Creative Action reaches 20,000 Austin kids yearly with its arts-based self-esteem and anti-bullying education. Their new facility, on an odd gavel-shaped lot in the Meredith Family Interests’ new ‘Social Profit Village’ in Chestnut Commons, enacts a pledge to:
“meet a critical community need for accessible, affordable arts enrichment and youth services, business-sector development, and … neighborhood engagement”.
The building has youth program areas on Level 1; Level 2 houses administration offices and staging support for arts teachers who lead the many Creative Action programs in public schools and elsewhere throughout the City.
Spine The building experience is organized through a structural, fully grouted double-wythe brick wall, which defines both the entrance portal and “spine” of the building. The wall is not treated as a façade in this project, but rather a central part of the experience; a threshold between spaces that continually impresses Creative Action’s values of care and core strength for the children and community who use the building. Salvaged from a local demolition yard, the brick carries with it a history; even during construction, the brick spine wall became a kind of ruin to hang the rest of the building on. Portals through the brick wall were constructed by placing off-the-shelf clay fireplace flues into the walls, sandwiching glass where the wall separated the hallways from a classroom or office. The bricks above the flues were simply grouted in place without the need for lintels or other spanning elements.
Flexibility Movable cork-covered partition walls between Classrooms 1 and 2 allow the staging of the classrooms into an indoor performance area or event space. By connecting 2 storage closets – leaving out a wall between them -- we enabled the closets to be a kind of back stage access to theatrical events, held when the space is used for performance or events. Instead of using pull-down shades we used floor-to-ceiling curtains to make the space a theatrical, mutable space. One that can be nearly all glass – or nearly all dark.
Values The project is intentionally playful but not childish – meant to be an engaging place that invites exploration while embodying a pressing mission. In the Entry Foyer, 2,000+ colored pencils underscore the core values of Creative Action and acknowledge the financial supporters by forming the background material of the donor recognition panels.
We designed the building closely with the owner team and consultants, over a period of several years, to be efficient with space -- out of necessity of cost and limited land area, and to be ecologically sustainable. Besides using many recycled materials, smart lighting and VRF air handling systems, we kept the air-conditioned part of the building at a minimum by placing both stairs to Level 2 in outdoor, unconditioned space. Climbing Stair 1 -- conceived as part of a set of ‘ruins’ of the salvaged brick spine -- leads one to a balcony and is a culmination of a courtyard where the collection of community-supporting organizations make up this ‘Social Profit Village’. The balcony -- whose guard rail is also Creative Action’s sign, along with the building’s entrance plinth and spine wall may also become the stage and backdrop for community events held in this shared courtyard.
