Every Monday until August, first-year graduate students at the Yale School of Architecture will be blogging about their progress building an affordable, accessible owner-renter residence in New Haven. (Click here to read the first installment.) This week: the ground-breaking ceremony.

The author breaking ground with three local children. Photos: courtesy the Vlock First Year Building Project

The forecast last Saturday called for rain, but when I arrived at the site there was not a cloud to be seen. This was a lucky break for me, as I had spent the last two months coordinating and planning Yale’s first Vlock Building Project Ceremonial Ground-breaking. I saw the ground-breaking as our class’s opportunity to introduce itself to the neighbors. After all, we would be sharing very close quarters all summer. In the end, the event served a much deeper purpose—to foster mutual understanding and respect between two communities who live in the same town but rarely seize the opportunity to interact. Read more…