A team of 12 architecture undergraduate and graduate students under the direction of Associate Professor Frank Flury helped to restore a beloved tradition in the art community. In partnership with the Ragdale Foundation, the group rebuilt the foundation’s Meadow Studio for its artist residency program. Built in 1943 in Lake Forest, Ill., the studio is part of Ragdale House, Arts and Crafts architect Howard Van Doren Shaw’s country estate, and was constructed for use by his daughter, Sylvia Shaw Judson, a sculptor. Ragdale House and its studio were made into an artist’s colony in 1976.
Over the years, the condition of the studio had deteriorated and the studio was closed in 2003. The foundation received donations to rebuild the studio and approached Flury about the project. In a statement issued by the Ragdale Foundation, Executive Director Susan Tillett said that “Ragdale’s donors, board, and staff agreed that it would be appropriate to honor Shaw’s work on Ragdale as a young architect as well as the foundation’s mission of ‘creating important new work’ by engaging a group of young architects to design and build a new structure.” As part of the multi-stage project, students conducted research, developed and presented individual designs, and dismantled the original structure. The studio project was completed in spring 2009.