After learning about and measuring historic buildings in downtown Bridgton, 17-year-old Ben Elliott said he will look at his hometown differently.

Though he has lived in Bridgton for most of his life, Elliott said he didn’t realize how old some of the downtown buildings were.

“Being hands on, you get a better feeling of how buildings are set up,” said Elliott, 17, who plans to study civil engineering after he graduates from high school.

Elliott and four other seniors in Lake Region Vocational Center’s drafting and design program measured downtown buildings and sidewalks Wednesday morning with Alan S. Manoian, economic and community development director. A group of juniors came later in the morning. The work of the vocational students leads up to three days of activities meant to involve the community in developing a vision for the future of the Depot Street area.

On Thursday, Manoian planned to measure and photograph features of the town’s architecture.

From 6-9 p.m. on Friday, residents and business owners are invited to the Bridgton Community Center to establish priorities and goals for Depot Street. Presentations from Friday’s brainstorming will be given on Saturday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at the community center.

Manoian involved the vocational students in order to teach them about how architecture impacts the feeling of a town, as well as to help build an educated workforce in order to draw business to the town. From the measurements two groups of students gathered, Manoian planned to put together an illustrated urban pattern book, or set of optional guidelines for downtown development.

With this book, Manoian could encourage local developers to build in a way that maintains the form of the downtown, such as with large windows and building right next to the sidewalk.

“We need something to bring to the developers,” Manoian said. “We need to provide them with an understanding of how we want public form to function in this downtown.”

Manoian added that he hoped to reinstate a grant program for building owners to restore their historic facades on Main Street. At the corner of Main Street and Portland Road, Pondicherry Square, with rows of older buildings on both sides of the road, would be a great place to start, Manoian said.

It was in Pondicherry Square that Manoian took the first group of vocational students to measure buildings and sidewalks Wednesday.

“This is one of the few remaining nodes of intact historic buildings,” Manoian told the students. “We’re trying to shape the public realm.”

Manoian pointed out the differences between the historic buildings in Pondicherry Square and the building housing the Chapter 11 store, which was within sight. The historic buildings abutted the sidewalk, while Chapter 11 was set behind a parking lot.

Manoian asked students to measure the length of frontage on each building, the size of the windows, the percent of frontage in windows, the height of the buildings and the setback from the sidewalk.

Cassandra Sapiel of Casco and Aleece Daleo of Cornish went right to work. Both are planning to study architecture after they graduate high school, and they said that hands-on experience is important for their education.

“We’re trying to make the town better,” Daleo said, adding that it was also fun. “This is a good job shadow for the whole class.”

The instructor of the drafting and design program, Sally Thompson, said the students learned about how to look at buildings and how to look at planning from Manoian. She said it’s important for students to be out in the public realm working on real projects.

“They get to meet people. They get to see real work situations. They get to work on real projects,” Thompson said. “They learn an extreme amount from that.”

Cassandra Sapiel and Aleece Daleo take measurements of the Big Kahuna Cafe’s front window in Bridgton on Wednesday. Bridgton Economic and Community Development Director Alan S. Manoian is teaching Lake Region Vocational Center drafting and design students about Bridgton’s downtown architecture and enlisting their help in developing an optional code for future development.Bridgton Economic and Community Development Director Alan Manoian gives Lake Region Vocational Center drafting and design students a hands-on lesson Wednesday. The students measured features of historic buildings, such as size of windows and sidewalks.Ben Elliott measures the height of a building entrance on Main Street in Bridgton Wednesday. Elliott is a drafting and design student at Lake Region Vocational Center. “Being hands-on, you get a better feel for how buildings are set up,” Elliott said. He was one of a group of students helping Economic and Community Development Director Alan S. Manoian document features of downtown buildings.