This is an outrage

In September I started volunteering with an organization called ACE (Architects, Construction Managers, and Engineers). The organization has a mentor program that works with high school students - we (people who work in the previously mentioned fields - there's about 15 of us) meet with a group of students (about 25 or so) every two weeks through the course of a school year. They have a project that they work on - they have to choose some type of building to design. First they pick a location, then go about designing it, taking into account the mechanics, plumbing, soil, traffic - all the various engineering aspects.



We had our first meeting back from winter break tonight and I have to say these kids crack me up. The goal of tonight's meeting was to pick the location for the project (a mall with an amusement park in it - think Mall of America). Over the break the students visited one of the sites on the list they came up with at the previous meeting - and boy, did people get attached to their sites. First off, let me say that there is limitless budget for this project. Now, some of these sites were very...out there. One was St Edwards park. Another was Mercer Island - the entire island (never mind the people living on it). A third was a random site in Chehalis (picked because "dude, there's nothing else out there"). The three most viable options were the old Safeway distribution site, the Factoria mall (meaning it would be redeveloped), and 60 acres (a huge soccer field area in the Woodinville/Redmond area which isn't actually 60 acres). Trying to discuss (read: shout over each other until someone gets heard) about the pros and cons of each site went something like this (as best I can remember).



"Your site's too small"

"What are you gonna do with all the kids who want to play soccer? They're gonna be all on the side of the road, pissed that they don't have anywhere else to play"

"Dude, the farmers won't mind if we build right next to them. They're cool"

"Who wants to travel to the middle of nowhere" (said about the site in Woodinville/Redmond)

"No, seriously, think about it, the whole island would be a theme park"

- and my favorite, said by one boy under his breath somewhat jokingly after "his" site was not voted as the project site

"This is an outrage"




Wouldn't we all like to go back to a time when one of our biggest problems was the site we wanted for a project didn't get picked? I think so.