Minneapolis, MN, November 12, 2019 -- Building on the perspective gained from designing the new Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Connecticut, architect Julia McFadden, AIA, has been spreading the message of how community-wide trauma can be addressed through community engagement and participatory design for the creation of thoughtful, multi-layered places.   

Tomorrow McFadden, associate principal with architecture, art, and advisory firm Svigals + Partners, travels to her home state of Minnesota to address this topic at the annual conference of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Minnesota chapter. McFadden joins her co-collaborators on the runner-up design for the Sandy Hook Memorial: Teri Kwant, experience designer and head of RSP Dreambox, and Joan MacLeod, principal of DF/Damon Farber Landscape Architects. The three will lead a panel discussion on the topic of “Trauma-Informed Design,” each accompanied by their respective clients from impacted communities. 

“At the heart of our work is creating prosperous, compassionate communities,” says McFadden. “The challenging experience of creating a new school for the people in Newtown took several years and we became very close with the town's leaders and affected families and residents. The process revealed that we can be present for each other and utilize the sharing of experiences to shape a vision of restorative places.”   

Since the opening of the new Sandy Hook School, architects at Svigals + Partners have led the design of a Botanical Garden of Healing dedicated to victims of gun violence in New Haven, Conn., where the firm is headquartered. The client for the memorial is a group of concerned mothers and one of those — Marlene Miller Pratt, an educator who leads the group — will join the Minneapolis panel discussion to share her experiences with trauma, and with the design process to promote individual and community recovery and resilience. 

The AIA Minnesota conference represents the latest effort by McFadden to share widely her valuable expertise in this sensitive area of design. In August, she spoke to a large audience in Chattanooga, Tenn., on how to design schools that balance safety with a nurturing, inspiring learning environment. More recently she helped lead a workshop for AIA-New York on “Participatory Design,” addressing approaches to complex public projects with multiple stakeholders.

Details on the program at AIA Minnesota follow below. For interviews with McFadden or anything additional, please contact C.C. Sullivan.

WHAT: 
Presentation, " Trauma Informed Design: A Discussion on Environmental  and Community Resiliency”
WHERE:
The Minnesota Conference on Architecture, Minneapolis Convention Center
WHEN:
Wednesday, November 13, 2:30 - 4:00pm
WHO:
Julia McFadden, AIA, associate principal, Svigals + Partners
Teri Kwant, associate principal, RSP Architects
Joan MacLeod, principal, DF/Damon Farber Landscape Architects
with: Marlene Miller-Pratt, NBCT; Katie Lindenfelser, Dannell Shu, and Sarah Super, M.Ed.

For working press, [email protected]

This session will focus on the experience of three panelists who have worked at the intersection of architecture and traumatic human experiences, creating spaces and places for communities and people to heal and work and remember. The leaders will define trauma, the ways it can impact a design process, and outcomes. The program will also explore how the design process itself can promote physical, mental, and social health, leading to design that can ensure physical safety from harm and danger, and can support mental health. Following an introductory presentation, attendees will engage in a series of roundtable inquiries that will identify things we can do to create environments of learning, healing, working, and remembering in our practices of design