Nathan Hale High School freshman design affordable model homes
WEST ALLIS, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Students at West Allis High School drew inspiration from a famous Wisconsin architect for a school competition Friday, Feb. 16.
The inspiration was drawn from famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright -- freshman students at Nathan Hale High School were tasked with the responsibility to design affordable model homes based off the designs from the 20th century architect.
The 9th grade students began their design process at the start of the quarter.
School administrators said the students used high level skills such as math and science to make the model homes possible.
"The training wheels came off and it was go time and they did an admirable job," said Matthew Marino, 9th grade English teacher at Nathan Hale High School.
The project was all a part of the school's third annual Empathy in American Architecture Project.
The competition aimed to have students build model homes based off of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural designs.
A lot of Lloyd's homes can be seen in the Burnham Park neighborhood.
"We went to the homes we toured, and we got to talking with each other like hey, this is a really cool idea they had back in 1916, why aren’t they doing that today, why aren’t we building beautiful and affordable homes?" said Marino.
The students said they found ways to not only to make these houses affordable, but also environmentally friendly.
"Instead of paying for your electric bills, you have solar panels collecting it; instead of worrying about extra water for all the plants you have to upkeep, you have rainwater for that, and the affordable and eco-friendly insulation really helps," said Athena Wentarmini, a freshman at Nathan Hale High School.
According to Zillow.com, the average house in Wisconsin sits around $281,000.
The kids at Nathan Hale were able to build a home for far less -- "$78,000 is what we were able to list this B1 model for," said Wentarmini.
Students like 15-year-old Wentarmini said if kids can make it happen, why can't adults?
"We hope that it can kind of give families hope that high schoolers are able to solve this crisis and hopefully bring back Frank Loyd Wright architecture, because he really did have something going on," said Wentarmini.