This corner of a Johnson County mall was created by high school students

Most teens go to the mall to shop or hang out with friends, but a group from Shawnee Mission Northwest High School has spent their time redesigning two sitting areas at Oak Park Mall.

The project, which has transformed spots under the escalators near Macy’s and Nordstrom, was part of an interior design class at the school. Family and consumer sciences teacher Adena Woltering welcomed the chance to give her students a hands-on learning opportunity.

Woltering got connected with the mall with help from the district and a Kauffman Foundation program focusing on client-focused projects for high school teachers. The Overland Park mall has already partnered with Shawnee Mission West to offer a digital storefront for its entrepreneurship program.

This project was a little different.

“Their goal was to create an environment where people could come and sit down and relax with their family, with their friends, (and) have a kind of Wi-Fi space as far as getting a little bit of work done,” Woltering said.

Over the course of the spring semester, the students took several field trips to the mall to look at the spaces and get a sense of the style that Karla Engel, senior general manager of the mall, wanted to see, as well as her guidelines.

Back at school, the students worked in small groups to come up with mood boards, color palettes and general themes for their designs.

Every group presented proposed floor plans, layouts and concepts to Engel and had to try and incorporate her feedback in their designs.

“We sat and talked about what they were suggesting, and right off the bat, a lot of what they came to me with I really liked. I thought it looked great. I thought it really added to the ambience of being in that Wi-Fi area. They really came out of the gate strong,” Engel said.

Although Engel liked their ideas, finalizing the design wasn’t without challenges.

“Then it was just a matter of saying, ‘OK, this looks wonderful, but it’s impractical for the mall. You have to think about the number of people coming through,’ or, ‘We’re not going to be able to maintain this type of design,’” Engel said.

The final designs incorporate at least one idea from each of the 11 students.

As part of this project, Engel arranged for the students to meet with designers from Macy’s furniture store and Ikea as well as the lead visual merchandiser for Nordstrom’s. During a field trip to Wilson Lighting, students also met with professional designers to learn about how they present ideas to clients.

“They got a chance to see what can be done from a career standpoint in interior design or visual arts,” Engel said.

Woltering said the biggest skill the students learned was good communication, but they also gained experience in measuring spaces, choosing appropriate décor and working together in a group.

For Shawnee Mission Northwest senior Lillian Nicks, the latter was the best part, but it wasn’t effortless.

“Having to come up with design that everyone agreed on for the most part was definitely a little challenging. Our class had quite a bit of variety in what we all like. But in the end, we were all like, ‘OK, we could get with this,’” she said.

The budget was a big obstacle for them to navigate. For each space, they had $3,000 to cover materials, furniture and lighting. They also had to pick furnishings that would wipe clean easily.

“It’s so rewarding see something you made come to life,” Nicks said.

Although there’s some placeholder art hanging in the space right now, going forward, each space will feature a different student artist’s work for a semester, and those students have the option of selling the work they’re going to display.

Woltering hopes to do more projects outside the school in the future

.“I think it was just a great opportunity for the students get to participate in something that’s outside of the classroom,” Woltering said. “It kind of stretched me as an educator to not stick with our basic curriculum.”