Inspiration

Two events this past summer shaped my choice for my Senior Capstone Project. The first event was my father and brother each having strokes and losing their abilities to drive. This greatly affected their quality of life as they are now dependent on other people to get to needed destinations such as the grocery store, doctors, bank, etc. I began to think about Baton Rouge’s residential communities and our suburban sprawl which has created traffic congestion and pollution. Our way of life is very dependent on owning a car, especially with Baton Rouge’s limited mass transportation system. In addition, I found that those who were able to get around via their own vehicle, spent too much time in traffic creating stress and vehicle related expenses.
The second event which shaped my Senior Capstone Project was Hurricane Gustav and the current focus on our global energy and environment problem. I was already interested in residential solar energy prior to Hurricane Gustav …but Baton Rouge’s lengthy power outage intensified this interest. I felt that there had to be a more efficient and economic way to produce energy for our homes and businesses. Power companies are now offering grid systems that allow extra power to be stored and sold back to the power companies for profit, thus allowing individuals to produce their own energy and make money.

I became aware of smart growth communities and the "town center" concept that was springing up across the country. Digging a little further, I also became aware of a movement to create mixed residential areas through adaptive reuse of already established buildings.