Noah’s ARC design challenge premiers at five family stores

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Army and design teams use ARC donations to decorate and renovate.

by Dawn Marks –

A design challenge team sets up their display at the Costa Mesa Family Store. L-R: Madona Shaheen, Britni Chance and Gigi Harris. Gigi Harris is the ASID student coordinator for the Noah’s ARC Design Challenge.

The Noah’s ARC Interior Design Challenge brought together The Salvation Army’s Anaheim Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) and the American Society of Interior Designers Orange County (ASID OC) who combined resources to create living spaces using only items donated to the ARC.

ASID OC members from four local interior design colleges accepted a challenge to design 12’ x 12’ vignette rooms at five different Salvation Army Family Store locations in Orange County.

Five design teams—in groups of two to five—painted and designed their rooms in a designated decorative style. The five participating Salvation Army store locations—and their styles—are West Anaheim (eclectic style), Costa Mesa (mid-century modern), Huntington Beach (beachside theme), Orange (antique) and San Clemente (Mediterranean decorative).

The four design schools represented are the Art Institute of Santa Ana, Interior Designers Institute in Newport Beach, Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo and Westwood College of Anaheim.

On April 10, 2010, the finished rooms were unveiled and student designers were on hand at the stores to answer questions and share decorating tips. The displays will stay up through April 24.

“Noah’s ARC was a conceptual idea at the center for several years until the ASID OC student members adopted the project. The students’ eagerness to participate, their energy, talent and support for the ARC are taking this project well beyond what we ever envisioned it could become. Noah’s ARC shows the potentials of recycling things and human lives at the ARC,” Major Bill Heiselman, Anaheim ARC administrator, said.


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