High School Students Build Tiny House with Pella Windows

Students in Brad Williams’ architecture class at Sycamore High School are currently building a tiny house designed by past student Allison Flavin. 

About two years ago, inspired by television shows that popularized the small living concept,  Allison designed a tiny house for her architecture class.  She took it a step further and suggested building her design to scale as part of the class.

Williams loved the idea; however, he soon realized the project would take longer than a semester and require additional money.  

For the past two years his students have been hands-on building parts of the house while simultaneously fundraising and asking local businesses to donate any building materials.   

This is how Pella Windows & Doors became involved.  A very determined junior, Kaylee Combs, reached out to our Retail Sales Manager, Jim Gehm, asking for donated windows. 

“Kaylee was very determined and did not take no for an answer, “ says Jim.  

Jim found the project inspiring because the students were gaining real world experience building a house from start to finish. The Tiny House Project helped highlight valuable trade skills to those that might not be college bound.

When it came time to order the windows for the project, the students had three goals they shared with Jim: 1. Bring in as much natural light as possible. 2. Make sure is was plenty of airflow. 3. Give it a modern clean look. 

 “I walked the students through our normal product selection process,” says Jim. “I sat down with the students and worked with the plans they had already drawn up.”

Jim and the students picked