Knight Foundation phases out fellowship support

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is going to phase out its support of the Knight Program in Community Building over the next three years. Since its founding in late 2000, the program, based at the University of Miami School of Architecture, has provided one-year fellowships focusing on New Urbanism for 37 public officials, architects, planners, transportation specialists, journalists, community organizers, and others. The program has also supported 15 scholars at the university’s campus in Coral Gables. In November 2001 the first group of 12 Knight Fellows organized a charrette in Macon, Georgia, that greatly improved the Oglethorpe Homes HOPE VI redevelopment, now under way, and that generated a new urbanist redevelopment plan for the predominantly low-income, African-American Beall’s Hill neighborhood in which the public housing project stood. The master plan, since refined by Dhiru Thadani of Ayers Saint Gross, is now being implemented, with the first seven houses under construction. Two later groups of Knight Fellows organized charrettes in San Jose, California, and Coatesville, Pennsylvania. The Knight Foundation has decided to provide declining financial backing for the program while Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, dean of the architectural school, and Charles Bohl, program director, seek support from other sources. In May 2004 Bohl expects to invite applications for the next group of 12 Fellows, who will probably begin their sessions in September. Bohl and Plater-Zyberk are considering altering the program so that it would offer three tracks of continuing education: intensive short courses in urban design, seminars on real estate development, and certification in the study of New Urbanism. u