Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Activist Archtitecture Pitera Wilkins 2014 V1.1
Activist Archtitecture Pitera Wilkins 2014 V1.1
Activist
Affect change in the established way of doing things.
Architecture
Reflect
Philosophy & Practice of the Community Design Center
Edited by: Dan Pitera & Craig L.Wilkins
ii
Cover Image: DCDC Workshop Process with The Alley Project, Southwest Detroit
ISBN: 978-0-9904595-3-8
© 2015 Detroit Collaborative Design Center, University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture
iii
Thank You
...to all those who help expand the nature of all practices to include
more people, more programs and more geographies.
iv
Preface
You are not a profession that has distinguished itself by your social and civic
contributions to the cause of civil rights. You are most distinguished by your
thunderous silence and your complete irrelevance….You are employers,
you are key people in the planning of our cities today. You share the
responsibility for the mess we are in, in terms of the white noose around
the central city. It didn’t just happen. We didn’t just suddenly get this
situation. It was carefully planned….It took a great deal of skill and creativity
and imagination to build the kind of situation we have, and it is going to
take skill and imagination and creativity to change it. We are going to have
to have people as committed to doing the right thing, to “inclusiveness,” as
we have in the past to exclusiveness.
Contents
01 : Dan Pitera, FAIA 01 : Introduction: More People, More Programs, More Geographies
Underpinnings Underpinnings
0Gilad Meron & Mia Scharphie 02 : The Context of Community Design Practice
Actions Actions
01 : Sheri Blake 05 : Defining Community Design: A History of Community Design Centers
01 : Dan Pitera, FAIA 07 : The Activity of Activism: A Field Guide for Establishing a Design Center
01 : Frank Russell 08 : [Insert Practitioner Here] Volunteer Models of Community Design Centers
01 : Charles Bohl 09 : Community Outreach as a Pedagogic Tool for Both Students & Professionals
01 : Kathy Dorgan 10 : The Community Design Movement’s Early Relationship with the AIA
01 :Anthony Costello, FAIA 11 : Community Design Writ Large: AIA 150—Blueprint for America
01 :Stephen Vogel, FAIA Response: After 150: What Is AIA Up to Now?
Reflections Reflections
01 : Jana Cephas 14 : The Influence of Community Design Centers on Society
01 : Tom Dutton 16 : Engaging the School of Social Life: A Pedagogy Against Oppression
Appendixes
Biographies
vi
Acknowledgements
Craig Wilkins
Acknowledgements
Dan Pitera
Introduction
More People, More Programs, More Geographies
Dan Pitera, FAIA
Craig Wilkins’ opening essay in this volume pairs Paul Polak’s 2005
observation that most design is focused only on serving the richest 10
percent of the world’s population, and John Gavin Dwyer’s Residential
Architect article that states that architects work for only 2% of the
1.1 Among other results, Polak’s population. 1.1
assertion and his work led to the
Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design centers and other socially engaged practices expand this influence.
exhibition “Design for the other 90%,” They operate under the premise that designers should expand their
as well as the formation of D-Rev, a
Palo Alto-based design incubator that “clientele,” where they work, and the types of projects they engage in. This
focuses on revolutionary design for does not mean that design centers exclude people who typically build or
people in poverty.
hire an architect, urban designer, landscape architect, and planner. Design
centers include more people, more projects, and more geographies in the
process. They are advocates for people who are typically left out of design
Design centers widen and place-making decisions. Design centers widen the undertaking beyond
the undertaking some people to include all people.
may have taken with the activist’s intent to find a better way of doing
things. We submit that when someone works as an activist, they try to
effect change in the established way of doing things. They are not content
with the way things are. This is a basic activity important for any discipline
to remain relevant and embrace multiple perspectives, controversial
viewpoints, and creative investigation. This desire for change does not
inherently presuppose that the existing system is wrong or outmoded; it
may merely need to be altered, expanded, or tweaked. The work and
commentary in this book is not entirely content with the perceived,
established way of doing things—of practicing architecture. Though the
authors within may not be militants or extremists, they are activists who
question the social, cultural, and political dimensions of practicing
architecture.
This should not suggest that this book is against the profession, but it does,
quite purposely, place itself in the healthy debate on how to best act as
professionals. Craig Wilkins has expanded on this topic in the first essay in
this book. Some the essays in this volume are quite critical of the status
quo in architectural practice. This criticism is designed to be not
If there is an existing condescending, but provocative; a way to catalyze healthy debate. If there is
system of practice, an existing system of practice, then there will inherently be people who question
this system in an attempt to alter, expand, or tweak it. For the authors of this
then there will
volume, that interrogation is called Activist Architecture: Philosophy and
inherently be people Practice of the Community Design Center.
who question this
When constructing the premise and format of this book, as editors we did
system in an attempt not establish either/or positions—this versus that, or us versus them. While
to alter, expand, or admittedly critical at times, the authors within this book have searched for
tweak it. the both/and—this and that, or, in fact, not “them” but “us.”
Altering Practice
We do not believe that architects are intentionally or maliciously working
for the few and not the many; but we do think that perhaps in general,
practice has strayed afar from its professional roots.
“They” do not have the money to pay for our services. More people in the
process weaken the final product. There are so many other more important
things “they” need before good design. This kind of thinking restricts us to a
certain way of working because it limits us to a certain way of seeing.
Even with a history of less than 50 years, and still very much a work in
progress, the community design center model opens the profession to a
broader discussion. Understanding the design center’s limited time span to
affect change, Jana Cephas explores examples drawn from centers of the
longest duration (more than 20 years) from across the country and their
significant impact on society, in her essay, “The Influence of Community
Design Centers on Society.” Tom Dutton delves into the scope of influence
that community design centers have had in the university context, in his
essay entitled, “Engaging the School of Social Life: A Pedagogy Against
Oppression.” Dutton positions the varying issues relevant to CDCs against
the need for academies to expand the definition of architecture and what
architects do beyond traditional practice.
More, People, More Programs, More Geographies 13
the steps for eating, the plaza is primarily empty. It is a visual urban
ornament. It looks like public space, but it does not act like public space. It
does not accept the public. One might say that there are building codes
that provide ramps and other amenities to help give access to more
people. This is true. But they are only technical improvements. Visual clues
can be designed to make people feel unwelcome even if the appropriate
code elements are in place. Let’s also be honest here, the people these
places are trying to keep out are those who push shopping carts. There are
no code provisions for shopping carts used in this manner. Like the drug
abuse counseling center, this is an issue of social justice. True public space is
to be enjoyed by the public at large. That includes people who use
1.3 The editors understand the skateboards and push shopping carts.1.3 These examples illustrate that the
limitations of privatized public space,
responsibility of design centers toward the public good extends far beyond
and seek to expand them in some
way. Currently, many of these spaces merely expanding our practice to include more programs, although drug
look like a public asset, but they have abuse counseling clinics, affordable housing, and service centers are vital
strict limitations on who can physically
enjoy them. contributions. We are also being called upon to question whom the built
environment is built for, and how to expand our practice to advocate for
more people.
bring this diminished voice into an equitable dialogue with previously more
dominant voices. Community design engages the people who are often
marginalized or underrepresented, and bridges the gaps between people
1.5 Underlying the following essays rather than further separating them. 1.5 By amplifying diminished voices,
are varying definitions of community
design. Although they are not directly
other voices are not excluded; they are simply not the only ones heard.
described here, they do shape the Design centers widen the process to include all people.
