



High Cotton Homeless Facility and Community Development
High Cotton is a development center for the homeless in Lubbock, Texas. In 2013, the City of Lubbock cleared homeless individuals from the City Library’s downtown branch and removed an informal tent city from a downtown park. The homeless moved to a nearby abandoned cotton gin, instantly resulting in a homeless center, and put up tents on the property. Link Ministries, a not-for-profit organization focused on youth sports, became the default landlord for “tent city” by virtue of owning land near downtown Lubbock. Link Ministries sought the assistance of David Driskill and Urban Tech* to help. Drawing upon experience with the Arts Community in establishment of the Louise H Underwood Center for the Arts, Driskill followed a similar process of community engagement to address the issues of homelessness.
Driskill organized local officials and service providers to establish the needs and priorities for the project. A research trip to Haven for Hope in San Antonio, TX to meet with their peers and tour turned out to be invaluable. Haven for Hope represents the best in existing facilities with a focus on providing critical social services to help homeless become self-sufficient individuals on a long-term basis. A direction had been set towards a theoretic center but details did not exist. Graduate design studios explored possibilities without a program. Two consecutive charettes for public input and comment were held to create a hard and soft program for the High Cotton facilities, giving Link Ministries enough to begin the fundraising process and make the facility a reality. The facility promises to be a model for therapeutic care as Link Ministries moves forward confidently knowing they represent best practices.
- Original Site
- Future Development
*David Driskill worked on this project prior to joining FBT Architects through his role as Director of Texas Tech’s Urban Tech, the downtown studio for the College of Architecture.
- 2.8 acres
- Facilitate Community Input Sessions and Design Charrettes
- Urban & community planning
- Outpatient community services
- Tent Camp (housing for therapeutic clients)
- Prospect Courtyard (services for potential clients)
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