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designer democracy: 50 years of practice & growing
THE PAST
The Design Assistance Program
• Began in 1967 – inspired by civil rights movement. First community was a post-flood recovery for a downtown. Over 200 communities in US & Canada since. Adapted across communities in UK & Europe.
Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only
because, and only when, they are created by everybody
-- Jane Jacobs
The civil rights movement taught us to listen, and to hear those whose
voices had gone unheard for generations. R/UDAT has taught us
how to turn the aspirations of citizens, and their descriptions of urban value, into action.-- David
Lewis/Peter Batchelor
Behind all the current buzz about collaboration is a discipline. And with all due respect to the ancient arts of governing and diplomacy, the more
recent art of collaboration does represent something new -- maybe Copernican. If it contained a silicon
chip, we’d all be excited.-- John Gardner
1990s
1960s
Brief History of a Movement
1980s
Designer Democracy
Beginnings…• 1963 – first urban studio program• 1964 – first Community Design
Center program. (Architects Renewal Committee in Harlem)
• 1967 – first R/UDAT project• UDA’s Pontiac, Michigan school
integration process• 1968- Neighborhood Design
Center forms in Baltimore, MD
Today…• more than 70% of schools of
architecture now have studio programs
• Over 5 dozen Community Design Centers in US alone
• Hundreds of DAT projects, national/state/local programs
• “Charrette” norms in business• Adaptation all over the world
Framework Principles
• Holistic, Interdisciplinary Approach to Community Design (Customization)
• Neutral Outsiders (Pro Bono Public Service)• COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION (Citizen Experts, Authentic
Community Process, meaning)
Design Assistance Process
R/UDAT Impacts in large cities over the years…
• San Francisco (Embarcadero)• Portland (Pearl District)• Seattle (Downtown housing)• Denver (LoDo/16th Street
mall)
• Austin (Downtown Revitalization)
• Santa Fe (Railyard Redevelopment/Park)
• Process adaptation in US, Canada, UK and across Europe
What distinguishes it?
• We are NOT:– Another Consultant
Team– A process to produce a
planning document• “Please don’t give us
another plan. We have plenty – they all sit on the shelves. We need implementation strategies.” – Almost Every community
– Government-focused– “Green”-focused– Building-focused
• We ARE:– Public Service in the
Public Interest• “Consultants work for
somebody. Design Assistance Teams work for everybody.”
– Action-Oriented – Community-focused– Holistic, Customized
• “It’s about the space between the buildings, and the people that inhabit that space”
Interactive Community Process
Workshops
Student contests
students
University Students
Civic Branding
Context Specific Community Engagement
• Survey• Website• Multi-media films• Flyers• Banners• Student Book• Press• Utility Mailers• Door Contest• Event kick-off
Boerne, TX
Kick-off cultural events
“Sugar on Snow” Event Kickoff – Newport, VT
Kauai
“A baby lu‘au is an important time among local families. That first birthday marks a major milestone in a young child’s life. It offers an opportunity to
welcome the baby into the family. It requires fairly complex planning, bringing relatives from all over to help celebrate the occasion, always with plenty of food. Family members help out by sharing responsibilities and making sure everything
runs smoothly. For parents, the baby lu‘au is often a time to think about the future for that baby and how much love, nurturing, learning and protection will
be needed in the years ahead as the child grows to adulthood. It is a time to reflect on how will they be educated, what opportunities they will have and
where will they live as adults. How can we plan our communities to ensure that the babies of today will have a high quality of life in the future? For everyone who lives, works or shops in the Lihu‘e district, that will be the question the
public will be asked at a Nov. 12 meeting called “Lihu‘e’s Baby Lu‘au: Planning Our Keiki’s Future” at 7 p.m. at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center in Lihu‘e.”
Englishtown, NJ: Historic Inn
Beatrice, NE: National Homestead Monument
Location Choices with Visibility
International Potluck Dinner – Portland, Maine
THE PRESENT
The Democratic Expectation
• National League of Cities survey of U.S. Cities (2010) - 81 percent use public engagement processes "often" (60 percent) or "sometimes" (21 percent)
• American Planning Association (2012) – “More than 50 percent want to personally be involved in community planning efforts, including more than half of Democrats, Republicans, and independents as well as majorities of urban, suburban, and rural respondents.”
