Correspondence

West Dean College Gardens Visitor’s Center – Arches in load bearing walls: Forwarding two sketches of arched walls and requesting feedback regarding the dimensions

16/02/1995

Design Matters, Request for Feedback

Sender:

John Hewitt, Unicorn Consultancy Services Limited, Portsmouth, Hampshire, U.K.

Recipient:

Christopher Alexander, Center for Environmental Structure , Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Medium:

Fax

References

Projects

West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center 1994 to 1996

Near Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.

Civic, Realized , Construction completed in Nov. 1995

Client:

Edward James Foundation

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander, John Hewitt, students from "The Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture", students from Portsmouth University

Contractor:

Center for Environmetal Structure, as Management Contractor and General Contractor of record, with John Hewitt as Project Manager

Project stages:

Layout on the site by clients and C.E.S. Use of full scale mock-ups Design Development and Building Permit drawings done after layout Direct construction management and on-site design decisions Budget and subcontractors under C.E.S. control Innovativ

The West Dean Center is a simple one-story masonry building with a large red-tiled roof and intricate brickwork for its thick walls. The building is surrounded by gardens, and its south facing wall has large arched windows overlooking the garden ...