OCAD student aims to bridge generation gap with transformed Vaughan school

Vinh Le’s friendship with retired widow inspires proposal to build community centre designed to bring young and old together

Metronews.ca
May 3, 2016
By Steven Goetz

Every morning before work, Vinh Le drives to Lilliana D’Orazio’s house for coffee and a quick chat.

The two make an unlikely pair: Le, 24, is a student in his final year studying environmental design at OCADU; D’Orazio, 67, is a retired widow living in a Woodbridge suburb.

The pair’s friendship inspired Le’s undergraduate thesis - a plan to redevelop an under-enrolled Vaughan elementary school into an intergenerational community centre designed to bring young and old together.

Le grew up down the street from D’ Orazio and was childhood friends with her granddaughter. His regular visits started after he volunteered to help her move into a new house two years ago. Seeing she could use a hand watering the plants and lifting cases of bottled water up the front steps, he started popping in from time to time to lend a hand. The two became close friends, bonding over a shared love for the Blue Jays.

Their friendship got Le thinking about the cultural shift taking place in D’Orazio’s neighbourhood: Vaughan has an aging population, with almost half its population seniors, and he noticed some of the neighbours were alone, isolated in their homes.

“For people to share what they’re dealing with, it is a release,” Le said. “When you can’t express yourself, it is like you’re contained.”

Le took it upon himself and his environmental design skills to come up with a project that could help others connect with seniors the way he has with D’Orazio.

“My main concept ... is a place where potential relationships can be formed,” he said.

As a case study, he prepared detailed plans to transform St. Gabriel’s the Archangel Catholic Elementary School into a social hub with athletic facilities, public kitchens, library resources, classrooms, a performance space, and a cafe organized around common areas where everyone would meet. Programming would encourage young and old interact and learn from each other, Le said, with high school students earning credit towards their required 40 volunteer hours.

“Instead of building from scratch, which is not ideal and expensive, we can reuse what the community has,” Le said, pointing to under-utilized schools as the logical place to develop facilities.

Le plans to bring D’Orazio to see his plans at OCAD’s grad expo this week. He’s invited his city councillor too.