Democratic Wave in last 25 yrs
• Decentralization - Neighborhood Council Systems and Neighborhood Associations
• Empowerment – over 100 Neighborhood College and Citizen Academy programs
• Civic-led change - visioning, funding of projects, implementation
• It has it’s own language/jargon: textizen, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, tactical urbanism, the sharing economy, etc
“Civic Resources”
• Volunteerism = $171 billion (only 64 mill people)
• Total Charitable Giving = $298.42 billion.
• Non-profits = $300 billion in investment into local communities
• Over half of all states have enacted legislation to enable private-sector participation in infrastructure projects, where there is an estimated $180 billion to be leveraged
• Crowdfunding - $3 billion in 2012 alone!
Local Exceptionalism
• “What works other places won’t work here. We have some unique circumstances, we aren’t like other communities.”
• Context is always unique, but issues are mostly the same.
• Common Obstacles:– Nostalgia– Inertia– Conflict– Institutional sclerosis
Most Communities Today“If we can just get that one, big, transformational investment done, it will change everything for us.”
[years of effort…no visual progress during this time…loss of excitement…bottom falls out.]
The Snowball Effect
“a figurative term for a process that starts from an initial state of small significance and builds upon itself, becoming larger and faster at every stage”
Applied to a community, this is a transformational principle…
“You gave us hope. Back in 1992, your ideas seemed like dreams. Now we are living those dreams.” – Rick Smith, San Angelo Times-Standard, 2012
CASE STUDY: Port Angeles, Washington (17K)
2009 Project
1. Parking study in the downtown area.
2. Increase housing opportunity and multi‐use buildings in downtown.
3. Institute the use of form based codes rather than conventional zoning.
4. Remove the parking regulations in downtown and let the market drive parking.
5. Return the Farmer's Market to the downtown area.
6. Signage and wayfinding system for pedestrian and vehicles.
7. Improve existing buildings (appearance, facades, etc. in downtown and elsewhere).
8. Provide visitor information kiosks.
9. Create an entryway monument.
10.Create nodes / centers of key intersections.
Immediate Implementation
Port Angeles, WA 2009 Project: 2 months later, 43 buildings repainted with volunteers and donated paint, led to a façade improvement program, then
private $
Public PrioritizationPaint 43 BuildingsFaçade ImprovementWayfinding
Waterfront EsplanadeMajor new anchors downtownPeninsula Campus ExpansionDowntown Health ClinicNew Transit Center
Bike/Ped FacilitiesNew small businessesFerry Terminal RenovationRenovated shopping/restaurants at adjacent block
First 3 months-1 year
1-2.5 years
4-5 years
Today: Millions in New Investments
Transforming Downtown
Waterfront: from SDAT to Masterplan to…
Realizing their aspirations
Award-winning design
Bringing People Back to the Waterfront
Creating an Attractive Sense of Place
Snowball Effect: $100+ million
Leveraging Investment for Placemaking
And, it keeps going
The Future
Our Urban Future• By 2030, 6 in 10 people will
live in cities.• In the developing world, 3
out of 5 will live in cities.• There are currently one
billion people living in slums and squatter settlements and that number is expected to double by 2030 and reach 3 billion by 2050
• Climate change, equity, housing, livability, economic development, etc….
Millennial Values Will Dominate
• Millennial’s values:– Collaboration and Community– Technology & Innovation– Democratic/Open Information– Social Value– Sharing (the sharing economy)
What about Winnipeg?The democratic vernacular every community is the product of its physical setting, governance system, culture, and its traditions – all of which contribute to a unique context.
“the house becomes a body language of democracy, and the grid becomes a body language of democracy from the ultimate privacy of the individual to the ultimate public of the grid that you see from the airplane. Oh, that tells you something about that street and that plan. It tells you something about community. It tells you something about citizenship. It tells you about how the thing works, how the city works physically, and how the city works politically, and how the city works economically, and what the role of citizenship is. And what the Founding Fathers envision when they drop in the constitution: we, the citizens.” – David Lewis
The Challenge
• The stakes are high, the challenges immense, and the need for process expertise is pervasive.
• “We are all faced with a series of historic opportunities, brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.” –John W. Gardner
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