Guide Dogs for the Blind plans to expand Oregon campus

Guide Dogs for the Blind operates two campuses — one in San Rafael, California, and one in Boring, Oregon. The nonprofit raises and trains dogs to work with people experiencing vision loss and provides a variety of programs for the humans who will one day partner with them. Plans are underway to expand GDB’s Boring campus through a new community hub, which would double the number of clients the organization can serve in Oregon.

Susan Armstrong is vice president of client programs for GDB. George Miers is a partner at Studio Miers | Chou | Poon, which designed the new facility. They both join us to talk more about the expansion and what it takes to design a facility with senses other than vision in mind.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Guide Dogs for the Blind operates two campuses, one in San Rafael, California, and the other in Boring, Oregon. The nonprofit raises and trains dogs to work with people with vision loss and offers a variety of programs so those humans can best take advantage of the services their canines will provide. The group is embarking on big plans now to double the number of clients that can serve in Oregon through an expanded campus, including a new community hub. Susan Armstrong is vice president of client programs for the nonprofit. George Miers is a partner at the architecture firm Studio Miers｜Chou｜Poon, which is designing the new facility. They both join me now. It’s great to have both of you on Think Out Loud.

George Miers: Thank you for having us.

Susan Armstrong: Thank you so much for having us.

Miller: Susan, can you give us a sense for the various services that you offer at your campus?

Armstrong: Absolutely. So, again, we’ve been around since 1942 and so one of our main programs, of course, is our guide dog program. So matching guide dogs with people with visual impairments for mobility. And since our inception and really over the last 10 to 15 years, we’ve really expanded the programs that we have, and one of those is our orientation and mobility programs. So for those people that don’t quite have the skills yet to work with a guide dog and need them, we are offering those skills. In addition, we have a canine buddy program which matches companion dogs with people with visual impairments, adults and kids, with a canine buddy dog.

Miller: What kinds of skills would people need before they could actually use a guide dog?

Armstrong: Yeah, that’s a great question. I think a lot of people think that the guide dog is the one directing the person where to go, but it’s the opposite. And so a person that has a guide dog needs to be aware of their environment. They need to know how to navigate where they are in space. So practically speaking, if you want to get from your house to work, you have to know how to navigate that with a mobility tool, and most people start with a cane. And so they need to know how many blocks it is to their work and how do they get there and how do they use cues in their environments, such as hearing, to know where they are in space, when it’s safe to cross the street. All of those things need to be done before they can come in for a guide dog.

Miller: Can you give us an example of what that basic orientation and mobility training, one of the lessons that somebody might be given?

Armstrong: Yeah, that’s such a great question, Dave. It would start with how do you use a cane, right? So there’s a cane and there’s a way to use that in space to cover the space that’s in front of you. So one of the first things you need to learn is, how do you clear the environment so that you know where you’re stepping is safe. Another skill might be, how do you use traffic sounds if you’re at an intersection to determine when it’s safe to cross? What do those vehicles sound like when they’re stopped, how do they sound when they’re going forward, and how can you determine which direction you’re going based on those traffic noises?

Miller: What factors might play into a person’s decision to come to you and to try to get a guide dog?

Armstrong: Well, a lot of different things. So I’ll answer it a little bit in two parts. First of all, some people, we have a really critical shortage of professionals who can teach orientation, mobility skills in this country. It’s been happening over time and so that space is the one we’re trying to fill with our orientation mobility program. So sometimes people are just wondering some basic skills as far as how they can navigate their environment. I think that once you navigate your environment, using a cane, the cane finds obstacles and then you go around them, and a dog really goes around obstacles and it’s a smoother way of travel for some people. So they might decide to get a dog for that reason.

And of course, having a dog, we always say, is a social bridge. People don’t tend to ask you about your cane or talk to your cane, but if you have a dog with you, they’re more likely to come up to you, and I think that there is a lot of misunderstanding about disabilities and blindness in general and that can be isolating for people. So having a dog can really make a bridge for them to have a more inclusive life. They have more people involved in their community. So that’s one of the other reasons that people get guide dogs.

Miller: Why did you seek an expansion for your complex in Boring?

Armstrong: So one of the main reasons that we are thinking about an expansion and doing this new project is that we want to serve more clients. And I’ll refer back to what I said before about there’s a critical shortage of services available for people that are blind. And so this new state-of-the-art complex is going to, we’re going to more than double the number of clients that we can serve at any given time. Right now we have six rooms and we’re moving to 14. And so that really was one of our main goals of this project. And I also think the other part is that we wanted to build a space that draws the community in. I think when we first built this campus, I think it was a training campus for dogs and for people, and over time we’ve learned a lot about inclusion and community, and we want to build a space that the community wants to come and for people to see what’s really possible.

Miller: As I mentioned, George Miers is here as well, partner at the Studio Miers｜Chou｜Poon, which has designed this new space. My understanding, George, is that your background is more in designing buildings where there’s some kind of animal presence than say in designing buildings for people who are dealing with vision issues. How did you get into the world of designing facilities with animals in mind?

Miers: Well, you don’t have enough time for me to totally get into that, but uh...

Miller: What about the short-ish version of that?

