For her first assignment as a professional architect, Amanda (Cochrane) Scheidlinger, ’00, designed a 25-foot by 50-foot concrete building. Then she designed 64 more.

Scheidlinger was hired by the Marines in October 2006 to design a mock Afghan village in Twentynine Palms, Calif. Now, $200 million later, the mock Afghan village at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center is coming to a finish.

“The purpose of this ‘city’ is to provide real-life training opportunities and exercises for Marines before they deploy to Iraq or another Middle Eastern country,” Scheidlinger said.

The city, which covers 275 acres, consists of several hundred buildings. Each has a different function: mock schools, hospitals, houses, police stations, embassies, and other buildings that would be found in an actual village.

The village’s perimeter even has buildings designed to look like they have been partially bombed, so soldiers can practice dealing with conditions after an aerial attack.

Once the project is complete (in mid 2010), the village will be filled with Hollywood actors dressed as Middle Eastern citizens.

“[The Marines] run various exercises and training missions aimed at anticipating enemy resistance, controlling foreign forces and protecting innocent civilians,” Scheidlinger said.

Scheidlinger started work on the project after college, when her boss asked for help with getting the buildings organized in the early phases of the project.

“My role has become greater and greater as the project has developed over the four years. I’ve worked on many other projects besides this one, but it has definitely lasted the longest,” Scheidlinger said.

She prepared for the project by talking to a retired Marine Corps major general, who described specific Middle Eastern buildings.

Scheidlinger earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a minor in construction management from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, in 2005.

When she started work at Architects Mosher Drew Watson Ferguson in San Diego, she never expected a village as her first assignment.

“I think every recent graduate has dreams of working for some high-powered international firm, designing a hugely prominent and beautiful urban building with an unlimited budget,” Scheid-linger said.

“But we’re taught in school to design the best space you can for what you’re designing and who you’re designing for. So that’s what I’m doing; I’m designing the best, most realistic, mock Middle Eastern city for the military!”