narrative of this book. To define
community design in this introduction
is not an attempt to ground or If It Works, Than It Is Obsolete
restrict its meaning. It is meant to
provide a point for the counterpoints If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This phrase may be code for the status quo is just
that exist throughout this book. fine. Don’t make waves…Don’t upset the apple cart….If the world around a
Community design is an inclusive,
collaborative, participatory design
person seems to be just fine, perhaps the boundaries of that world
process that includes varying (physical, social, cultural, etc.) need to be expanded. Even though something
stakeholders in decision making to
may appear to be in working order, it could soon be outdated or, if viewed
ultimately affect the built environment
of their community from micro to from a different perspective, may no longer appear to be working at all. For
macro, from brick to [city] block, from example, take Detroit, Michigan. It is here where the once-innovative
neighbor to neighborhood.
automobile companies made international success through questioning and
challenging the needs and systems around them. They made wonderful
products. Then they became satisfied with those products. They stopped
questioning and became complacent. Other companies in other locations
began to question the system that Detroit built and found opportunities to
innovate and create. What Detroit saw as working; others saw as needing
fixing. With respect to the built environment, every city and every town,
even those that are celebrated as model environments, harbor places and
neighborhoods characterized by disinvestment and people who are
disenfranchised. Design centers look past the status quo that defines the
built environment and question assumptions that support it. They attempt
to find a sort of amnesia by setting aside what is taken for granted. Design
centers reveal the parts of the system that do not work. They frequently
operate in areas where some people might say, “you do not want to be there
after dark.” Whether this statement is true or not, it is often ill informed. It
is a status quo response. A city that has a celebrated downtown or other
district does not work if people talk about the neighborhoods, parks,
schools, or plazas in this way. Through community design, design centers
facilitate a process of questioning, revealing, and designing. Sheri Blake’s
chapter defines this as the “activist architect who views design as not only
More, People, More Programs, More Geographies 16
about creating innovative aesthetic objects, but also about providing people
with the tools and the knowledge necessary to shape their surrounding
environment.” This quote does not say that activist architects ignore
innovative aesthetic objects. She suggests that this is not enough—the
both/and. Stephen Luoni illustrates the varying ways that design centers
engage and design in the surrounding community. He shows that the
definition of design expands far beyond the tradition of making an aesthetic
object. It includes capacity building, strategic planning, seminars, social
activism, oral histories, and workshops, among other things.
Keep three thoughts in mind as you proceed through this book: Design
centers question the methods we use to design; whom we are designing
for; and where we design for/with them. They ask these questions because
they are not content with the system at hand, and through their inquiry
they can fabricate better places that include more people, more programs,
and more geographies. This book partially stands as a document of what
design centers are and what they have done, but more importantly, it is
also a provocation of what they can become and ultimately their role in
shaping space for all people. This book is tempting us to question our
methods of working. Try new methods, and then question again.
This is not a fault of their own, but rather a shortcoming of the field as a
whole. The architecture and design professions have become notorious for
neglecting to teach the business of design. Yet there is no lack of innovative
precedents to study in community-based design, in fact just the opposite is
true. In the past two decades there have been dozens (if not hundreds) of
firms and organizations that have proven that a career in community design
is feasible. Many of these pioneers have been instrumental in helping to
bring the terms “public-interest” and “social-impact” to the forefront of
design culture. Their projects, publications, exhibitions and conferences have
helped bring visibility to this area of work and demonstrated the viability of
community design as a model of practice that reaches far beyond the work
of community design centers of the 1970’s and 80’s.
structure of the practice—the way in which both the practice and its
activities are organized, managed and directed. Third, the sources of funding
for the practice—the various types of income and/or support that make
the practice financially sustainable.
To be sure, there are numerous other contextual factors that play a key
role in any community design practice, such as location, politics, economics,
culture, and demographics, just to name a few. However the mapping tool
on the previous page is not intended to fully describe a practice, but rather
it is intended to serve as a tool for young practitioners to start thinking
about how they might build a practice. Through interviews and ongoing
research we have found that these three factors often play a critical role in
the strategic planning and development of firms and organizations. While
other factors also play a crucial role in the development of a design
practice, numerous firm directors have confirmed that these three factors
heavily influence and inform all other decisions.
The intention of this mapping tool aligns with the intention of this book as
a whole; to be used by anyone who is interested in starting a community-
based design practice, both to understand precedents, and to think through
the structure of new practices. We hope this tool can be used by
practitioners, students, teachers, and critics alike to begin to draw out
patterns about practice and build greater understanding of how community
design is evolving, where the bright spots are and why. Our hope is that
through the ongoing use of this tool we will being to gain a broader picture
of the landscape of community design practice and begin to identify areas
that are most ripe for growth.
We hope this mapping tool will serve as a supplement to the rich content
of this book and help build greater understanding of the community design
field as a whole. By looking at the examples on the following page, readers
can get a glimpse for how different types of practices have been mapped.
We hope to use research and analysis to create greater transparency
around community design practice as a means to provide practitioners
with the information they need to build their own practices and thus grow
the field. The future of community design is bright with potential, but to
reach that future we must understand how to get there.
21
The Context of Community Design Practice 22
03
A
Underpinnings
A Soul Practitioner
Craig L. Wilkins
24
A Soul Practitioner...
Craig L. Wilkins
As design entrepreneur Dr. Paul Polak first observed in 2005, “the majority
of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and
services exclusively for the richest 10 percent of the world’s customers.
3.2 Paul Polak, M.D., “¡Viva la Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90
Revolución!” October 6, 2011, accessed
percent.” 3.2 In architecture, the gap is even worse. Architect and professor
December 15, 2014, http://
www.paulpolak.com/viva-la-revolucion/. John Gavin Dwyer echoes the statistics verified in other studies and
3.3
publications when he claims, “[q]uite simply, the architecture profession has
John Gavin Dwyer, “Delivering the
goods: Architects must find a way to
failed to create a way to deliver design that's accessible to the other 98
bring better design to more people,” percent.” 3.3 There are a myriad of reasons for this, beginning with the fact
Residential Architect, June 2007.
that most people don’t know or understand a lot of what architects do—
3.4 In his article, “Delivering the and what they think they know has very little to do with the lives of
Goods,” Dwyer states, “According to
everyday people. 3.4 But what if things were different? What if the vast
RSMeans cost data, the average
residential architect charges about 10 majority of the public knew exactly what the profession provides? What if
percent of the construction cost for all people could see the everyday and long-term value of architectural
design. Standard practices place the
bulk of this payment before bidding. If services? What if architects worked to provide those services to the many
bids come back over budget, the typical people who are traditionally positioned outside their target clientele? It is
contract deflects any responsibility from
the architect and gives the owner three
about community design, yes; but also about something more. In essence, it asks
options: Get more money, redesign important questions about just whom architecture is intended to serve.
(and pay more in design fees), or
abandon the project….So, if I hire an
architect to design my $300,000 house,
I would have to shell out an additional
$30,000 up front without any guarantee
that what's designed will meet my
budget. If it doesn't, I either need to beg
for more money or throw my $30K in a
recycling bin. How many people can
afford to take that kind of risk?”
A Soul Practitioner... 25
Defining Profession
Professionals wield a Before I begin, I’d like to first make clear what I mean when I use the term
vast amount of profession, and by extension, professionals. The word is often employed
with the assumption of general understanding, but commonly
influence and power
misunderstood and misused in most contexts. This is unfortunate, because
over how our social as socially authorized and legally protected groups, professions have
world is ordered. developed into one of the most important forces we have for ensuring a
just and egalitarian society.
This book is about Still, the proliferation of professions as we know them is a rather recent
community design, phenomenon. In the still-blossoming scholarship in this area, a dominant,
definitive, generally accepted theory about the origin of these new
yes; but also about
professions has yet to be established. In fact, theories abound not only
something more. In about how they’ve come into being, but also whether their continued
essence, it asks existence is really necessary in a modern, information-rich society. Perhaps
important questions the most widely accepted understanding of professions asserts that certain
about just whom minimal conditions must be met for a system of collective living to move
beyond self-interested chaos into a generally ordered community: a
architecture is
method of gathering/creating sustenance and shelter, a method of
intended to serve. knowledge and skill sharing, agreed-upon rules on how to live together, and
methods for keeping well. In an ordered community—we’ll call it a society
—those willing to take on the responsibility of providing those elements
critical to its establishment and well being are thus rewarded for doing so.
