Later studio locations reflected diverse partnerships

MUDS closed its studio in 1986 so the College of Architecture and Planning's Community Based Projects (CBP) program--CAP's public service entity under which MUDS operates--could focus on its role as designer for venues of the 1987 Pan Am Games. It re-established itself in the Muncie community in mid-1988 with a new focus on affordable housing, one that continues to drive much of the studio's current activities. To reinforce this neighborhood focus and to respond to a timely invitation by Alice McIntosh-Kelly, executive director of the Industry Neighborhood Council (INC), MUDS operated out of the INC offices at First and Grant Streets, thus allowing the studio to relate directly to the neighborhood it was serving. The unique neighborhood-based partnership that included the Muncie Department of Community Development, Ivy Tech, and MUDS, built two prototype affordable houses, rehabilitated several others, and implemented a street-tree replacement demonstrated program.

This partnership continued through 1992, when MUDS expanded its involvement in affordable housing in Muncie after its role as a primary consultant to the Muncie Urban Enterprise Association (UEA) Strategic Plan '91 and the establishment of the Muncie Home Ownership and Development Center (Home Center). Both of these activities were funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. and proved to be the start of one of the most successful "town-gown" partnerships that continues to this day. Costello selected the first-floor space of a turn-of-the-century building owned by local businessman and civic leader Martin Schwartz at 628 South Walnut Street for the Home Center--which 10 years later would become the first permanent home for MUDS--because, as he states: "It was as near a perfect location as one could find for the center; near, but not in, downtown and not in any one neighborhood. It was on ‘neutral turf,' a condition that I believe is critical for a community-based studio."

MUDS shared the 628 South Walnut address and facility with the Home Center in what has become one of its most successful and recognized community-university partnerships in Muncie. This "town-gown" cooperative effort has conducted numerous activities associated with the partnership's program in developing affordable housing prototypes and the Blaine "Mini-Neighborhood" Project. Two national awards from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and selection of the MUDS prototype for inclusion in Design Matters (University of Illinois at Chicago's City Center, 2000), the first Internet catalog of outstanding affordable housing projects constructed in the United States in the past 20 years, have brought the studio national recognition.

In addition to the UEA, this partnership added the Muncie Area Career Center (MACC) in 1994 through which students in the building trades program at the vocational school build one of the MUDS-designed homes every year. MACC instructor Paul Campbell was instrumental in initiating and guiding this program during its first seven years and has continued to work with instructor Lynn Waters since his "semi-retirement" in 2001. Last June, the ninth "High School House" was completed and sold through the Home Center. In 2002 the MACC awarded the studio one of two Outstanding Business Partnership Awards in recognition of its contributions to vocational education in the building trades.

In 1996 MUDS followed the Home Center to a newly renovated "storefront" facility at 206 South Walnut Street--almost directly across from its original location at 209 South Walnut--and worked out of there until 1998, when the center moved with the UEA offices that had been consolidated with other downtown development entities. Fortunately for MUDS, Mr. Schwartz had not been able to find someone to lease the space at 628 South Walnut after the Home Center vacated it, and he offered it for use by MUDS. The major event to take place out of the studio that year was the Munsyana Charrette, held in early November. In addition, the varied activities associated with MUDS' critical three-plus years of leadership, procurement of zoning variances, public education, and conceptual planning associated with the preservation and adaptive reuse of the Historic Wilson School project also took place there until late 1999, when Mr. Schwartz decided to put the building up for sale and the studio ceased to have a physical presence in the community. However, MUDS would soon find a permanent home.

Next: Studio opens its first permanent facility