Women Air Force Service Pilots World War II Museum Sweetwater, Texas

Client:

Design Team:

Texas Tech University:

Ben Shacklette, AIA, Associate Professor
Stan Robertson, AIA, Assistant
Professor, Chris Snowden, Graduate Assistant
SeNeM Cennetoglu, Graduate Assistant

Overland Partners Inc:

Richard Archer, FAIA, Scott Carpenter, AIA

The CDL assisted the WASP WWII Museum organization in the development of a vision for a national museum.  The museum organization was in need of a clear vision to present to the WASP at their national conference to solidify support and commitments to the project.  The Museum organization completed an initial discovery and exploration of ideas phase with Professor John White, AIA in a service learning studio within the College of Architecture.  Following the service learning studio, the CDL worked with the Museum organization in preparation of a Request for Proposal (RFP) to identify a professional partner to team with Texas Tech University to bridge the student/client ideas with the grounded expertise of the professional firm.  This process is referred to by the CDL as "incubating" the project.

Incubating is the process of guiding the client through pre-design to articulate goals and create a vision that can be used in fundraising and stakeholder building.  It can often take two to three years before these projects are in the position of becoming real projects for the private sector.

The process of creating the vision included an initial on-site session of the design team with the client to establish a mission statement for the project, clarify client goals and to analyze and document the site.  The major design concepts were made during a subsequent one day design charrette.  A design charrette brings the client group and design team together to brainstorm and share ideas in regard to the project