Academic centers get off the ground

Programs focusing on smart growth and the New Urbanism were launched at four universities in the past year. Most have stressed education; research and hands-on design are also on the agendas. In Miami, a group of professionals from different walks of life meet to exchange experiences and ideas and lead a charrette in Georgia. In College Park, Maryland, federal, state, and local officials come to learn about smart growth leadership. In South Bend, Indiana, university students create a vision plan for downtown development. These activities have one thing in common: they originate in university-based centers with a mission to teach about and research smart growth and with a commitment to building networks of educated professionals in the public and private sectors. In January 2001, New Urban News reported on the plans for five such centers. The following is an update on the accomplishments of the first year. Knights of New urbanism The Knight Fellowship program, a part of the Community Building Program at the University of Miami’s School of Architecture, brought together 12 architects, planners, community activists, real estate professionals, and journalists who have met in Miami six times for workshops and seminars. Chuck Bohl, director of the Community Building Program, notes that the interaction between fellows has been one of the most valuable aspects of the program. “By August, they asked for more time together to exchange ideas,” Bohl says. “We have decided to delay the final presentations until we have picked the next 12 fellows, so we can carry the old group into the new group and start an ongoing network.” The new group of fellows was selected in February. Participants’ individual research projects have resulted in, among other things: a report for the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) on greyfield mall redevelopment, a compendium of techniques for combating gentrification, and funding for a South Florida urban design center. The Knight program is also assembling a book on the work of architect Leon Krier. In accordance with the funding grant from the James L. Knight foundation, the fellows spearheaded a charrette in one of the 26 cities where Knight-Ridder publishes newspapers. After soliciting suitable locations and interviewing officials in several communities, the choice fell on a blighted inner city neighborhood in Macon, Georgia. The Knight program funded the charrette and brought in a team consisting of 14 students from the school’s suburb and town design program, three faculty members, and the 12 Knight Fellows. Only two fellows had prior charrette experience but all were able to contribute with their particular expertise, Bohl says. Future Knight fellows will likely have a more formalized curriculum, and the program may eventually offer a degree program or some sort of certification, Bohl says. “We’d like to tailor the program to different levels of commitment and distance education may be a way to reach more people with less money,” he adds. One-stop smart growth center The National Smart Growth Education and Research Center at the University of Maryland in College Park launched the National Smart Growth Leadership Training Program for mid-level officials in federal and state agencies. According to Executive Director Tom Downs, the two-week resident program was well received by the first 45 participants. Federal managers gained insight into the smart growth agenda in other regulatory bodies, and the training gave officials an opportunity to engage in an informed, professional debate, Downs adds. “We’re hoping to create a community, a network of interest, and if we can get 90 people a year through here, it will begin to build critical mass,” he says. “There is definitely a pent-up demand for education and research in this field.” The center also offers a program for business leaders and state and local officials in Maryland. This 14-day course, stretched over eight months, is built to give participants mastery of the legal and regulatory changes that have occurred with the passing of 14 separate pieces of smart growth legislation in the state. The center draws on the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) resources of the university and offers free GIS information for local and regional smart growth research. In addition, the center hosted a one-day introductory session on the impediments to and rewards of infill development, as well as an intensive workshop on managing traffic congestion in the Washington, DC, area. Gerrit Knaap, who joined the center as director of research in 2001, will soon be assisted by two post-doctoral researchers. Planned research projects include an evaluation of the potential biases in current transportation modeling, and the creation of a smart growth score card to guide state capital programming. In May, the center will sponsor and host the fifth annual meeting of new urbanists and members of the Academy, this year titled “New Urbanism and Smart Growth.” “We hope this is the beginning of broader research agenda that will look at the connections between smart growth and New Urbanism,” Downs says. A very different type of center, the Abacoa Project, located in the new urban community Abacoa in Jupiter, Florida, operates under the auspices of Florida Atlantic University’s Joint Center for Environmental & Urban Problems and has reached out to a broad constituency. Recently, the center held a workshop for local Realtors, who for the first time got an organized introduction to new urban principles and learned how to sell the community as opposed to just the homes. The center hosts regular public lectures on environmental and urban design topics, most recently a talk by market analyst Tod Zimmerman’s about property values and the New Urbanism. One of the center’s central goals is to promote greater diversity in Abacoa, Executive Director Ed Maietta says. The center will run focus groups with residents and encourages the developers to market Abacoa to Hispanic and African American home-buyers who today make up less than 5 percent of the community’s population. In January, more than 700 people gathered for a Mayan festival, where residents got a chance learn about the culture of the large Guatemalan population who live in nearby neighborhoods and many of whom work in Abacoa. Formal research into the habits and attitudes of Abacoa residents is still in its formative stages. Currently the focus is on creating an unbiased survey instrument and deciding what data is most relevant. Beyond Abacoa, the center’s chief initiative is the creation of the Florida Public Officials Design Institute. The institute will be modeled after the national Mayors’ Institute of City Design, which helps mayors use urban design to improve livability in their cities. Marie York, the Abacoa Project’s associate director says the institute would be a weekend intensive course for elected officials who have identified problems in their community and want help from a team of experts. Both design professionals and elected officials who have successfully solved urban problems will join the panel of experts. The first institute is scheduled for October and has room for four officials. Prior to the institute, the experts will visit the official’s city for a tour of the problem area. The plan is to hold two institutes a year, York says. The South Bend Community Design Center in Indiana got started with funding from the Siemens Corporation and is now a cooperative undertaking of the South Bend Downtown Partnership and Notre Dame’s School of Architecture. The center has moved off campus to an office and studio in downtown South Bend, where students and faculty have been working closely with local officials and design professionals. The center’s most important accomplishment so far was the charrette held in March 2001, in which students solicited input from community members, civic leaders, local architects, and businesses to generate a vision plan for South Bend’s downtown. The plan has yet to move beyond the concept stage, but both the charrette process and the particulars of the vision have broken new ground. “This is the first truly urban vision for South Bend,” says Associate Professor Michael Lykoudis, who leads the center. He adds that the plan enjoys strong support from the mayor, and the city is working to get developers interested in the plan. The center’s future activities will include public lectures on urbanism, planning of local and regional parks, and Lykoudis expects students to begin designing and building homes in distressed neighborhoods.