Society provides them with a certain amount of standing and prestige for
A Soul Practitioner... 26
3.5 Sarah Wigglesworth, in “The Crisis of their efforts. In turn, those granted this status must promise to use their
Professionalization: British Architecture skills in the best interests of society as a whole. This is essentially the
1993,” states, “The development in the
early nineteenth century of a rationale behind professions.
professional body representing the
interests of architects was motivated by a
desire to secure standards of practice in Reasonable? Of course. Yet this is but one theory. Others range from the
return for status within society. Broadly cynical—that professions are nothing more than an organized cabal of self-
speaking, the profession guaranteed
society that it was the master of an area interested individuals who artificially drive up the value of their services by
of esoteric knowledge. In return, society
rewarded the professional with a claiming production of a higher-quality product than otherwise possible3.5—
respectable salary and social standing.” to the naïve—that professions are a justifiable recognition by society of
Practices. Issue 2. (Spring 1993), 14.
rare abilities, intellect, and moral standards found in only a small, select type/
3.6 Robert Descimon. “The ‘Bourgeoisie
class of person.3.6 Of course there are others still, but for brevity’s sake, I’ll
Seconde’: Social Differentiation in the
Parisian Municipal Oligarchy in the conclude here.
Sixteenth Century, 1500–1610” French
History. v.17. n.4. (2003). p.388-424;
Terence C. Halliday and Charles L.
Now…there’s probably more than a bit of truth in each of the above
Cappell. “Indicators of Democracy in statements, but to begin to make sense of the varied paths each suggests, it
Professional Associations: Elite
Recruitment, Turnover, and Decision might be useful to look at the word itself for some direction:
Making in a Metropolitan Bar Association”
American Bar Foundation Research Journal,
v.4. n.4 (Autumn, 1979), 697-767.
The oldest English usage [of profession] was “avowal or
expression of purpose”. It implied religious and moral motives
3.7C.S. Bellis. “Professions In Society” British
to dedicate oneself to a good end. Even at this early stage,
Actuarial Journal. v.6, n.2, (2000), 320.
societal distrust of these claims was indicated by attaching
3.8 Malham M. Wakin, Brig Gen (Ret.). connotations of deceit.3.7 [Emphasis mine]
Integrity First: Reflections of a Military
Philosopher. (Lanham, MD: Lexington
Books, 2000), 116. The definition above suggests that the acknowledgment of a profession
3.9
was originally predicated on society’s belief that there is something more to
The need that we have for health
care, for example, is unlikely to go away a profession than the desire for wealth or entitlement; that “the very
and it is that need that over time has
generated what we know today as the
existence of the professions results from some fundamental need that
medical profession. It may come as a society has.”,3.8, 3.9 Hence, a profession might be more fully defined as an
surprise to some to learn that the health
care professions do not exist for the sole organized, structured, socially acknowledged practice:
purpose of providing employment to
health care professionals or profits for founded on specialized educational training, the purpose of
health care organizations. It is because of
societal need that our communities which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others,
develop and maintain medical schools and
nursing schools. Similarly, every organized for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from
society will express its interest in justice expectation of other business gain.3.10
by providing some variation of a court
system and a legal profession. We need an
ordered society; we want to be treated Barry Wasserman further clarifies the ethical/moral duty implied by the
fairly; we seek justice. We train our judges
and our lawyers in law schools supported term “disinterested,” which in the quote above refers to a suppression of
by the community because of the
important value that we place on justice.
“Well,” you say, “what about professional athletes?” True, they possess a high
level of specialized knowledge and skill that has taken them some time to
study and apply with confidence. One might put forth a strong argument
that sports provide a particular kind of service to us as a society—
especially, let’s say, during the Olympics for example—and thus render a
public duty. However, “professional” sports do not guarantee that each
member of their “profession” will be competent enough to provide you
with the kinds of public service that you may require. If, in fact that were
true, then what sport itself provides us—the test of athletic skills on the
field, the unknown outcome—would be undermined. If we knew the
outcome, if such were guaranteed, then what would be the purpose of the
test? What public value would it hold for us? The very value of sports is the
fact that we don’t expect the same level of performance. We expect
someone to fail—we just hope it’s the other player. In addition, should one
show the talent—or even potential for talent—one can demand an
opportunity to prove his or her worth sans formal educational means
(minor league, college, developmental leagues, and the like). Even should all
of the above be discounted, there is still the matter of disinterested
judgment. What, exactly, is the disinterested judgment for the public good
exercised in professional sports—which arguably houses the largest group
of self-interested members on the planet? Not to cheat so that the general
public can know the game is fair? Um…steroids, anyone? So, yes, you may
even have the kind of skill needed to become an athlete—and very few do
—this still does not, in the true sense of the term and in the manner in
A Soul Practitioner... 30
A professional is I trust you are getting the picture here: remuneration, possession of a
singular skill, or dedication to a trade do not a profession make. Professional
expected to come up
status requires more. Being a professional is a serious responsibility, wherein
with the correct one must continually ask, “To whom am I ultimately responsible: the public,
answer every time, the profession, my employer/employee, my client or myself?” A professional
and the stakes are is expected to come up with the correct answer every time, and the stakes are
often high. often high. It is not an easy condition to live with, but “[l]iving with a certain
amount of internal conflict is the price professionals pay in exchange for
special status, regulated entry into the field, and some degree of business
3.14 Spector. The Ethical Architect, 8. monopoly.”3.14
mere technical aspects of why and how it stands, what shelter it provides,
what function it facilitates. From a certain perspective, a truer statement is
difficult to find. Regardless of your level of acclimation to the practice, there
are undoubtedly structures in this world that simply take your breath away,
if not make you openly weep from joy and excitement upon a lucky
meeting. True, those buildings might be different for different people, but
the fact remains that, like art, architecture has the ability to move us, both
individually and collectively. No one asks how the statue of David stands.
They simply marvel at its stance. Thus, the claim follows, the real value of
art—and consequently, architecture—is in our heads and hearts. Still, the
tears one might shed upon that chance encounter with works of art or
architecture are not the only method of identifying works of value.
If the real value of art and architecture is in our heads and hearts, design
centers ask, “What is the full range of ways architecture can raise the
heart?” For example, a home where one can feel safe, comfortable, and
able to invite friends and family; where one has neighbors who create social
capital and camaraderie; where one finds a haven from the soul-draining
acts of the world, might raise the heart for some people as much as the
Milwaukee Art Museum does for others. Do not such buildings also
provide important, consciousness-raising, life-affirming moments in our daily
lives? The creation of a process whereby communities can effectively
engage each other and create aesthetically pleasing structures and
neighborhoods—as in Favela-Barrio in Rio, HOMEmade in Bangladesh, and
Mitchells Plain in Cape Town—is as important to the critical thinking about
life as the design of Chandigarh, Pisac, or Seaside. Should that not also rise
to the level of art?
I am not arguing against the kinds of architectural objects that are clearly
singular moments in the architectural narrative. Gaudí, Barragán, Siza, Piano,
Botta, Williams—the list goes on—have produced architecture we’ve rightly
hailed as exemplary. That is not the only architecture that can lay claim to
such accolades, especially when the criteria are broadened. Architect and
professor Bill Hubbard convincingly, albeit narrowly, argues in his book,
Architecture in Three Discourses, that there are at least two other
perspectives on the creation of architecture: as an instance of aesthetic
A Soul Practitioner... 33
out of hand any validity in that line of reasoning. Their concern centers on
the “scarcity of good architecture, not the scarcity of great architecture.
