Working with the W. Ross Macdonald School for the Blind, we led a team of specialists in the design of a 70-acre campus facility fit master plan to accommodate a long-term sustainable vision which includes a build out of new facilities over the next 15 years. The school offers residential and school programs ranging from pre-school to OSSD to students who are blind, deaf blind or visually impaired as well as resource services to school boards. The site currently houses twenty buildings constructed from 1870 to 2004 totaling approximately 320,000 s.f.
The master plan vision is to design a connected, sustainable campus that supports the best educational practices, celebrates the naturally rich surrounding landscape and internal courtyards, and updates the school’s existing program to reflect new recommendations for specialized educational programs and residences — a peaceful, creative learning environment that will set the highest standard of universal and academic design.
The holistic approach brings landscape and architecture together in a way that is not only aesthetically beautiful, but incorporates features that facilitate navigation using all of the senses, and create a rich, full spatial experience. The buildings and landscape will also embrace a green approach and will be a model for sustainable practices in campus design.
At the conclusion of the Master Plan process we were retained to do a feasibility study for the first phase, which was a new residential building for the full-time students that included training rooms.
