Architecture Students Collaborate
with Adams Extract
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In the spring semester 2000, 14 third-year architecture students at The University of Texas at Austin helped the Adams Extract Company design a new manufacturing campus at Buda, Texas, south of Austin. When the plant was built in 1955, it was considered one of the finest examples of mid-century modernism in Texas. Forty-five years later, company president John G. Adams, Sr., decided to consolidate and restructure his spreading enterprise, and he called on UT Assistant Professor Steven Moore and his architecture students to help him explore the conceptual possibilities of another landmark design. The question, then, was how should Adams Extract present itself in both the local and global arena for the next 50 years? Students in the second half of their third year in the UT School of Architecture participate in what is known as the Sound Building Semester. This is a rigorous 16-week study that integrates four courses: design studio, building construction, environmental control systems, and the study of sound, color, and light. Upon completion, students are required to make a formal presentation to a panel of three faculty members who counsel them about their future in the discipline. This counseling session determines if the student is adequately prepared to move on to the advanced studio sequence in which undergraduate and graduate students work together. The Sound Building Semester is the pedagogical heart of the school's undergraduate curriculum. Professor Moore believes that the successful study of design, construction, and mechanics requires a cultural context, and his studio was devised to investigate the changing nature of industry in the United States and its relation to community. The Adams Extract Company provided an excellent subject because it was an old family-run Texas business engaged in a search for its future. To put the project in a historic context, Moore directed his students to study the 19th Century Garden Cities Movement and American industrial paternalism. 
John G. Adams, Sr., had planned to consolidate four spread-out office, manufacturing, storage, and distribution facilities into a new complex. He initially asked the School of Architecture for design assistance because he wanted to consider conceptual possibilities that were not yet clear to him or his associates. He imagined that students, unburdened by the limits of conventional practice, might help his company "think outside the box." Adams Extract is a third generation, closely held family business that has quietly expanded its vanilla extract business to include a wide variety of extracts and spices. The company also markets and distributes specialty food products by small Texas producers through a subsidiary organization, Texas Traditions. Adams Extract is both local and global in its operations. Adams Extract traces its origins to 1889 in Michigan, where pharmacist John Anderson Adams sold extracts in the harsh winter climate. He moved his family to Beeville, Texas, in 1905 to accommodate his wife's poor health. His sons Fred and Don sold the double-strength vanilla extract door to door and helped their father print labels and attach them to the bottles. In 1917, Fred Adams received the first bachelor's degree in business administration from The University of Texas. He purchased the company from his father and moved the headquarters to Austin in 1922, where he established his business near the University campus. His oldest son, John G. Adams, returned from service in World War II to join the family business, helping the company to diversify its products and strengthen its reputation for quality. He eventually became an industry leader and has served as the company president since 1971. John G. Adams, Sr., maintains that a newly designed facility will present an opportunity for the company to serve the nearby town of Buda, Texas, as well as the company itself. He charged the UT students to propose how this might be done, requesting that they help Adams Extract expand the building program to satisfy the requirements of industrial production and distribution, and at the same time to fulfill his sense of civic responsibility. 
The architecture students found the real-world context of their study to be both daunting and exciting. Daunting, because they were responsible for satisfying the needs of a client. Exciting, because they understood that their investigations might influence the construction project itself. The students were confronted for the first time with the concept of "critical practice." They had to consider and resolve the sometimes contradictory expectations of the local community, the business client, and the architectural culture. Adams Extract provided a generous stipend to the school so that students could reproduce their drawings in a professional portfolio format. In May 2000, Moore's students presented their completed proposals to 12 representatives of Adams Extract, which included executives of both the sales department and production department; Tim Aynesworth, the architect retained by Adams to complete the design; and the general contractor who would actually construct the project. Adams representatives were extremely pleased with the variety and inventiveness of the students' ideas. All the proposals offered detailed architectural designs for the manufacturing, distribution, and administration of Adams products. Many provided the company with creative siting and programmatic possibilities. Some students developed campus plans that included facilities for child care, community recreation, community meetings, and office rental space. Others focused on restoring the landscape, developing affordable housing, and creating core facilities needed by the nearby low-income community. During the presentations, architect Tim Aynesworth, a UT graduate (BArch '70), asked several times, "Are you sure these are just third year students?" He hired Jason Santeford, a member of the studio, to work with him during the summer. Santeford was delighted to participate in the further development of the project. All the participants in the Adams Extract design project, students and professionals alike, stated that the collaboration was instructive and beneficial, and enhanced the design process. Adapted from an article by Steven A. Moore,
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