Building a more accessible COA
The COA Dorr Museum of Natural History has a beautiful, accessible entrance thanks to the work of Lauren Brady ’21.
By Rob Levin
While Robert Haskell’s work is busy illuminating the hidden ecosystem in front of the Museum, the facility is also buoyed as of late by an elegant, accessible route of entry thanks to the thoughtful work of Lauren Brady ’21. Brady’s senior project, Bringing the Dorr Museum Entrances into ADA Compliance: From Development to Implementation of a Landscape Architecture Design, addressed an access problem that had been with the museum since its opening, while framing the landscape with artful stonework and native plantings.
Brady was first introduced to the need for an accessible entrance, and pathway to the back door of the museum, in the Landscape Architecture Studio Class, and as she thought more about the problem she realized she could help address it by making it the focus of her senior project. She engaged closely with museum stakeholders, worked collaboratively with the relevant COA governance committees, drafted design options and, with community support, moved a final design into construction drawings, materials estimates, and site permitting. COA President Darron Collins ’92 was taken with the project and began seeking support right away.
“Darron showed an immediate desire to push the plans forward despite their unapproved and early-process character, and began pursuing leads for donors,” Brady wrote in her senior project papers. “By the final week of fall term, to my shock, and to the pleased surprise of committee members, the president had raised $25,000 from an anonymous donor.”
After the Dorr Museum was opened about 25 years ago, the landscape was never completed and a temporary wooden ramp and gravel path became the front entryway, Brady notes in her senior project. This front entrance was not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act because it is too steep. In addition, the rear entrance had no formal path to it, despite the fact that for most of the year it is the primary entrance and exit used daily to access classes and staff offices.
“Making the museum entrances accessible is critical,” Brady wrote. “The Dorr Museum is the public face of the college, hosting 12,000-14,000 people annually. Those visitors range from summer tourists to educational programs, and they frequently have no other tie to or experience of the campus.”
“As I reflect on this project, I am thinking about landscape architecture as a form of facilitation, first among people and their various needs and wants; in this case I learned a lot about how the museum hosts visitors and how things change within the institution of COA,” Brady wrote. “I also think about this role as facilitating relationships between the land itself and the people who live on it. Beyond the straightforward need for accessibility, I hope this landscape will create new space for community events, and invite people to engage with our native ecosystems.”
