Townschool for Boys Event
For the 13th year in a row, the Town School for Boy’s third-grade class descended on SB Architects’ San Francisco office for a fun-filled morning of discussions, design and hands-on activities.
“It’s rewarding to see how engaged and eager the students are to learn about architecture and to create their own designs. Their creativity amazes me and even inspires me to think ‘outside of the box’. I like to think that we are teaching our future colleagues and clients. The teachers tell us this is the students’ favorite field trip and they look forward to visiting our office each year.”
Brita Spano Villanueva, Associate and Designer
After an introductory presentation, the students were split into small teams; a mix of students and SB design staff; for their first assignment, which was to imagine, measure and design their own bedroom. Armed with blank floorplans, drafting paper, a ruler and a pen, the teams enthusiastically tackled the task with our design team on hand to offer a helping hand when needed. Imaginations ran wild and alongside the standard bed and wardrobe combination, we saw bedrooms filled to the brim with hot tubs, aquariums, and foosball tables.
The second assignment was to expand on the knowledge gained during task one, to envision and create a site plan for an entire home! To conclude the event, the students had an opportunity to share their experience and ask any burning questions from the morning, and Tim Pernice, our selected SB ‘Architect of the Day’ gave a short presentation on his design work and what a typical ‘day-in-the-life’ of an architect looks like.
We are always thrilled with the feedback we receive from teachers and parents who accompany the children on the day. Emily-Jean Wagner and Megan Janson, third-grade teachers at Town School for Boys remarked,
“For the past 13 years, our third-grade students have had the opportunity to visit SB Architects and see the practical applications of calculating area and perimeter. The firm created a hands-on project in which each third grader designs a room of his own. A small group of third graders then combines their individual rooms to design a floor-plan of a house. The entire SB Architects firm takes their morning to work one-on-one with the boys supporting the creative process as well as the mathematical calculations. This day provides an opportunity for the boys to see one career path that combines their love of building, creating and math.”
Our community relationships formed with philanthropic programs such as the ‘Town School for Boys’ are extremely important, as it provides us with a unique opportunity to capture the attention, encourage and support potential architects of the future.