EMI, India, Faith Academy

I had the privilage of volunteering with a team of architects and engineers organized by Engineering Ministries International's (http://emiworld.org) India office.  The project manager, Andy, pulled together a combination of EMI staff, past EMI volunteers, and an old architect missionary from Washington state :). The design challenge was to develop site master plan, and building floor plan concepts for an 850 student K-10 English based school (Faith Academy) within one week; the school will be located near Children of Faith Ministries Orphanage, outside of Visakhatpatnam, India (Visag for short). I have writeen a separate post with photos on Children of Faith, and the incredible founders/hosts, Anand and Rosie Thandu. The design team consisted of two licensed architects; yours truly, and Tanisha, an architect from Bangalor who recently joined the EMI India office staff (like the day before our site visit to Visag); an EMI architect intern, Nou, from the USA; a second architect intern who is contemplating becoming an EMI intern, Julian Raxam, from Assam, India who connected with me through this blog last January; an EMI engineer intern, Shelby, from the USA; a civil engineer volunteer and former EMI intern Ryan Woodson from the USA; a civil engineer PE volunteer, water specialist and form EMI intern Alex Schmidt, also from the USA; and finally, Andy, civil engineer/structural emphasis, EMI India office director and project manager for this design. Following are some photos of the team in action (or just having fun).