The Community Design Assistance Center, a center of Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture and Urban Studies, is beginning work on a master site plan for Cornerstone Community Church’s new facility on 18 acres in Carroll County near Galax, Va.

Fifth-year landscape architecture students Matt Landes, of Palmyra, Penn., and Tim Walters, of Arlington, Va., have been hired by the center to work on the project. The students and staff at the center will be working closely with church representatives to develop a conceptual master plan for the church’s site. Adjacent landowners will also be engaged in the design process. Possible features of the site, in addition to the church itself and plantings, will include walking trails, an amphitheatre, a playground, camping sites, a location for showing movies outside, bus parking, recreational fields, covered picnic shelters, a skate park, and a climbing wall.

The Community Design Assistance Center assists communities, neighborhood groups, and non-profit organizations in improving the natural and built environments through design, planning, policy, and research. Through the integration of the learning and working environments, the center executes projects that link instruction and research, and shares its knowledge base with the public.

The College of Architecture and Urban Studies is one of the largest of its type in the nation. The college is composed of two schools and the departments of landscape architecture, building construction, and art and art history. The School of Architecture + Design includes programs in architecture, industrial design and interior design. The School of Public and International Affairs includes programs in urban affairs and planning, public administration and policy, and government and international affairs. The college enrolls more than 2,000 students offering 25 degrees taught by 160 faculty members.

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