Laura
Greenwood
Beyond the Box: Canopy Care Shelter
Project Background
YEAR: SPRING 2019 - Senior Year
LENGTH: 4 WEEKS
SKILLS: Revit, Lumion, Photoshop, Space Planning, Research Communication, Program Development, Collaboration
LOCATION: Tallahassee, FL
CONCEPT: The Balance of Basalt Stones
PROJECT SIZE: 52,132 SF
*Group Project Members: Wendie Duncan & Alessandra Poma **Project was kept for CIDA Accreditation
All over the United States big stores like Toys “R” Us are being shut down, leaving empty buildings in cities. The Beyond the Box Design Challenge prompted groups to research what the local city of Tallahassee would benefit from, that could be designed within the space of the old toy store, making it have a purpose again. Through research my group found that there are very few animal shelters within the city limits. On top of this, the local Human Society operates out of a foster system, meaning they do not have a facility big enough to hold a large number of animals. From these findings, my group decided to design an expansion of the Human Society, The Canopy Care Shelter. This expansion would allow them to operate within the facility from donations and from funding provided through services offered within, like grooming, doggy day-care, and agility courses. The shelter also offers areas for community engagement, like volunteering at the shelter, service dog training, and a wellness room that offers therapy sessions with animals. The Canopy Care Shelter is meant to provide a safe shelter for animals, while prepping them for a home. This project also sought to focus on designing for inter-generational interaction. Because of this, the shelter is designed to be a welcoming place for users of all age, by applying universal design, forming areas of engagement, and making an experience that is enjoyable for visitors in their childhood to those in retirement.
The shelter is split between shelter services and areas of revenue. When one walks in they are greeted with a large reception space. From here visitors can either go view animals available for adoption, or take their pet to grooming, daycare or training. The shelter side of the facility includes Dog Dwellings, Small Animal Lodges, a wellness room, exam and procedure rooms, an upper level with Cat Condos and a “Cat Garden”. Aside from these services, the facility includes staff areas like offices, a conference room, staff lounges and a separate entrance for circulation and traffic flow.
The Canopy Care Shelter has a large reception space. This space is the first area visitors see when they arrive inside the facility. The reception desk is large and made up of four desks, two for greeting visitors and answering questions, and two for retail check-out and pet check-in for services like grooming, agility training, and daycare. The space has a lot of windows to allow for natural lighting to filter through the waiting area. The provided seating gives visitors comfortable options and surfaces to fill out paper work. The ceiling above the reception desk guides users toward the back of the shelter, where animals are kept and can be viewed. Small animals, that are not dogs or cats, can be easily spotted from he reception space, in the room where their Lodges are. There is also a wall that highlights community donors that help contribute to the success and expansion of the shelter.
**My Role: Designing the Small Animal Lodge space and Rendering the Reception
*Reception layout by Alessandra Poma.
THE SHELTER
Upstairs Cat Area
Upstairs is designated for the cats. In the cat area visitors can interact with the animals in the open, or take them into meeting spaces. The area is designed to be peaceful. To accomplish this, biophilia is incorporated by creating a cat garden. Cats can roam during the day, or stay in their Cat Condo, where they are kept at night. Creating the cat area on the second level creates a solution to the potential smell from a cat litter, and provides cats with a quieter space away from noise of dogs.
CAT GARDEN ELEVATION
*Cat spaces designed and rendered by Wendie Duncan
DOG DWELLING ELEVATION
**My Role: Design and Rendering
On the outside, the kennels are designed to look like dog houses. This makes the place more visually pleasing and welcoming. Each “street” of dog dwellings includes benches in the middle for visitors to view pets, and also gives the animals sight-lines of something other than dogs kennels across the way.
There are 78 total Dog Dwellings in the shelter, 46 for large dogs and litters and 32 for smaller dogs. Inside, these kennels are designed to give the animals enough space to play, eat and sleep. A decision was made to design the kennels so they dogs would begin to be house trained, meaning there is not a separate area inside their space to use the restroom, rather they are taken to the outside area regularly. This helps with maintenance and preparing the pets for adoption.
OTHER SERVICES AND HIGHLIGHTS
Canopy Care Shelter is more than a shelter, it includes areas for services that can provide revenue. Grooming is one of the services offered. The grooming center is playful and luxurious. The tubs sit on bone shaped stands to make bathing easier for staff, and in the center of the space are the grooming tables. Wood was used a lot in this area to bring natural elements inside. The walls are glass to allow visitors to look inside while pets are being groomed, creating an opportunity of interaction with the space. After pets are done being groomed, they are moved to a holding room, where they wait in dog houses to be picked up by their owner.
**My Role: Grooming Center Rendering
*Grooming Center layout by Alessandra Poma
THERAPY ROOM ELEVATION
Therapy with Puppies
The therapy room is a place where community members can come to play and interact with shelter pets. This helps relieve stress, and gives shelter animals a chance to interact with people. Soft materials and dark woods are used in the space to make it comfortable and relaxing.
The feature stairs are a central point in the space. From here, visitors can go to the therapy room, or to the dog dwellings to view dogs available for adoption. Above, the cat area can be previewed before one makes it way upstairs. The shape of the stairs guides visitors towards the pets.
**My role: Layout
*Stairs perspective rendered by Wendie Duncan
**My Role: Design and Rendering
Agility Center
The shelter also offers agility course training. This area includes a course big enough for multiple dogs to be on it at once. The room also has a door to an outdoor walking area, as do the doggy day care rooms and the service dog training center, for dogs to be easily walked.
*Agility course designed and rendered by Alessandra Poma