ADA Architecture: Practical Augmentation of Modern Architecture

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) represents one of the most radical forces for change in contemporary American Architecture. Yet it is often regarded as marginal, as a bureacratic hurdle by most architects, even some of the most socially-conscious of them.

As we prepared and researched the history and prehistory of the ADA for our exhibition at the SFAA, we noticed two interesting things: First of all, the ADA was not just a building code. That is to say, it is a civil rights act. Not just a civil rights act, but a redesign of an entire class of people, a redesign of the human body, which in turn is a redesign of its environment. It is not until WWII-- when modern medicine coincides with modern warfare in such a way as to produce a significant number of surviving, patriotic, heroes with disabilites-- that curbs start being cut, that the modulor man adapts.

Secondly, we noticed that the very space we were working in, the Storefront for Art & Architecture, one of the most highly-praised buildings in New York, was not accessible. This is especially poignant given some of the modernist "no inside, no outside" rhetoric that is attached to it. We worked with the gallery to develop a temporary solution, which would last for the duration of our show. A survey was designed and submitted to the gallery management and the show curators. The results, not atypical for ADA architecture, seemed to require something which was inexpensive, invisible, unobtrusive, and portable.

Working with the exact minimums required by the code (and by the demands of the show), a solution was found which met all of the above requirements, in a sense. The detailed complications of the code, combined with custom clear plastic structure, provided an access ramp of minimal weight and size per cost; while making the ramp somewhat more visible than its transparent, minimal nature would suggest.