In the fall of 1999, three exceptionally bright & motivated 5th year undergraduate architecture students at Drury University wanted to build. To that end, they proposed and orchestrated what became the 2nd successful, full-scale design-build project in the Hammons School of Architecture. Their studio professor was Alkis Tsolakis.
Henri Foch, John Kleman and Jay Reeves spent their last semester designing and building a two-building complex 25 miles from the school, as well as spending the semester following graduation finishing it for their portfolios.
Designed for a ceramic artist, the building is a gallery, with an adjacent building for office work, exhibition preparation and photographing the work. It was dedicated in October 2000.
One early step was finding a client with a project idea, resources to purchase materials, and time to help build. They created a flier and circulated it via campus mail to all faculty.