Cohousing-L Mailing List: Bulletin boards and common house design

[Bob Morrison (morrison]

  I have a thought about common house design.
  If you have a bulletin board, which I assume most common houses do, there
should be enough space in front of it so that people can stand and read the
notices without blocking traffic. In the design phase, groups should decide
where they want to put the bulletin board and ask the architect to design in
plenty of standing room in front of it.   
  This may seem obvious, but it apparently isn't to some architects. In the
town where I live, the town hall was rebuilt about 20 years ago and the 
main entrance is in the new section. The bulletin board is located such that
all people entering the building must walk past it. This is an ideal location
in terms of visibility, but there is not enough space for people to stand
in front of the board and read it. When they do so, they block traffic. This
is a major nuisance both for people reading the board and people trying to 
pass by. A serious design error, and prohibitively expensive to fix, so we 
will probably have to live with it for another decade or two.
  I should mention that I live in the frost belt, so am assuming the bulletin
board for the common house would be inside. I realize that outdoor bulletin
boards are an alternative in a warm, dry climate.

Bob Morrison

Home: Boxboro, MA               Work: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton, MA