A Decade of Design

The past decade has been one of transformation for MedCamps of Louisiana.

The organization that provides summer camps for children with disabilities has seen its campus at Camp Alabama in Choudrant transformed through 10 years of partnership with Louisiana Tech University’s ARCH 335 Design/ Build Studio program.

From a pavilion and bell tower to an archery range and amphitheater, not only has the camper experience seen drastic changes since the partnership’s inception, but each year Tech architecture students have the opportunity to get hands-on experience designing and building a structure from beginning to end for real-world use.

That’s why Tech and MedCamps leaders are celebrating a decade’s worth of projects after cutting the ribbon last week on the latest addition, a recreational field house.

“This partnership has transformed how we operate,” MedCamps Executive Director Caleb Seaney said. “It’s transformed how we fundraise. It’s transformed Camp Alabama as a whole.”

Launched in 1999 under architecture professor Karl Puljak — now dean of the College of Liberal Arts — the Design/Build Studio program began partnering with MedCamps in 2014 when associate professors Brad Deal and Robert Brooks took over.

The program allows future architects to understand the consequences of their design decisions by seeing projects through the construction process and observing as the projects are used by MedCamps staff and campers — all while allowing MedCamps to improve their facilities at a fraction of the cost.

Students do nearly all of the design and construction work themselves under the instruction of Deal and Brooks, or in this year’s case, Deal and former student An Le, who is stepping into Brooks’ shoes as an instructor.

“It’s really great for our students that the end user, the campers, the idea of doing something fun for them is highly motivational to our students,” Deal said. “Just about anyone can get on board with the idea of doing something for kids with special needs. The motivation from our students to create their own build work and put it out into the world for such a good cause is one of the key factors in this program.”

The completed projects include the Larkin Gibbs Pavilion — named after a former MedCamps counselor who died tragically — an archery range, a boat launch, a bridge across Lake Alabama, a zipline rig, a store building and bell tower, a reimagined entryway to the camp, an art cabin, an amphitheater, and finally this year’s field house.

Many of these projects were identified when Deal, Brooks and Seaney first toured the facility together.

Though it was Seaney who originally reached out to initiate the partnership, he admitted he wasn’t sure what to expect when the class began working on the first project, the memorial pavilion.

“I didn’t know what to expect, had no clue — I was terrified,” Seaney said. “What they created behind our dining hall is whimsical, magical, and it’s been transformative. Not only to our campers, but it’s been a beacon to our camp to show people that something new is happening at Camp Alabama.”

On the Tech side, Deal was also daunted by the task at the outset.

“Ten weeks to design and construct a project is a pretty intense task for even seasoned professionals, much less two faculty and 25 novice builders,” he said. “ We rolled the dice and worked as hard as we possibly could and somehow pulled off that first project.”

The Gibbs Pavilion and future projects began boosting not only campers’ experience, but Med-Camps’ public exposure and fundraising opportunities as well, even more so once the program began winning notable awards across the architecture industry.

A cadre of community sponsors put forward the materials and equipment used in the projects to keep costs down for the camp.

“The most base-level benefit is financial,” Seaney said. “Our cost ranges somewhere between $30-50 per square foot, which is pennies on the dollar. It allows for us to improve camp without taking money away from the actual program to do it.”

But for MedCamps, the real magic comes from the creative designs from the Tech program that bring the camp’s ideas to life.

“We give them a need, and they create something whimsical and magical to add to camp that impacts the campers’ experience, both in functionality and usefulness, but also in just general charm and inspiration,” Seaney said.

That includes this year’s field house. Intended to provide storage, shaded seating, water fountains and a bathroom next to the camp’s new sports field, the design includes a playful, red roof line that bounces up and down like a ball.

The breezeway in the structure’s center is designed to emulate the emergence onto a professional sports field from a tunnel.

One more flight of fancy to this one: some steel beams for the project were donated from Tech’s theatre department, which had at one time been used for effects such as making Peter Pan fly.

When the celebration for the 10th project was complete, Seaney reflected on the program’s decadelong history and concluded that the students’ journey in the Design/ Build Studio program is much like that of his campers — one of transformation and positive growth.

“People who don’t really know what they’re doing — in our case, our campers come here away from their mom and dad for the first time — and they’re challenged to reach their full potential,” Seaney said. “The students and our campers, they both change through the process. They face adversity, and they overcome it, and they build grit, which is the heart of any summer camp. It happens in Design Build, and it happens at MedCamps every day.”