What happened
in Vegas…
NAHB Design Committee Chairperson, Sanford Steinberg (left)
presents the 2014 BALA Live Design Award to AIBD members, Kevin Holdridge and
Chuck Harrison.
Harrison, Holdridge, win
BALA Live Design.
AIBD members
Chuck Harrison (PA) and Kevin Holdridge (NC) teamed up to design an award
winning home for one of our wounded warriors, Army Sgt. Joseph Garbianowski.
Sgt. Garbianowski is a war veteran in his mid-twenties and is missing both legs
and half of his pelvis. He requires a wheelchair 100% of the time. He has also
been diagnosed with a severe traumatic brain injury that can periodically
affect his hearing. He likes sky-diving and had done it once already. Using
this information, Kevin and Chuck designed a highly accessible floor plan with
creative connections to the outdoors and a huge open Great Room with a soaring
ceiling. In the ceiling, they designed space to suspend an old Army T-11
parachute for nostalgia and to help with the acoustics in the large space.
Along with the normal amenities in a 3-bedroom, 2-bath home with a 2-car garage
and study, Chuck and Kevin squeezed in two prominent display areas for Sgt.
Garbianowski’s career memorabilia. Both the IBS attendees and the panel of
judges agreed their entry was the winning design. And, the jury felt, “Even
though their design included all the necessary handicap elements, it didn’t
seem to be a home designed for someone who has handicaps.”