3.22Hal Box. Think Like An Architect. Great architecture has always been scarce.”3.22 The value of architects as
(Austin: University of Texas Press,
professionals lies in the making of habitable buildings and places. The value
2007), 51.
of architects as artists lies in making aesthetically pleasing objects. I would
argue that the former is the most difficult and messy—and ultimately
where the real value, the justification for professional existence resides.
Without it, an architect is no more a professional than the person who
awakens one day with a burning desire to see his or her work in a
museum. They quit their job, buy paint, and work for years until they feel
they’ve developed enough skill and product to exhibit their work. The only
thing that stops them is the judgment of the critic and public. No license
required; no schooling beyond that which they decide to undertake. No
degree required; nothing more than a desire to do. That very person might,
on the other hand, decide that instead of making a sculpture for display or
writing a song for recording, they’d like to design a building for construction.
Should they be allowed to simply do so? Of course not—because there is
something beyond the simple desire and ability to design that is essential in
the title of architect. Architects are professionals—and that requires
something more.
3.24 Bradley Guy, quoting Rex Curry in ethical as well as aesthetic, as a matter of course, every day, routinely
“Community Design Primer.”
Unpublished paper for the
producing works that raise the head and heart.3.24
Environmental Leadership Program.
(February 2002). Community design
has been described as a: The Scientific Argument
[C]omplex set of activities including
architectural design and planning,
To begin the “Architecture is a science, and thus the architect is a scientist”
education and training, community discussion, I’d like to provide a working understanding of the term science.
organizing, land and housing
development activities, research and As defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, science is “the intellectual and
analysis and political advocacy, typically practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and
on the behalf of lower-income and
inner city areas seeking to improve behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and
economic and social conditions and experiment,” employing a specific practice based on the collection and
fulfill physical development needs such
as affordable housing. analysis of empirical data, often referred to as the scientific method.3.25 As
such, science is grounded in logic and reason—observe, hypothesize, test,
3.25
Oxford English Dictionary. (NYC:
Oxford University Press, 1996), 1297.
conclude, repeat, expand—a precise, exacting process of objective
understanding of the observable world.
3.27 Gabrielle Birkner. “MoMA's Lot-Ek makes it to the front pages, at which point the Museum of Modern
Prefab-Housing Project” New York
Sun. (May 29, 2008); also see the
Art becomes interested and we again take the opportunity to hail
Museum of Modern Art’s website for architecture for its dedication to testing ideas.3.27 As a rule, however,
the “Home Delivery: Fabricating the
Modern Dwelling” exhibit, accessed
architects do not invent, test, nor develop technologies; researchers do. The
December 15, 2014. http:// profession of architecture does have scientifically trained and Ph.D.-
www.momahomedelivery.org/.
credentialed researchers who make the aesthetics of scientific investigation
3.28 Gary Stevens. “USA Architects the guiding principle of their praxis, but as a group, this…is not what
Want Status Without Effort” Key
Center For Architectural Research, architects do, in practice or academia.
accessed December 15, 2014, http://
www.archsoc.com/kcas/ While their universities changed around them into research
statusnoresponsibility.html. Also, see
Lori Thurgood, Mary J. Golladay and institutions, the architecture schools never really accepted
Susan T. Hill. US Doctorates in the 20th
Century. National Science Foundation
scholarship as their responsibility…that qualification is not
Special Reports. NSF 06-319. only rare but scorned in architectural academia. Who needs a
(October 2006), 3. The United States
is unique in the extent to which Ph.D .to be a great architect?3.28
fundamental research is conducted at
universities, typically with the assistance Notably, the work of design centers provides a compelling response to the
of graduate students. Doctoral
education is organized around an contention that architects don’t do scientific research.
intensive, real-world research
experience...American doctoral
education produces cutting-edge
The practice of architecture emerges from both a specific socio-cultural
knowledge and highly trained need as well as a desire to go beyond it, and its creation tells us much
personnel who go on to fill specialized
positions as teachers, researchers, and about who we are as a society. Similar to the manner in which a spoon,
professionals in academe, industry,
government, and nonprofit
while coming in a variety of types and designs, is at its base fundamentally
organizations. grounded in our everyday actions and speaks to specific ways of living. For
3.29
example, one can convincingly argue the development of the spoon
Blogger Charles Davis, Jr. tells a
story of poet and urban philosopher evolved out of a moment in time when Western culture decided that
June Jordan’s self-education in design,
which included a perspective-changing
eating with an instrument was preferable.3.29 So too, is architecture an
encounter with a depiction of a spoon artifact that speaks to how we live. Thus, architecture isn’t just for architects;
at the Donnell library:“At the Donnell
I lost myself among rooms and to the contrary, it is less for architects than it is for the society in which they
doorways and Japanese gardens and
Bauhaus chairs and spoons. The picture
practice.
of a spoon, of an elegant, spare utensil
as common in its purpose as a spoon, Because architecture responds to the larger question of who we are as a
and as lovely and singular in its form as
sculpture, utterly transformed my ideas social organization, I propose that architects who claim a scientific stance
about the possibilities of design in should seek to emulate the social sciences of sociology, psychology and
relation to human existence.”
June Jordan. “One Way of Starting this behavioral science, rather than the natural sciences such as biology,
Book,” Civil Wars (Boston: Beacon
Press, 1981), xvi-xvii. As first seen at
chemistry, physics and the like, although Christopher Alexander would likely
Race and Architecture, blog, accessed
December 15, 2014, at http://
raceandarchitecture.wordpress.com/
2013/11/26/writing-and-building-black-
utopianism-representing-the-
architextural-musings-of-june-jordans-
his-own-where-1971/#_ftn4.
A Soul Practitioner... 37
3.30 See Christopher Alexander’s disagree.3.30 I assert that the discipline of architecture has much in common
“New concepts in complexity theory
arising from studies in the field of
with these disciplines, sometimes referred to as the sciences of quality. The
architecture: An overview of the four work of design centers clearly demonstrates this commonality.
books of The Nature of Order with
emphasis on the scientific problems
which are raised.” (May 2003), Design centers work methodically with social groups over time, discerning
accessed December 15, 2014, http://
www.natureoforder.com/library-of-
and understanding the causes as well as the effects of a community’s
articles.htm. material conditions, and using that knowledge in a systemic, reproducible
manner to address the built environment. This is indeed scientific research,
designed to be shared, applied, and refined over time by other
practitioners. In fact, it is a design center’s ability to engage in this kind of
iterative, objective research that often prompts clients to seek them out.
When a community seeks the help of a design center—and particularly
when that community has been historically underserved—its members’
questions concerning design may encompass the narrow definition of
architecture as aesthetic practice, but are also typically embedded and
linked to a larger context of environmental concerns that a design center is
uniquely equipped to investigate.
The biggest nod to the scientific nature of design centers (and the social
science heritage of design research in general) lies in the nature and
applicability of its research across practitioners and disciplines. To quote the
biologist Brian Goodwin:
But how are such promises secured? There must be an objective standard
that both the public and the profession can trust, as well as an objective
method of testing and monitoring that standard in practice. In the United
States as in many other nations, the building code is the answer to the first
and the building inspector the second.
Codes are basically standards that have been developed and disseminated
to ensure a basic level of compliance for all building types. Failure to follow
these rules can result in expulsion from the profession and, depending on
the severity of the infraction, civil and criminal charges as well. The
profession requires that its members follow codes religiously—as it should
—but based on its claim to professional status, this begs the question: Is
simply applying the code—already established by other entities—enough
to claim exclusive and proprietary responsibility of ensuring the public
HSW? It’s a valid question. Again, design centers provide a clear, viable
answer to this primary element of architecture’s professional responsibility.
be contained to the building itself. Concern for HSW must, by nature and
purpose, be extended to the built environment.
