Lauren Griffith Associates is working with Courtney Harper & Partners to recreate an important green space adjacent to the architecture and engineering buildings on the University of Houston’s main campus. The team is collaborating with Andrew Vrana and Joe Meppelink’s Digital Fabrication class in the School of Architecture to realize an interpreted version of avant-garde architect Frederick Kiesler’s 1960’s Grotto for Meditation project. Proposed to be next to Philip Johnson’s Roofless Church in the utopian community of New Harmony, Indiana, the project was never built. New Harmony philanthropist and patron Jane Blaffer Owen funded an initial phase of the student-built, contemporary grotto sculpture at the University of Houston, along with a first attempt at a water feature. Our team is carrying the project forward, re-designing the pond, integrating a bridge designed by the students, and designing new paths, gathering areas, native gardens and lighting to define the green quad surrounding the grotto. The project will be a model of sustainability, using permeable paving, water conserving plants, and reclaimed irrigation water draining from the Burdette Keeland, Jr. Design Exploration Center roof garden.
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