Can someone explain how to interpret this correctly?
Can someone explain how the location of the restrooms is considered "adjacent" to the tennis courts in this? Never in a million years would I have looked at that and assumed that is where they wanted to restrooms. I would also point out that they say the trees aren't to be disturbed, including from grading, but I've worked on many projects where grading occurs and no trees are disturbed because the grading occurs away from the trees. They should just say "no grading may occur" if they don't want me to consider the middle of a wide open area a viable grading option. I'm just trying to wrap my head around what their thought process is here so I can hopefully interpret it correctly on the exam if I get a similar question. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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Hi Brian,
If we cannot disturb the grades and trees, then this is a decent solution. Grades around trees cannot change more than 6" without killing the tree.
And one of the tennis courts is in the floodplain too. So that'd be destroyed or damaged if there was a flood. That's not a great solution...
Personally, I would have squeezed the restrooms right next to the parking - between the parking and the bike path. And I would put the tennis court that's currently in the floodplain where the restrooms are now. There's enough room to split the parking into 2 smaller sections and put the building in between. Does NCARB's definition of 'adjacent' mean that the user doesn't have to cross the bike path?? I think users should be entering the bike path from that 'stem' of the path connected to the street. In any case, right now they have to cross it to use the restrooms, which is not desirable.
From what I've seen of these new exams, I'd recommend using other practice exams until NCARB refines them more.
Hope this helps!
Rebekka O'Melia, R.A., NCARB, B. Arch, M. Ed, NOMA, Step UP ARE 5.0 Courses
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Rebekka,
I agree with you completely. The above image is considered the CORRECT response. I just wish they would use clearer language in their questions. "Adjacent" is fairly subjective here if they consider all of these things to be adjacent to one another. I would have never considered this an appropriate solution since I don't feel like these are close enough to fall under the definition of adjacent, however, that's totally up to interpretation.
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I hope the real test isnt like this! what a horrible question. There is no way to come up with that exact configuration in any objective way. This is yet another example of how the questions are written by older firm owner / senior staff types volunteering. It reflects their bias of "the way things should be done" in architecture.
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