As part of a Design Build studio project, 12 graduate studies from the College of Design’s School of Architecture worked this summer to add a functional yet creative addition performance space for Durham Central Park.

According to Ellen Cassilly , project advisor and president of Ellen Cassilly Architect, Inc. , this type of project provides an alternative type of learning—one that gives students the opportunity to get out of the classroom and into real-world experiences.

“When I went to school what you did was between you and the instructor or Scantron creator. It was a very private matter if you did poorly or did well on something. But here there’s a certain ego that’s on the line. But when design students design something and hang it on the wall, people are going to see it,” Cassilly said. “But if they design something and build it in the middle of a park, a lot of people are watching, they want it to be really good. They want to take pictures of it and put it in their portfolio. So I think there’s a wonderful dose of ego—I think in the very best way—that’s involved here and I think it’s a really good motivational factor.”

While Cassilly said the project got its start with $12,000 donation from Duke Energy, more than half of the project will be funded by the community through the use of a website called Kickstarter.com . This site allows potential project organizers to submit a proposal online for public viewing, which will describe their project, funding needs along with a deadline to receive the funding. Rewards are also used to encourage people to “back” their project.

One unique aspect of this site is its “all-or-nothing” funding, meaning that if the fundraising goal isn’t met by its deadline, the project receives none of the pledged money.

According to Randy Lanou , president of BuildSense and another project advisor, there has been a lot of community support that has been further enhanced by the project’s Kickstarter page, which allows supporters to ask questions about the project and allows organizers to give updates on its progress.

 ”If the tremendous support we’ve seen on the Kickstarter website and publicly and with the Durham Central Park Board and local Durham community are any indication, it’ll be very well received. When you do a project like this—and we do this kind of work professionally as well—one that’s delightful but different, they don’t breed apathy,” Lanou said. “Everyone has a reaction to it. But so far the overwhelming reaction to it has been positive, and I expect that to continue.”

Lanou said the project has been more than successful as a result of the hard work of the graduate architecture students.

“The 12 graduate students are phenomenal, the design is delightful and I think it does what they want it to do—providing a place for shade and a stage and is something that will be a beautiful building in the landscape as well,” Lanou said. “I genuinely like this project and what the students have done.”

But Lanou also said this project has not gone without several of its own challenges.

“The big challenge is always time. You’re trying to condense a project that you have a sub-plan review, the full design process, public and community review and approval, and getting the building permit all in about 11 weeks. To pull that off requires a near miracle,” Lannou said. “One of the reasons this is such a great educational experience is that rather than doing something theoretical, they are having to jump through the hoops that come along with the construction process.”

According to Cassilly , the project’s design was one of the major reasons why the project was able to progress so quickly.

“We knew [the project] would be really fast track. Normally site plan approval takes four to six months, and ours took four to six weeks, which was really good,” Cassilly said. “We specifically designed it in a way so it wouldn’t be complicated.”

The project reached its Kickstarter fundraising goal 10 days before its deadline, which is July 23. But Cassilly said the project is far from over, and more support is needed to ensure the project’s long-term success.

“One of the things we did to make the approval process go more quickly is we made it so there is no power in this structure—no lighting. We knew that going in and we put a conduit in for later, so when students were done we’d launch a second phase of the project,” Cassilly said. “That’s why we’d really like to surpass our Kickstarter fundraising goal.”