Newsletter | Mar/Apr 2017


Building Tour : LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired

by Carol Mancke

LightHouse for the Blind & Visually Impaired, by Mark Cavagnero Associates

Building Tour: LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
6:30 pm

Join us to tour the new headquarters of LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, designed by Mark Cavagnero Associates. The tour will be led MCA's project manager for the LightHouse project, Katy Perrings Hawkin.

SPACE IS LIMITED SO PLEASE RSVP THROUGH EVENTBRITE OR EMAIL me! 

Location: LightHouse 1155 Market Street (near Civic Center BART)
Date and time: Tuesday May 9, 2017 6:30PM sharp!

Looking forward to seeing you there!
Carol (and the SC)

About the project:
One of the oldest social-services organizations in California, LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired is on the forefront of technology and training for blind and low-vision individuals. Their old headquarters on Van Ness Avenue was a difficult-to-navigate, poorly-lit and uninspiring space. Their goal was to create a new headquarters that would be an uplifting, positive environment to demonstrate to individuals experiencing vision loss that the loss of vision is not an end but rather the beginning of a new way of life.

This tenant improvement project spans three floors of an existing building, comprising approximately 40,000 sf. A variety of programmatic spaces accommodate the wide range of services offered to LightHouse clients including: on-site optometry exam rooms; a retail store selling adaptive technology devices; training rooms for hands-on learning of Braille and other skills; a training kitchen for learning low-vision cooking techniques; a large multi-purpose room for LightHouse and community events; administrative offices; audio and video recording facilities and eleven dorm rooms where up to twenty-nine clients can stay on-site for immersive training and community-building.

Working with the LightHouse provided a unique opportunity for the design team to think about architecture and the design process in a new way. Our usual two-dimensional modes of graphic representation were useless for communicating design ideas to blind client representatives. The design team worked with LightHouse tactile graphics experts to develop tactile architectural drawings to aid in non-visual communication. Mark Cavagnero Associates worked closely with blind consulting architect Chris Downey, who is blind. Chris provided invaluable insight into design for blind users as well as adaptation of the design process for sighted architects working for blind clients.

About Katy:
Katy Perrings Hawkins has been working in architecture in the Bay Area for twelve years. After earning an undergraduate degree in engineering from the University of Illinois, she worked for four years in Chicago as a structural engineer before changing her career path and earning an MArch from the University of Michigan. She has been with Mark Cavagnero Associates for three years. She was the project manager for the LightHouse for the Blind project and is currently working on a new education building for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.


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