These are the kinds of concerns that legitimize the professional status of
architecture, not simply making sure a building doesn’t collapse. Since
Raphael Sperry, Stephen Vogel, and others will discuss this proposition later
Clearly, the act of in the book, I won’t belabor the point here. Clearly, the act of taking on the
ethical dilemmas of building must begin, not end, with simply keeping buildings
taking on the ethical
upright.
dilemmas of building
must begin, not end, Architecture and Its Discontents
with simply keeping Understandably, the position I stake out is a controversial one—and has
buildings upright. been for at least half a century. Its main rebuttal takes the form of
something akin to this statement: “That kind of responsibility is way beyond
the scope of what architects are supposed to provide. I don’t want to do it;
I won’t do it—it’s not what I signed up for.” The simple response to this is
that as a professional, it’s exactly what you signed up for. And in today’s
world, it is even more important to acknowledge this and act accordingly.
A Soul Practitioner... 41
Even further than the need for professional knowledge is the need for such
knowledge to be employed—to the best of one person’s ability— in a
manner best suited to ensure an overall public benefit. To do that, one must
be able to go beyond the limits of both individual and professional gain.
One must act within One must act within a larger spectrum of common concerns that include not
a larger spectrum of only one’s area of expertise, but those of other professions and their members
as well. This is not an insignificant responsibility, yet it is the choice one
common concerns
makes when one chooses to join a profession. To abdicate that
that include not only responsibility is to engage in professional malfeasance, if not professional
one’s area of and social suicide.
expertise, but those
For these reasons, professional education begins as a liberal education, to
of other professions bind knowledge with judgment in the interests of the common good.
and their members as Engaging the broader questions of building is what keeps the licensed
well. practitioner in the position of legal authority, based on the moral and
ethical considerations from which the profession itself operates. However
uncomfortable one may be with moral imperatives, it is simply inexcusable
that the deeper ethical exploration of architecture has all but left the
building.
A Soul Practitioner... 42
If it is true that the architect is hired at least in part to take on the ethical
dilemmas of building, can it truly be said that those questions begin and end
solely with what is legal, particularly when legal requirements change all the
time? How can a profession exist, as a profession, without a sustained
discussion about its ethical responsibility, which by definition goes beyond
legal definitions? Ethics are supposed to be messy. All professional codes of
ethics outline actions, but the exceptional ones attempt to define why
those actions are appropriate or not. By simply following the regulation
itself, one fails to understand the thinking behind it—and as a result, one
endangers the status of the profession itself. I, and others more
knowledgeable than me, argue that the notion of ethics transcends legality,
that what is legally correct is not always ethically justifiable. Professionals
must understand the difference and act accordingly. Where, exactly, is the
critical thinking necessary to ethical behavior, if one is simply following
codes and perhaps actually ignoring needs?
Long ago, professions like law and medicine embraced the fundamental
axiom that to deny someone access to their services diminishes their claim
to professional status and the monopoly on which it rests. Homelessness,
sick buildings, the aftermath of hurricanes Gustav, Katrina and Sandy,
concentration of poverty, spatial profiling, environmental injustice, redlining,
and the prevalence of the NIMBY mentality all across our nation and the
world, demand a significant shift away from the limited, and frankly self-
serving, interpretation of the profession’s HSW responsibilities. The role of
the professional architect is no different than the role of any other
professional: to balance the needs/desires of public interest with the needs/
desires of private individuals within the constraints of their expertise. To the
best of one’s ability, professional practice requires the exercise of the
highest moral, ethical, social, and fiduciary judgment for the benefit of all
who engage the built environment, even should that judgment signal an
outcome that is personally distasteful to the individual professional. As a
professional, one is always in service to the many, even if only a few or one
is financing one’s actions. As long as you ply your trade in the civic arena,
you are by very definition working for all people, and upholding the public
trust is paramount. Without it, the profession—the legally protected
monopoly over the stewardship of the built environment—ceases to exist.
A Soul Practitioner... 43
Raphael Sperry
45
Design Corps
Founded in 1991, Design Corps is a nonprofit organization that provides
architectural services primarily to rural communities that lack access to
design expertise. Past projects have included designing housing for migrant
farm workers and holding community planning workshops in rural towns.
Unlike charity projects, these efforts are a powerful critique of national
disinvestment in the rural environment and lack of commitment to
farmworkers’ rights. Design Corps challenges the status quo, demonstrating
not only that architects can make a real contribution to poor, rural
communities; but also that we should do so, with the theme that good
4.3 DesignCorps: Projects. https:// design should be accessible to all.4.3 The work of Design Corps answers a
designcorps.org/about/projects/ resounding “yes” to the question of whether there is a professional
(accessed July 17, 2014).
imperative to serve a wider audience.
ADPSR claims that what other architects do—in fact, what all architects do
as a whole—is part of the context for each individual project, establishing a
reciprocity between the profession and the professional that gives rise to
both obligations and opportunities. For example, architects use contextual
concerns to tell clients that sensitive wetlands are not an appropriate place
to put a surface parking lot, or that their proposed housing density is not
Health, Safety & Welfare for All 48
These small but significant initiatives demonstrate the kinds of activity that
can reestablish the architectural profession’s position as champion of the
If architects continue public HSW. If architects continue to wait for the law to establish what is right
to wait for the law to or wrong for the built environment, then we add nothing to public protection
that cannot be achieved without us. These examples show how the
establish what is right
profession can be proactive, rather than reactive, in serving the public
or wrong for the built interest.
environment, then we
Architecture inherently works one project at a time, but as a profession it
add nothing to public
stands for more than just the shaping of one building after another:
protection that architecture produces the physical surroundings that give meaning to
cannot be achieved individual and community life. Crucially, it is only through the collective
without us. output of the profession as a whole that the meaning of architectural work
becomes apparent. One must see a building in the context of its landscape,
society, and culture to understand the meaning our profession produces.
Sheri Blake
50
Community designers Community design is a term often used today to refer to neighborhood
value both process and planning or to participatory design. However, its roots go deeper than that.
product. They seek to The concept was born of 1960s anti-war and anti-poverty social justice
activism, and its definition is quite broad.
demystify expert
practice and at the Community designers value both process and product. They seek to demystify
expert practice and at the same time learn to value local knowledge. Arthur
same time learn to
Mehrhoff, in his book Community Design: A Team Approach to Dynamic
value local knowledge. Community Systems, explains that community designers understand that
design is not solely about "fashioning more handsome buildings, interesting
5.1 W. Arthur Mehrhoff, Community views, or attractive landscapes,” but also about providing citizens of local
Design: A Team Approach to Dynamic
Community Systems (Thousand Oaks, communities with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary “to shape
CA: Sage Publications, 1999), 122. their own preferred futures by acquiring and applying information and
knowledge about their communities in a far more systematic, thoughtful,
5.2 Flora Hardy first defined community and democratic manner than current practice.”5.1 Community designers are
design as encompassing “aesthetics, informed by an understanding of the complex issues of power, gender, race,
affordability and accessibility” in “Just
Design? The role of community design class, and related aspects of oppression and inequality, and take action to
centers in accommodating overcome them. They strive to shift control of assets and power in the
difference” (Unpublished paper,
Brooklyn, N.Y.: Pratt Center for
decision-making process to structurally disadvantaged communities. Thus,
Community Development, 1997), 2. Flora Hardy and this author argue community design encompasses
Sheri Blake extended the definition of
aesthetics, affordability, accessibility (political, economic, social, cultural, and
accessibility, beyond physical accessibility
and clarified that community design also environmental), collaboration, communication, and knowledge sharing.5.2
encompasses “collaboration,
communication and knowledge sharing,”
in “Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes The First Twenty Years
Needed by Community Designers” Plan
Canada 46-4 (2006): 43.
