Wednesday, June 6, 2018

UNIVERSAL DESIGN: PUBLIC SPACES FOR ALL -- 10


PHILADELPHIA

The Olin Studio in Philadelphia has redesigned a number of landmark public spaces to increase universal design elements.

Firm founder Laurie Olin’s redesign of the Independence National Historic Park at Independence Hall features walkways so gently sloped that there are no ramps per se.

“Olin’s design philosophy is to integrate universal design concepts such as resilience and sustainability into all our projects, whether historic landscapes or brand new and contemporary places, from the very inception of their design. 

We do not design spaces and then go back and figure out how to make them accessible,” says Dennis C. McGlade, president and partner at Olin.

Olin’s landscape design for the security retrofit of the grounds of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., made all the paths to the base of the monument accessible — all slopes under 5 percent — while at the same time thwarting terrorists with design elements that prevent them from driving up to the base of the monument.

No comments:

Post a Comment