For their capstone projects, students in Civic and Environmental Engineering created designs, alternatives, scheduling, and costs to update a community center. Their work focused on several aspects of the building:  the parking lot, the building's entryway, layout and partition of the mainfloor, and connectivity of upstairs meeting room to entryway. 

The Mutchler Community Center (MCC) in Bloomfield, IA, was built in 1999 after Glen Mutchler, an area farmer, generously bequeathed $1,000,000 to the City of Bloomfield to establish a recreation center. MCC totals an area of 18,000 square feet and sports a suspended indoor track, one racquetball court, a weight-training area featuring free weights, weight machines, and cardio fitness machines, as well as a full-size gymnasium that is the site of volleyball and basketball tournaments, as well as pickle ball. There is a large community room that is often used for reunions and parties; it has a full-sized kitchen.

The client sought remedies to several issues, which are addressed by this team's analyses, drawings, and recommendations:  

• poor flow in the parking lot, which is landlocked between steep slopes
• erosion on the east side of the building's retaining wall due to drainage from neighboring properties
• lack of ADA entryway at front of building and damage to doorway from wind
• lack of division between the game room and weight areas
• need for better connectivity between upstairs meeting room and the entry space just outside its doors.