Author: Jes Beals

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Maring-Hunt Community Garden Market Pavilion and Outdoor Kitchen (ongoing)

The Maring-Hunt Library Community Garden Master Plan, its improvement and expansion, and a series of Garden Pavilions and Nature Play Pockets were designed and developed as useful spaces to address food insecurity in a USDA-designated food desert, cultivate community interaction and social activity, and provide learning opportunities for the Southview Elementary School students, Maring-Hunt Library patrons, and neighborhood families. The Maring-Hunt Library Community Garden Master Plan includes a trio of pavilions developed around a large community garden overseen by the Library. 1. The Gateway to Growing Gardeners’ Pavilion, which provides shade, seating, tool storage, and accessible garden beds, and a sand and water Nature Play Pocket was designed and built by students in a spring and summer 2017 immersive learning studio. 2. A Market Pavilion to house a community market and an outdoor learning space for the Great Achievers is currently under construction by students in a fall semester 2017 community build studio. A small separate outdoor kitchen and food preparation demonstration area is also a part of this project. 3. A fenced-in Educational Pavilion and children’s garden will be developed and used by Southview Elementary students in the future. This expansive greenspace with its pavilions, gardens, paths, bio-swale, and nature play pockets is being developed as an anchor in the Thomas Park/ Avondale and South Central Neighborhoods, and will turn an eyesore, a dilapidated exercise track and athletic field alongside an active railway line, into an asset motivating children and families to get outdoors and learn and engage in healthy activity together.

Spring 2018 Semester

Faculty Mentor: Pam Harwood
Department: Architecture
Community Partners: Maring-Hunt Public Library, Community Gardeners, Southview Elementary School, Thomas Park/Avondale Neighborhood Association
Students: Zach Benge, Drew Fairchild, Rosie Hamilton, Adam Horkay, Tyler Kennedy, Daniel Klemen, Scott Manners, Austin Obermeyer, Zach Rooker, Riley Sandel, Benjamin Sass, Landon Underwood, Payne Wagner, Drew Weyer

Summer/Fall 2017 Semester

Faculty Mentor: Pam Harwood
Department: Architecture
Community Partners: Maring-Hunt Public Library, Community Gardeners, Southview Elementary School, Thomas Park/Avondale Neighborhood Association
Students: Max Bainbridge, Zach Benge, Brian Bracht, Tyler Bracht, Jacob Burris, Schyler Cerqueira, Myrisha Colston, Jamie Craine, Hunter Crews, Alex DeKemper, Jordan Duke, Drew Fairchild, Michaela Greene, Rosie Hamilton, Shelby Harris, Ali Hartweck, Adam Horkay, Joshua Markiewicz, Emma Ocken, Jennifer Pease, Zach Rooker, Riley Sandel, Payne Wagner, Drew Weyer

Spring 2017 Semester

Faculty Mentor: Pam Harwood
Department: Architecture
Community Partners: Maring-Hunt Public Library, Community Gardeners, Southview Elementary School, Thomas Park/Avondale Neighborhood Association
Students: Leslie Adriance, Lidia A-wan, Trevor Bauer, Courtney Castleman, Aliyah Clark, Christina Cope, Connor Crane, Seth Crussel, Nicholas Entrekin, Ellie Flaherty, Ryan Johnston, Bryan Kline, Emma Mappes, Linsey Stoy, Derek Tulowitzky

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Solar Start Project

Students engaged in the design and procurement process needed to install a 5 KW solar panel system and then monitored and analyzed the system’s performance after installation was complete. This partnership, which involves the Islamic Center of Muncie and an electrical contractor, will capitalize on increasing awareness for renewable solar energy on campus and in the Muncie community.