To a certain degree, the history of community design centers (CDCs) mirrors the
history of planning theory. Initially, both designers and planners failed to
acknowledge the socioeconomic and technical forces that shaped suburban
5.3 Eduardo E. Lozano, Community development and led to inner city decline.5.3 Eduardo Lozano, in Community
Design and The Culture of Cities Design and The Culture of Cities, indicates that both designers and planners
(Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press, 1990), 7.
Defining/Redefining Community Design 51
often supported these forces by creating built forms, like high-rise public
housing and suburban strip malls, which contributed to further decline.
Giancarlo De Carlo, in his article “Architecture’s Public,” describes how the
design profession restricted itself to:
...more and more African American architects in 1965 in Los Angeles in response to the
design experts began Watts riots. He goes on to note that:
to realize local
residents had Their skills were used in developing a communications system
for the community, explaining various aspects of urban
significant political
renewal, urban planning and transportation networks. The
skills, often better than major objective of the Urban Workshop was to eliminate the
most planners and negative structural characteristics and growth dynamics of
designers... communities in South Central Los Angeles as a base from
which to design and implement new approaches to
5.11 Richard Dozier, ed., “CDC community and regional planning.5.11
Info” (Washington, D.C.: American
Institute of Architects, 1972), 7.
In addition, the booklet lists the Real Great Society/Urban Planning Studio
(RGS) in East Harlem, New York, as opening in 1966. As the first Puerto
Rican CDC, RGS expanded the interdisciplinary model of CDCs to include
teams of architects, planners, community members, students, sociologists,
economists, and lawyers, while at the same time, recruiting trainees from
the Puerto Rican and African American communities. Further, the Black
Workshop was formed at Yale School of Architecture in 1968, becoming
“the first all-black group of architecture students to organize in a major
5.12 Dozier, 8. white school.”5.12 While working on community projects, they developed a
curriculum to deliver university resources to the community and educated
young architects about the social realities facing communities. Finally, in
response to Whitney M. Young’s accusations, the AIA created a task force in
1968, comprised of equal numbers of white and African American
members that “initiated the Ford/AIA Scholarship, an on-the-job training
program and a program for black architects to teach at black schools of
architecture. [Their support] led to the founding of the Council of Black
5.13 Dozier, 9. Architectural Schools (COBAS),”5.13 an effort that, in turn, led to the first
accreditation of three African American architecture schools in 1970.
Around the same time, more and more design experts began to realize local
residents had significant political skills, often better than most planners and
designers; the design profession acknowledged that their experts could, in
fact, learn much from the expertise of local residents. As a result, by the
Defining/Redefining Community Design 54
1970s public participation was on the agenda. Dozier notes that in 1966,
citizen participation in community development was mandated by law as
part of the Model Cities Program; a year later, Sherry Arnstein published “A
ladder of citizen participation” in which she explores eight levels from non-
participation (therapy and manipulation), tokenism (informing, consultation,
5.14 Sherry Arnstein, “A ladder of placation), to citizen power (partnership, delegated power, citizen control).5.14
citizen participation,” Journal of the Comerio believes community designers saw participation as an opportunity
American Institute of Planners 35-4
(1969): 216-224. for greater dialogue and direct involvement of everyone who had a stake in
an issue. However, they continued to debate ethical questions related to
who should participate, what process is appropriate contextually, and when
5.15 Comerio, 234. a process becomes manipulative or begins to exclude others.5.15 In the
1970s and 1980s, as advocacy planning evolved, a range of models and
theories also emerged that included, but were not limited to, equity planning
(building alliances between planners and progressive politicians), transactive
planning (mutual learning between expert and community client by
recognizing the value of experiential knowledge) and empowerment or
radical planning (working “for structural transformation” to address
5.16 Sandercock, 93-102. “systemic inequalities,” with the goal of shifting the focus from planning for,
to planning with communities).5.16
The early 1980s signaled a shift in the manner in which designers and
planners in the field would operate for the next decade. Largely influenced
by Reaganomics, funding gradually dried up, forcing design centers to shift to
a more pragmatic practice. Moving away from trying to identify universal
and utopian solutions, CDCs focused more on local activism and direct
5.17 Comerio, 234. social service delivery.5.17 By this time, their primary client—community-
based development organizations (CBDOs)—had become sophisticated
enough to afford fee-for-service support from design centers. Large
community design practices, situated in university settings with institutional
backing, were able to conduct policy research and political advocacy, provide
direct service delivery, and develop training programs in community and
economic development. It is within this context that The Pratt Institute
Center for Community Development (PICCD) was established in Brooklyn,
New York in 1963. Generally believed to be the oldest continuing university-
affiliated community design center, PICCD initially began as an advocacy
practice, with professors and students providing support to local residents
Defining/Redefining Community Design 55
and municipal authorities in planning and design. By the early 1980s, PICCD
had evolved to provide research for political advocacy, design and
development services, and education and training.
Two years after the program had begun, an elderly man called
the agency because he heard that they made small beds and
he wanted one. In his room, his present bed only fit one way
and the roof leaked right over his head. With a smaller bed,
he could position it in the other direction and avoid getting
wet. The agency told him that he could have the bed, but that
they would like to see his room and talk to him about the
problems in his building. To make a long story short, this man
Defining/Redefining Community Design 56
By the early 1980s, community design centers were involved in “small town
conservation, historic preservation, downtown economic revitalization,
management of neighborhood change, landscape and building assessment,
use of appropriate technology and alternative energy sources, local
5.19 Mark Francis, "Community Design," landscape development, urban farming, and the shaping of urban policy.”5.19
Journal of Architectural Education 37-1 They also engaged in social architecture (conscious design to support
(1983): 14.
certain social outcomes) design/build projects, and training for community
residents and CBDOs in management and maintenance of local parks,
housing cooperatives, and street improvements once the design and
development was complete. Community design centers also supported
community ownership and advocated for good design to expand public
environmental awareness. Stephen Sheppard, in “Monitoring Change at the
Grass Roots,” indicates that planners and designers were encouraging local
residents to carry out planning and design appraisals of their
neighborhoods, record important natural and human-made features, map
spaces including eyesores as well as changes over time, identify important
5.20 Stephen R.J. Sheppard, "Monitoring views, and collect oral histories.5.20
Change at the Grass Roots" Landscape
Architecture 73-3 (1983): 54. Through all of this effort, a distinctive community design style emerged.
Designers began to understand that the ability for an environment to
evolve is critical to good design. Realizing that design can contribute to the
creation of good places, the true test of success is in the social meaning
and local ownership a place develops over time. Francis believes this can
only be achieved by the ability to understand how past projects and local
experience have informed design decisions, to grasp how this translates
into design, to recognize the economic impact it will have on a
5.21 Francis, 18. neighborhood, and to articulate a range of alternatives.5.21 Randolph Hester,
in “Process CAN Be Style,” articulates the design differences between
modernism and a practice that uplifts conservation and participation, and is
5.22 Randolph T. Hester, "Process CAN predicated on the user becoming an artist/architect.5.22 Community
Be Style: Participation and Conservation
in Landscape Architecture" Landscape
Architecture 73-3 (1983): 49-50.
Defining/Redefining Community Design 57
designers moved away from modernism and its focus on “joining materials”
to an emphasis on human movement and activity, not deciding the end
product in advance but allowing it to evolve through the process. Comerio
argues that this demonstrates how community design is different from
conventional practice; the focus is on client rather than building type and
on problem setting, not problem solving. There is a recognition that the
product and process are not clearly defined from the outset, and that
supports are bottom-up (grassroots) rather than top-down (government-
5.23 Comerio, 238. dictated), toward a goal of “political and enabling empowerment.”5.23 Hester
believes this type of design is flexible enough to support the incremental
5.24 Hester, "Process CAN Be Style”, changes that occur over time.5.24
52.
