Kevin Symons
Kevin Symons is a graduate of Illinois School for the Deaf and NTID/RIT and has provided Mackey Mitchell Architects over 10 years of critical programming and design insight with projects integrating DeafSpace concepts. His innovative design ideas facing current trends and methodologies in Deaf Education are informed by his years of service on boards and committees of multiple Deaf institutions, guest appearances educating Deaf students about architecture, and involvement within the Deaf community. After migrating from a mainstreamed program to a Deaf school in his youth, and currently as a parent of a child with low-vision and autism, Kevin brings first-hand knowledge of the critical role a sensory-balanced learning environment plays in a student’s growth to achieve academic and social potential.
Presentation
Evolution of Deaf Residential Life Design
Deaf schools across the country have served as residential campuses for almost two centuries, and we’ve seen an evolution of residence life from an institutional setting to various qualities of modern living and trends that make up campus student life. We at Mackey Mitchell have designed residence halls at numerous Higher-Ed institutions for first-year students who are living away from home for the first time, or the independent lifestyles of a fourth- or fifth-year student, and understand the social impact that comes as a result of design. Additionally, we have designed various projects at different Deaf school campuses. In this presentation, I will visit the cross-pollination between both experiences and compare similarities of the design and social impact between a postsecondary campus and a residential Deaf campus.
Symons, K NSLDHH_EvolutionDeafResLife.pdf