A small team of students in the School of Architecture will began planning to beautify businesses between the University and downtown Baton Rouge in the next week.The Center for Planning Excellence announced last week five businesses in Old South Baton Rouge are receiving matching grants to improve the buildings and landscape in the area.The Office of Community Design and Development within the School of Architecture is helping the area through selecting architect and design students to assist the business owners.
“Our students will work with [businesses] as a client,” said Marsha Cuddeback, Office of Community Design and Development director. “Then students will take a few weeks to make some drawings.”
The group of about five students selected by Cuddeback will work with four of the businesses from March 1 until the middle of the summer, she said.
After students present proposals to the businesses, they will begin making improvements including painting, replacing old windows and looking at landscaping along the street, Cuddeback said.”I’ll be a part of something that is continuing, and I’ll see it from its birth stage,” said Jay Latiolais, architecture senior.
The experience will give architecture students the opportunity to apply course materials in real life, he said.
Latiolais said the project is special for him because he will be a part of creating an environment to improve the image of the area.
The businesses Odell S. Williams Now & Then Museum African American History, B&B Copier Sales & Service, Cheap-O-Mart, Culture Inc., and Iron Stone will receive grants worth up to $5,000.
The businesses are in the Old South area and must match dollar for dollar the CPEX grant, said Susan Ludwig, CPEX director of redevelopment, in an e-mail.
“This one-on-one assistance will be provided to help the building and business owner determine the most effective changes for the building,” Ludwig said.
Some students are paid for the project, and others are earning class credit through the Office of Development and Design, Cuddeback said.
But all the grant funds were earned through CPEX and aren’t related to the University, she said.
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Contact Joy Lukachick at [email protected]