In the early 1980s, community design centers that could not adapt
struggled. Unable to easily secure loans when their primary goal was
service delivery as opposed to profit-making, they were forced to search
out clients or initiate their own projects rather than waiting for CBDOs to
come to them first. As a result, many failed and closed down their
operations.
5.35 Rex Curry, “The History of are limitations. Rex Curry, in “The History of Community Design,” explains
Community Design,” in Cary, Jr., 51-5. that too often, volunteer processes become limited to “step one”: defining
5.36 Jacqueline Leavitt 1994, as quoted the problem and a visioning process.5.35 Although it is possible to connect
in Sandercock, 98. the community vision to a plan of action, there may not be the capacity,
5.37 Thomas Kingsley, J. B. McNeely and
political will, or democratic mechanism necessary to sustain the process. As
J.O. Gibson. Community-Building: Coming of Jacqueline Leavitt clarifies, the goal is not simply “to create a plan [or a
Age (Washington, D.C.: The Urban project] as much as it is to generate a political process that involves plans,
Institute, 1997): 3.
programs [and projects].”5.36
5.38 Hester, “Process CAN Be Style,” 51.
5.39 In addition to books by Hester and Today
Mehrhoff, other key texts include: Roger
Hart, Children's Participation: The Theory
Similar to CBDOs, community design centers have shifted from a primary
and Practice of Involving Young Citizens in focus on community participation to integrating participation with
Community Development and
community building. The central theme of community building is a shift
Environmental Care (London: Earthscan
Publications Ltd., 1997); Stanley King et al, from a focus on poverty alleviation to poverty reduction. Thomas Kingsley, J.
Co-Design: A Process of Design Participation McNeely, and J. Gibson, in Community Building: Coming of Age, clarify that the
(New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold,
1989): William R. Morrish and Catherine goal “is to obliterate feelings of dependency and to replace them with
R. Brown, Planning to Stay (University of attitudes of self-reliance, self-confidence, and responsibility.”5.37 At the same
Minnesota: The Design Center for
American Urban Landscape, 1999);
time, participation tools and techniques have developed and evolved
Henry Sanoff, Community Participation significantly since community design centers were first established, and
Methods in Design and Planning (New
from the time when Karl Linn and M. Paul Friedberg simply encouraged
York: John Wiley & Sons, 2000); Nick
Wates, The Community Planning neighbors to help them design.5.38 A range of authors have written books
Handbook: How People Can Shape Their and manuals on participation tools and techniques in both planning and
Cities,Towns and Villages in Any Part of
the World (London: Earthscan design.5.39 Resident groups are encouraged to be more proactive and take a
Publications Ltd., 2000). As well, Wendy central role.
Sarkissian has co-authored extensively on
this subject, in particular the Community Some community design centers have integrated good participation
Participation in Practice series (Murdoch
University, Australia: Institute for processes with community building. Detroit Collaborative Design Center
Sustainability and Technology Policy, (DCDC), the engagement arm of the University of Detroit-Mercy School
1994-2002) and most recently SpeakOut:
The Step-by-Step Guide to SpeakOuts
of Architecture, was established in 1995. DCDC developed methods of
and Community Workshops (London: participation that include capacity building through mutual learning. A film,
Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2009). A Detroit Collaborative Design Center…amplifying the diminished voice, directed
useful website is Deane M. Evans,
“Affordable Housing Design Advisor,” by this author, highlights DCDC’s process of drawing out experiential
http://www.designadvisor.org. (accessed knowledge at the same time as it builds literacy in design and
September 2009)
development.5.40 DCDC has developed partnerships with a range of
5.40 Sheri Blake, dir., Detroit
agencies and specialists who can provide complementary technical
Collaborative Design Center…amplifying
the diminished voice (Winnipeg: Sou assistance or build additional capacity. For example, the Nonprofit Facilities
International Ltd., Non-fiction
Documentary, 62 minutes, 2006).
Defining/Redefining Community Design 61
I get phone calls regularly. I need money. I don’t need all the
other stuff. Can you help me out? It’s not about the money. It’s
about the commitment, the community, who is involved, how
committed is the whole community to the process….We
take [CBDOs] through a think cycle to measure and assess
whether they are in a position to develop the project they
propose to do…where is your market, where’s your demand,
where’s your Board capacity? Are you able to raise this
amount of money? Where’s the commitment? What kind of
study have you done?...These organizations are feeding
people; they are providing community services, health care.
None of them went to school to be a developer. We work
through funding, financing, real estate issues, design issues,
readiness issues, managing the team, so they are ready to hire
5.41 Blake, Detroit Collaborative Design the right professionals to help them through the process.5.41
Center…amplifying the diminished voice.
There are precedents for core funding of CDCs. Dorgan notes the Hamer
Center at Penn State University, Metropolitan Design Center at the
University of Minnesota, and the Carl Small Town Center at Mississippi
5.42 Dorgan, 13. State University are all funded with endowments.5.42 Funders, politicians, and
policy makers need to refocus attention to the long term, which suggests
that funding also needs to be provided to marginalized communities to
collaborate with design centers, when they find themselves under attack
from developers and government agencies, and the designers who support
these constituencies. Pyatok adds:
Finally, it is important to note that community design centers also face the
problem of misappropriated, overused, or rhetorical vocabulary, resulting in
The term “clinic,” misunderstandings about the profession in the media. The term “clinic,”
sometimes used in the sometimes used in the literature on community design, implies they are similar
to traditional legal and medical professional services in low-income
literature on
neighborhoods. These legal and medical services function to meet the needs
community design, and uphold the rights of low- and moderate-income people. They are
implies that CDCs are primarily reactive, post-trauma services and are supported by public policy
similar to traditional that invests in technologically sophisticated systems, often resulting in
legal and medical increased hospital, insurance, and courtroom costs. In contrast, community
design centers commit to a proactive partnership primarily with CBDOs in
professional services in
distressed urban and rural areas. This partnership is intended to be
low-income collaborative and is based on a trial-and-error process, composed of a
neighborhoods. variety of small projects owned and managed locally. The community design
process, as Curry explains:
Summary
Pyatok notes that design should not become a “cultural legitimization for
the inordinate preoccupation with property values held by elements of the
5.55 Pyatok, 810. larger society.”5.55 Design certainly has a role to play, but design in and of
itself is not the answer. As Lozano describes:
Sandercock defines the need for a set of qualities rather than a shopping
list of skills, methods, and competencies that primarily define professionally
driven education. She identifies five essential literacies: technical, analytical,
multi-or cross-cultural, ecological, and design. These “form the acronym
TAMED, appropriately suggesting a frame of mind more humble, open, and
5.57 Sandercock, 225. collaborative than that of the heroic, modernist planner [and designer].”5.57
She suggests a more culturally inclusive history of struggles over urban
space, connected to “the poetics of occupying particular places.” She notes
that understanding how design subordinates, excludes, or generates
positive social and psychological aspects does not make it deterministic.
5.58 Sandercock, 229. Instead it “enriches its capacity to create meaning.”5.58 Design needs to be
addressed within the framework of community organizing, community
economic development, and capacity building, and recognized for its
limitations in contributing to social transformation. This requires greater
collaboration among planners, designers, artists, and communities.
Community design centers can serve as the critical framework for this to
occur, based on a long history of multidisciplinary and collaborative work
with CBDOs and local residents.
06
A
Actions
Sometimes, the very groups such work is targeted to assist also have their
concerns with community design centers. Community organizations can
sometimes struggle with academic programs because they are, by necessity,
semester-based. The reality of community projects does not neatly fit into a
semester pattern, and many a studio have initially engaged very excited
community organizations only to leave them ultimately disgruntled because
the students and faculty walked away from the project at the end of the
term, regardless the project’s status.
up to the charge, if The elements formulated above—good design for clients who do not have
only they have a means the ability to pay, a non-semester basis of service, and a service to the
to do so. public agenda—are the foundations for the creation of community design
centers.
