Archinect - News

Blind architect kicks off new FSU Master Lecture Series

2020-01-13T14:24:00-05:00

To kick off the inaugural Master Lecture Series put on by the Florida State University College of Fine Arts in collaboration with Florida A&M University School of Architecture and Engineering and the Tallahassee chapter of the AIA, Chris Downey will be speaking.

Downey is a San Francisco-based architect who lost his eyesight after undergoing brain surgery to remove a benign tumor that was pressing against his optic nerve back in 2008. The architect will speak on how the loss of sight gave hum a unique perspective on how people with disabilities experience the built environment, FSU writes.

Since losing his sight, Downey has been working on architectural projects for the visually impaired, combining 20 years of experience and using it as a force to triumph over this unfortunate event in his life. "When faces with a personal tragedy, rather than giving up on himself and his work, he chose to reinvent how architecture is done and experienced," said Rhonda Hammond, president of the AIA...

Bad braille signage on buildings is still an overlooked problem in the U.S., report finds

2019-07-01T14:50:00-04:00

At the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the braille was too oversized to read for the blind. When asked about this, the National Parks Service told CBS News that the braille on the memorial was "part of the artist's design of the memorial," and was "not necessarily intended as accessiblity [sic] elements" for the blind.

A CBS News investigation revealed two year's worth of complaints to the U.S. Justice Department's Disability Rights section about missing or incorrect braille found at numerous public facilities throughout the U.S. The report is but another reminder about how the needs of blind Americans still aren't being prioritized as much as they should be. An eyebrow-raising example from CBS' article is the National Park Service (quoted above) stating that the oversized braille on the FDR Memorial in Washington D.C. was more of a stylistic choice in the artist's design. Yikes.

“There's federal laws including the American Disabilities Act that was passed 30 years ago, there's the Architectural Barriers Act,” CBS News Reporter Steve Dorsey said in a radio interview on WCBS 880. “It's all about compliance and it's all about ensuring that the folks who manage buildings — even old buildings — respect the needs of our fellow Americans, hundreds of thousands of Americans, who do read braille.”

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There's more to architecture than having vision. How one man's loss is transforming perspectives

2019-01-14T16:58:00-05:00

For many architects, much of one's work depends upon the visual possibilities where space can transform. Often overlooked, many designers forget what it is like to design buildings and structures for the blind or hearing impaired. Universal accessibility and inclusive design methods are being discussed more and more within the architecture community. Educators, advocates and architects like Chris Downey use their experience and skillsets to transform the perspectives of architecture for the visually impaired.

he main lobby at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Polytrauma and Blind Rehabilitation Center in Palo Alto, Calif., one of Downey’s first major projects after he lost his sight. Photograph courtesy of John Boerger Image © ncsu.edu

In a recent 60 Minutes interview with Leslie Stahl, Downey shares with the public how the loss of his sight helped him become more aware of what it mea...

Building Voice: Visually impaired architect, Christopher Downey, lectures in Downtown Miami

2015-10-05T12:53:00-04:00

Architect Christopher Downey came to Miami to present a lecture as part of a local exhibit called Listen to This Building. The exhibit is organized Exile Books, a pop-up artist’s book store, and is meant to show the architecture of downtown Miami through the senses of touch and as stated in the title of the show, through hearing. It is believed to be the first architectural exhibit designed to address accessibility for persons with visual impairments. Downey is an architect who is visually impaired having lost his eyesight in 2008 yet continues to practice architecture in the Bay Area. His lecture, “Building Voice” is a play on words, as it can be interpreted as the acoustic characteristics of an edifice or the creation of an individual’s style.

“If you’re going to lose your eye sight, start training yourself to be an architect”, says Downey, who believes his training and the 20 years of practicing architecture before the loss has given him a set of skills (problem solving, criti...