The Burton Center - Project Overview

The Burton Center is an organization that provides services to persons with disabilities and special needs. The Center serves a five-county region and is based in Greenwood, S.C. Led by its board of directors, the Center fosters a spirit of respect and dignity, helping each individual to reach his/her full potential through the provision of support and training services.

After relocating to a new site after nearly 22 years of service, the Burton Center engaged the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture at Clemson University to help create a vision for their new facility. At the Center’s new home there would be opportunities for service expansion. The new site would need to be transitioned from a light manufacturing plant to a new campus for the Burton Center, composed of outdoor recreational spaces and learning environments. 

Purpose

The vision articulated for the Center was to create “a place of fun, healthy activity.” The new grounds of the Center would provide opportunities for both active and passive recreation to meet the needs and abilities of all members of the Burton Center family and the greater Greenwood community. Active recreational opportunities might include softball, gardening, picnicking, fishing, walking and wheeling. Passive activities for quiet times with family and friends would also be important to incorporate. The anticipated outcome would be a park-like atmosphere that would be “truly inclusive for people of all abilities.”

Student Learning Opportunity

The project provided a twofold benefit for students. They would learn about landscape design while also gaining firsthand knowledge about the challenges faced by people living with disabilities. They were able to identify strategies for addressing those difficulties by providing solutions through the design process that would enrich the daily lives of Center participants. 

Design Process

The process incorporated two design studios. Held concurrently, one studio was led by professor Cari Geotcheus whose group of ten first-year graduate students assumed responsibility for design of the Center’s immediate surroundings. The building would need to provide appropriate access and become a welcoming place for their entire community. The other design studio was composed of undergraduate and graduate students who teamed up to create master plan designs for the full 80 acre site. Under the direction of Mary Beth McCubbin, the group consulted Lynne Cory from Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management and Grant Cunningham from Planning on the requirements for adaptive physical activity and planning for public parks. This interdisciplinary approach greatly enhanced the project and its eventual outcome.

A three-phased approach was applied that included meeting with the Burton Center leadership and identifying key parameters for the project. The second phase incorporated an analysis of the site to identify the physical attributes of the property. In phase three, the students formulated their design plans. Burton Center leadership and staff played an important role in critiquing the designs and offering input, which guided the students to their final design plans.

Implementation of the plan is underway.  A “Miracle Field” ball park is in place and construction of trails has begun.


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