.

During the semester-long project, Fortier shared with the students several design tools from the YMCA system’s national resource center, something that most architects would never have access to. And the students had plenty of questions. “It’s a two-way quest with these students. We’re all sharing, and we’re all learning,” Fortier said as the group sorted through designing a facility that met the program needs of the Y; encouraged social connections among members„ which is at the core of the Y’s mission; and met site ordinances and limitations.

The students presented their final designs during the CommuniCorps ceremony in the Alumni Center at the end of April.