Carroll Center for the Blind

Narratives

Architect Narrative

This center for the blind is an internationally recognized school for individuals with visual impairments. The programs, which include both day students and residents, concentrate on life skills as well as professional training. The architect was hired to complete a masterplan for their campus in Massachusetts, and to design a new 9600 SF computer training classroom building.

This new facility has a number of functions including computer classrooms and a distance learning lab, faculty offices, a multi-purpose room for presentations and school gatherings, as well as a residential component which includes six single occupancy rooms for visiting students and faculty who reside on the campus for short professional training programs.

The school occupies a 19th century estate with administration housed in an old horse stable. The character of the existing buildings is brick with stucco half Tudor above. A critical aspect of the design was to create a contemporary building which complements the character of the campus buildings while reflecting the mission of the new building as a cutting edge computer training facility for the 21st century. The use of a brick base refers the new structure to its context while the wood horizontal boarding and vertical battens above reinterprets the half Tudor of adjacent buildings in a less referential way.

In addition to zoning setbacks and contextual issues, the design challenge was based on accommodating a diversity of functions within the same structure. The architectural concept was to create an intimate, “outdoor classroom” achieved by separating the building into three distinct masses with a two-story academic wing, a one-and-a-half story multi-purpose room, and a one-story residential wing. The mixed-use nature of the building is revealed in the new quadrangle that in scale remains sensitive to this small campus. The design of two garden trellises helps complete the master-plan idea. The hung metal trellis marks the main entrance to the new facility and acts as a directional element toward the existing administration building against a new pedestrian walk. At the private, residential end of the building, a wooden trellis connects the building to an existing cottage, further defining the cloistered setting.