Miers: The short answer is, I actually did a chimpanzee exhibit with Jane Goodall very early in my career when I was doing civic buildings, and that kind of launched me in the direction of animal care facilities. But, to follow up on part of your question where you said most of the experience has been with animal care, you’re absolutely correct. Although we’re doing several facilities for the blind right now across the country, we initially ‒ well, not initially, I mean currently ‒ were brought in and are currently working with a wonderful architect. He’s a blind architect. I think he’s the only one around. He was a practicing architect for about 20 years, and then he lost his vision. His name is Chris Downing, and he has been a really instrumental part of the team to help us kind of guide through how to develop this particular facility that is really based as much on the other senses of sound and smell and touch and to develop really some unique wayfinding opportunities through the facility.

Miller: Let’s take those different senses one by one from a designer’s perspective, starting with sound. How do you build or design a new building for people, say, who are blind or have serious visual problems with sound in mind?

Miers: Well, there’s many aspects to that. I will say we have a world-renowned acoustical engineer, Arup, that’s on our team as an acoustical engineer. And one of the interesting design challenges is when to eliminate all sound, because many of the clients, their sense of sound is much more heightened since they have lost their sight or their sight has been changing over time. And so, for example, the rooms they stay in, we’ve gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that the sound transfer that you often have in hotel rooms, for example, is eliminated between rooms.

At the same time, one of the things we’ve learned through the meetings with the client users ‒ and I do want to say that they’ve been a very key part of the evolution of this design, the actual users themselves ‒ is that loneliness plays into a large part of their experience at the facility. So excluding all sounds can actually be a negative element. So there’s been an interesting challenge of when to be able to hear activity going on and when you want to exclude it.

But for example, things like maybe introducing the sound of water in a small fountain that identifies a crossroads or changing materials on the floor so that as you walk, you know the sound has changed because the material has changed and you know you’re at an intersection, perhaps where a door is. So, design features like that where you’re basically guiding people through the facility, but in a much different way than with signs, for example.

Miller: Susan, how much were you able to involve your clients in the design process that George is talking about?

Armstrong: It’s one of the things we’re most proud of about this project and actually your first guest talked about ensuring that you are involving the community that you’re designing for in the design process. So right from the very beginning, so concept. At the concept point we did surveys, we’ve done focus groups, small and large. We have used tactile maps to send to our clients around the country to look at different design options. We have really involved clients from the first moment of the project, and we really believe that the design that we’ve come up with, and George has come up with, is driven by client input and what we heard from them.

Miller: George, you mentioned that one of the architects on your team, Chris Downing, is blind. What kind of feedback did you get from him as you were designing this building?

Miers: Well, it’s interesting because he, I want to stress, he was a very talented practicing architect in San Francisco. And so, he not only has, I think, insights into how a person that has lost his sight maneuvers through a building, but he’s also a very good architect. But specifically, in regards to kind of the unique input he has; take a stair and then the location of a stair. Most of us, we, with our eyes, we look around and we can either see the stair, or we find a sign that tells you that you go to the stair, and how you approach the stair is maybe not of particular importance because you know where you’re going. That’s not true with people who have lost their vision.

So just the way you approach the stairs, so you minimize the number of turns or it’s more logical on how you would find and move through a space to find, whether it’s a stair or quite frankly, a door, is something that he’s really been very, very helpful on. He can actually draw. We actually, as we develop our floor plans, we sent him digital copies that are sort of braille drawings that he translates. He has a very unique way of reading them and doing overlays on them that he sends us, and it’s really been a very, very, interesting and unique interaction with him.

Miller: If I remember correctly, when you were talking about the different senses that you are trying to think about and design for in in new ways in your own practice, you mentioned sound, which we’ve talked about, and touch, tactile things like different floor surfaces, for example, but did you also mention smell?

Miers: Yes, your sense of smell, as I have learned ‒ I mean, this is a learning experience for all of us ‒ all of the senses really do become heightened or let’s say, certainly with different people. Chris Downing gave us a very, I thought, an interesting example of the location of, let’s say, a kitchen or a cafe or things like that. You often will want to put maybe the kitchen in a corner, or you’d want it behind a door and you’re focusing on where people sit. But he brought up the idea that the aroma of coffee was oftentimes a real important cue as to where the kitchen was. And so rather than hide it, we bring it out and locate that in a particular location because it’s a point of identification. I mean, just to give an example of something that’s, I think, typically thought of maybe as thinking outside the box.

Miller: Susan, what aspect of the new building are you most excited about?

Armstrong: Oh goodness, it’s hard to choose just one, but I think that all of the work that’s gone into the design and how it’s going to bring our clients and the community together is one of the most exciting things for me. I think one of the things we haven’t mentioned is that there’s going to be 20,000 square feet of outdoor space for training opportunities and events. I think that when I think about when this is completed and having the community come and our clients moving through the building, that is the part that really inspires me and also that we are going to be able to serve more clients.

That to me is our core mission and what we’re here to do and for us to be able to build something for them is wonderful. And I think one of the things I just wanted to mention that we’re really proud of in this space is we’re going to have a dedicated puppy raiser entrance. When puppy raisers bring back their dogs for training, that’s kind of a hard time for them, and so we’re building a space for them as well.

Miller: Susan Armstrong and George Miers, thanks very much.

Miers: Thank you.

Armstrong: Thank you.

Miller: Susan Armstrong is vice president of client programs for Guide Dogs for the blind. George Miers is a partner at Studio Miers｜Chou｜Poon, the architecture firm that is designing the major expansion for the Oregon outpost of this nonprofit.

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