Faculty Mentor: Sherif Attallah
Department: Construction Management and Interior Design
Community Partner: Islamic Center of Muncie
Students: Kyle Alcaraz, Jeff Gasper, Grant King, David Kosciulek, Hanbit Lee, Thomas Steussy-Williams, Brandon Watson, Darian Wiley, Ross Williams, Kevin Zielinski

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Second Harvest Survey 2018

The survey of clients in the surrounding eight counties has been requested by Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana. The goal is to provide data similar to that from a now-discontinued survey conducted by Feeding America. The Feeding America survey was conducted every four (4) years and the data it provided was used by Second Harvest for purposes such as (but not necessarily limited to) promotional outreach material and grant proposals. It is hoped that this proposed survey will fill the information void left and bring new communities stories to light.

Faculty Mentor: Melinda Messineo
Department: Sociology
Community Partner: Second Harvest Food Bank
Students: Victor Boggs, Rachael Finchum, Dorothy Forster, Alli Goins, Sam Halter, Samaria Hamilton, Katarina Johnson, Samuel Johnson, Danae King, Catina Mccord, Jessy Menker, Peter Moskalew, Olivia Power, Jenny Schultz, Daphne Scott, Iynsey Shockley, Darren Svitko

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Reimagining Muncie’s Foodshed

Indiana is an agricultural state with the value of agricultural products sold in excess of $11 billion. Then, why do we still have hungry people in our backyard? Like many Rust Belt regions of the country, East Central Indiana (ECI) experienced a slower recovery from the 2008 economic downturn. Once a reliable choice, careers in car and industrial manufacturing have been severely limited. ECI counties show some of Indiana’s highest poverty and unemployment levels. As well, nearly 17% of ECI residents and 25% of children are food insecure. How can we help local farmers expand their share in the food market AND help feed hungry people in our communities? These issues are complex and multi-faceted. In this project, students explored the issues surrounding food insecurity and methods of developing sustainable food systems in Muncie and East Central Indiana. We explored ways to best serve our community and empower a resilient and sustainable food-based economic engine that has the capacity to provide fresh, healthy foods to its residents.

Faculty Mentor: Josh Gruver
Department: Natural Resources and Environmental Management
Community Partner: Muncie Food Hub Partnership, Edible Muncie, Urban Garden Coalition, Ball State Student Farm
Students: Kaitlin Carroll, Libonique Chandler, Kristina Chier, Praphulla Devanapally, Abby Fischer, Dylan Ford, Maryssa Gosnell, Rachael Hanley, Paige Jones, Mitch Kaverman, Kami Kleefisch, Kate Koenig, Tyler Mulhall, Garrett Mullins, Hunter Phillips, Preeti Samra, Caroline Tegeler, Taylor Wilson, Nora Zaher

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Ross Community Center Renovations and Baseball Fields

The Ross Community Center, located at 1110 W 10th St in Muncie, has seen some major renovations in the past year. June 2nd marked the grand opening of the new Ross Center baseball fields. The development includes youth baseball and softball fields, and other recreational facilities for the surrounding communities. The land for the baseball fields were paid for by a grant funded by the Ball Brothers Foundation and a donation from the Vectren Foundation. The anticipation of the fields sparked many other transformations at the center. Most recently, volunteers from Lowe’s worked on the construction of 10 pergolas, mural paintings on the building, painting of new picnic tables, and the construction of a stage with future plans of building an amphitheater. Lowe’s donated $2,500 in materials and two days of labor to the community center. The community center hopes that these renovations will help to revitalize the surrounding Thomas/Avondale neighborhood and bring more economic development opportunities to the area.

Photos provided by the Ross Center Facebook Page:

Photos provided by Heather Williams:

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Muncie Historic Preservation Plan

“In 2015, the City of Muncie Historic Preservation and Rehabilitation Commission (MHPRC) initiated a partnership with the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation in the College of Architecture and Planning at Ball State University to develop a comprehensive and citywide Historic Preservation Plan. The Plan’s purpose was to review the City’s historic preservation program and recommend action steps to strenthen and prioritize the program. Through a series of community meetings, a public input survey, studying best practices in other cities, and utilizing an updated historic resource survey, the Ball State students developed a plan that was then further edited by the MHPRC to meet Muncie’s needs.”

Check out the Muncie Historic Preservation Plan!

Web Friendly Version (pdf)
High Resolution Version (pdf)