Studio IV Revisions the Westgate Community

Loft apartment designed by Jessica Gervikas, Brooke Sanders and Michelle Schneiter

The Department of Interior Architecture & Design’s senior-level Studio 4 class recently completed a concept design revising the project of the Westgate Community, a Tallahassee development dedicated to assisting formerly homeless persons to recovery by providing them with small single-person apartments. These units are 175-square-feet in size and offer residents the opportunity to pay rent at a level that is feasible for their income. The students toured the Westgate Community and with the help of interviews of staff and residents, created new solutions including floor plans, color perspective renderings, models, exterior color elevations and custom architectural details. The students accommodated features of the WELL standards to help ensure accommodation of the users’ mental, physical, and social needs. The project’s guest critics included Monique Ellsworth, Executive Director of the Kearney Comprehensive Emergency Services Center and Ken Sweeney, architect of record for the Westgate Community. Mr. Sweeney will present the students’ ideas to the client in the spring for possible adaption as the design and construction of six further buildings at the Westgate Community commences.  The class was facilitated by FSU professor Jill Pable.