The Think Tank Homework

Long before this inspiring graphic was created to capture Project Blu Sky, a team came together forming an in-house Strategic Planning Committee. The goal of this team was to complete an Architect James Hanis assignment given before he left to carry out an Imagineering Project at Disneyland Paris.

Strategic Planning Committee Members: Karen Brinke, Judy Coleman, Mary Jo Dyre, Tammy Fleischer, Kelly Parker, and Ted Scott came together for the early days of taking in the development opportunity and challenges that were fueled by the December 2017 initial meeting of architect James Hanis and career educator Mary Jo Dyre that had produced a tale of two visions. Ted Scott graciously shared from his Capital Campaign Development experience as we all began to think of what might be possible. As much as we all longed to somehow attract the funds needed for such a project, we knew we had much to learn in this journey that is still evolving in the fall of 2021.

What we did not understand was all that would have to be "unlearned" as the need for yet another team presented itself: Ryan Bender, then middle school ELA teacher and Director of Drama; Karen Brinke, then Assistant Director; Cheryl Catuto, Success Coordinator; Judy Coleman, middle school Social Studies, History, and Music teacher; and

Mary Jo Dyre, then Executive Director, tackled the task of explaining in words and numbers how much space was needed and what every square foot of learning space should contain and be open to it if we were to give "our architect" the information to design a facility where education could unfold to its fullest extent, no holes barred, no limitations well into the 21st century and beyond.

Interestingly, our existing mindsets proved to be the greatest challenge. James Hanis had left me with some powerful advice: "You must throw out the but we cannot afford that mentality. I want you to think, to dream without the limitations of funding always weighing you down, limiting the very creative thoughts that are needed for such a project. Do not allow your long, lack of funding history to cause you to settle for less when fleshing out the best, the ideal, the cut-above educational environment.

That advice took some unlearning.

Over the course of the next two years, the Architect + the Educator along with a team of dedicated staff members "immersed themselves into a series of inquiries and collective conversations that captured their imagination to think of ideas that do not exist and to create a new world in changing reality through Education. This critical thought defines a meaningful platform for encouraging students to explore and engage fully in their freedom of academic research into the unknown mystery and spirit of education curriculum." From BLU SKY OBSERVATORY Facility Replacement Project.

PROJECT BLU SKY: Part 2: Architect + Artist

Within a few days of first meeting with the architect who showed up, unexpectedly to say the least, in the parking lot of The Learning Center Charter School back in December 2016, I found myself asking questions of my daughter-in-law and her parents. I hate to admit that the first question went something like this. "Is this guy for real?

I'll never forget Jennifer's response. "Jimmy Hanis is a visionary. He has a gift of 'seeing' what is possible. He has put himself behind pro-bono projects before and all have come to completion."

Then my research began in earnest. I had to know more about the creative genius behind the "sense of possibility" that took root in me during the architect + educator walk-about shared in my September 2, 2021 blog post that introduces PROJECT BLU SKY. James Hanis tells his story best.

"When I was very young, I would accompany my father, then Director of Public Works, to his office at Navy Pier in Chicago on Saturdays. He would always suggest that we tour through the Drafting Room as he described his favorite city projects that his engineering staff was currently designing for construction. As we passed each drafting table, he would ask me to select a project and drawing sheet that I would enjoy tracing as my assignment for the day.

For lunch the tradition was walking to The Art Institute of Chicago and in doing so, each selected pathway provided us with a new direction to encounter the most beautiful Twentieth-Century buildings designed by Early Modernists. These extraordinary encounters + design lessons became the "touch stone" in the formation of my life career as an Architect + Artist....

I received a Bachelor and Master of Arts in Architecture from the University of Florida, a certification from the National Counsel of Architectural Registration Board (NCARB), and Registered Architect licenses with selective states. I have worked in the offices of URS, HOK + studio-e, 3D International, City of Daytona Beach-City Architect, and Walt Disney World Imagineering. Projects have included major aviation master planning and airport terminals, civic federal courthouses; federal Naval stations; entertainment parks, and universities. Among the most well-known projects in Florida are Tampa International Airport Terminal 'F', United States Federal Courthouse Tampa, Universal Studios Islands of Adventure Orlando, Florida State University Campus Master Plan, and United States Naval Air Station - Naval Aviation Technical Training Campus Master Plan, and United States Naval Air Station - Naval Aviation Technical Training Campus Pensacola. Several projects have been recognized with national and state design awards and published in journals."

Within a few month after meeting architect James Hanis, he would head to Paris with a Disney Imagineering project. Before leaving, he shared early project planning goals and instructions that would keep a team of dedicated, strategic educators busy for months to come.

Please, follow the developing weekly story of PROJECT BLU SKY, a tale of two visions:

BLU SKY OBSERVATORY Facility Replacement Project

BLU SKY INTIATIVE to Right the Future FOR Education

PROJECT BLU SKY

Late December 2016 brought James Hanis, NCARB certified architect, to North Carolina to visit friends in Asheville and Murphy who had relocated from Florida several years before. As shared by the architect, "the drive through the Appalachian Mountains began to greatly impact one's scenes as 'a New World experience'... open to an extraordinary abstract landscape of moving cinema-graphic images."

Later in the day, Brian Rourke, longtime friend of James, proudly engaged his guest in a tour of the town of Murphy which included a stop at his grandson's school, The Learning Center Charter School. As the grandfather spoke proudly of his grandson's learning experience, the keen eyes of the visiting architect took in a campus of traditional, prefabricated modular classrooms in need of replacement. I would discover soon that questions and a vision began to surface in James Hanis' mind that would not be quietened.

By the next day, I found myself meeting the visiting architect on our school campus. Our walk-about quickly filled with passionate talk about our students, their inquiring minds, educators as skilled mentors, the quality of education and leading inspirational programs offered in spite of endless budget constraints, and what I had long recognized as my unstoppable vision "to Breathe New Life into the Center."

The architect listened, then asked his questions powerfully. "Would you like to have a new school?" I could not answer quickly enough that of course I wanted a new school, but added, "We do not have the funding."

James Hanis stayed on course as he let me know that he had already made some inquiries and well understood our financial challenges. He then added his second question. "If money were no issue, how would you do school differently?"

The next two years would be spent in "a series of inquiries and collective conversations that captured the imaginations of both architect and educator.

"My belief is the fact that architects have the responsibility to create not only for the moment,

but for future generations." James Hanis, NCARB, RA

Please, follow the developing weekly story of PROJECT BLU SKY, a tale of two visions. Both capture ideas that do not yet exist in education and both create a new world in changing reality through Education:

BLU SKY OBSERVATORY Facility Replacement Project

BLU SKY INITIATIVE to Right the Future FOR Education.