In May of 2023, I had the wonderful opportunity of traveling abroad with interior design classmates. We spent three weeks studying sacred and secular architecture across Italy, Switzerland, and France. We completed many sketches and studies and even had to write narratives based on the spaces we visited. Upon returning to the States, we crammed an entire studio project into a week, hand drafting plans and renderings of an existent place on the Belmont University Campus that we would like to turn into a sacred space.

I focused on a large patio that borders a brand-new luxurious Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Following the very recent suicide of a transgender classmate and friend, I decided to dedicate my design to creating a safe place for the queer community at Belmont- complete with its own performance area, the Fisher Center patio will become somewhere students can celebrate being themselves and connect with others. This project was a thrilling, short-term challenge that allowed me to reconnect with my favored hand-drafting techniques.