The Foundations of Community Design Centers 73
The services of CDCs run the entire gamut of physical or social needs that
might be found in any community—e.g., furniture design, graphic design,
interior design, product design, architecture, landscape architecture, urban
planning, urban design, design for the disabled, and design for the elderly.
Many also play an important role in making policy at the local, state and/or
national level. An enterprising few go so far as to engage in real estate
development in communities where for-profit developers will not work.
Although these design centers are often effective in filling the design “gap”
in communities, there’re not nearly enough to deal with the issues facing
both our urban and rural poor. Money’s in short supply for such ventures. It
would not be illogical to conclude that the inadequate funding of CDCs is
related to the prevailing view that design is not a critical component in
community sustainability, thus failing to rise to the level of health, education,
social services and other programs that compete with design centers for
charitable dollars.
The Foundations of Community Design Centers 74
2. Practices within the academy. Theses CDCs are formed to fulfill the
public mission of universities or schools of architecture, and are primarily
funded by contracts and grants and supplemented through low-cost or free
services of students and faculty. The university may also provide indirect
expenses such as space, utilities, and the like to advance the university
mission of community engagement.
Institute of Architects to receive their “buy-in” and support. The AIA was
asked to provide mentors to work with students on community-based
projects—which they readily did. Finally, a program was established with
architectural firms where the firms were the “architect of record” for
projects that were funded for implementation and either partnered with
the DCDC through the initial design stages of the project or the project
was totally turned over to the firm after the funds were raised to complete
the project
Words Matter
Clearly, there is a need for CDCs. Within the profession, architects need to
promote the idea that marginalized communities require good design as
much as or even more so than wealthy communities; understanding,
however, that their approach, including their descriptions of the work, must
not perpetuate privilege and power. This is particularly true when the
design center staff is white and the clients are people of color.
Summary
Design centers must Design centers must provide the same quality of design and service that high-
provide the same end professional firms provide their wealthy clients. Properly founded, CDCs
perform a public service that the profession and the schools of architecture
quality of design and
have difficulty filling, and perhaps even provide a model on how this work
service that high-end can change the nature of practice and education. They can be a truly
professional firms alternative form of practice with major impacts on society as a whole. To
provide their wealthy realize this promise, they must follow a set of principles that will help
clients. students and architects to see the public duty, professional value, and
potential personal fulfillment of community work.
These are also the same for any design center. The first two items are fairly
obvious, while the third may be understood, but a bit ambiguous. Often,
design centers begin with their passion and expertise for doing good
meaningful work and forget to ask the stakeholders in the community to
The Activity of Activism 81
help determine what kind of work the center should engage. So, before
making such a critical decision, Ask the community. Do not assume to know
Ask the obvious what is needed. Ask the obvious questions: Who is the community engaged
by the center? Is it local to a city or a district within a city? Is it regional?
questions:
Does the center extend to a national or international agenda? The Detroit
Collaborative Design Center [DCDC] focuses on Detroit for
approximately 90 percent of its projects. But it has worked in places like
New Orleans, New York City, Los Angeles, and Dallas. It does this as a way
to perform urban reconnaissance: working in these other contexts helps
the staff of the DCDC better understand the context in Detroit. The
academically based Miami University Center for Community Engagement’s
epicenter is specifically the Over-the-Rhine district of Cincinnati. Its physical
location is on Vine Street within this neighborhood, although the university’s
campus is in Oxford, Ohio, about an hour away. The work and clientele
parameters of both the DCDC and MUCCE emerged out of critical
thought and extended conversation within the community with which they
engage.
Several outcomes from this decision became evident. First, the immediate
proximity of the Design Center in the School of Architecture gives a more
direct opportunity for student engagement with the DCDC, as well as
The Activity of Activism 82
7.2 The key words here are “active” and giving members of the community opportunities to engage with the
“meaningful.” Just because an idea or a
students. It also keeps the activities of the DCDC visible and tangible to all
series of ideas are presented to “the
public” for their comments does not at the university, including administration and staff. The DCDC is not
make for an active and meaningful forgotten—not vulnerable to being “out of sight; out of mind.”
process. For a process to effectively
engage its participants, it should follow a
basic set of criteria similar to the
The participatory workshop process has at its core the idea that creative
following: 1. The process should be limited making comes from the synthesis of creative listening and creative thinking.
to 15-20 people. It should not be a Workshops are not a method to achieve specific and particular responses.
lecture to 50-200 people. If there are
more than twenty people, the number They are a series of designed activities that are active and meaningful to
should be broken down into smaller encourage dialogue that potentially reveal hidden intentions, agendas,
groups. 2. The process should include
varied methods for people to engage in
desires, and needs. 7.2 They should not attempt to put words into the
the decision-making. This allows those stakeholders’ mouths; their aim is to listen to the words of each stakeholder
with varying levels of comfort with “public
and find connections and relationships that reveal other possibilities. 7.3
speaking” to have an opportunity for their
voices to be heard. 3. There should always Case in point: the Detroit Collaborative Design Center was in the process
be a mutual knowledge sharing between of designing a public recreational park in Southwest Detroit when the
all people involved and in all aspects of
the project. Thus, the designers are not stakeholders requested to surround the perimeter of the park with a six-
merely taking notes, they are learning as foot iron fence. The facilitators and designers cannot take a specific
much as everyone else. 4. There should be
sincerity in the process. Sincerity brings
directive like this at face value. When we probed a bit deeper, we learned
trust. Trust uncovers information that may that the fence was their design solution to handle a larger and very specific
never be revealed in more traditional
issue. The park currently exists as a large open area of dirt and grass, about
processes. This information can become
the key element that allows the design to two-thirds of a city block. Drivers jump the curb in their vehicles and do
truly engage its stakeholders. “donuts” there, ripping up the grass. To the stakeholders, the sole solution
was to surround the park with a fence. We shared with them through
7.3 This chapter will not discuss the
design drawings and precedent images that striating the park with varied
methods of workshop delivery or other
participatory design processes. There are grade changes, particularly at the perimeter of the park, would cause the
significant resources available centering on vehicles to “bottom out” (Figures 1,2). The result of this probing is a design
this topic. In short, there are methods of
working with people and methods for
for the park environment that feels open and inviting, while not being
people working. Or there are ways of susceptible to vehicle trespassing, which is ultimately what the residents
bringing people together and what do
were trying to achieve with the fence. It is the responsibility of the
you do once they are there. Please refer
to Henry Sanoff. Community Participation workshop facilitators and designers to filter through the information
Methods in Design and Planning. (New (creative listening), synthesize it and find connections (creative thinking), and
York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000). Nick
Wates. The Community Planning develop a series of recommendations (creative making).
Handbook. (London: Earthscan
Publications Ltd., 2000). and the video It is important from the start to define a methodology of community
documentary: Sheri Blake. Detroit engagement where mutual knowledge sharing is the core as opposed to
Collaborative Design Center: Amplifying
the Diminished Voice. (Winnipeg, Canada: community service that establishes a hierarchal working relationship with
Sou International Ltd., 2006).
The Activity of Activism 83
Figure 1
the design center at the top. 7.4 I make this distinction because several
7.4 Mutual knowledge sharing is centers use the word service, when what they really mean to say is
defined for the purposes of this essay engagement. When community stakeholders hear the word service, they
as the exchange of information across
hear an underlying subtext that suggests they are incapable of defining and
all participants where everyone is
giving and receiving, including the maintaining the direction of their neighborhoods, and we outsiders are
needed to help them escape certain disaster. Removing the notion of
service from the process helps establish a meaningful engagement with the
community, versus the community feeling like they are the subjects of
scientific experiments. In Detroit, we have heard neighborhood residents
use the phrase “lab rats” countless times when referring to the methods
and means many universities use when working in the city. Tom Dutton, in
his essay, “Engaging the School of Social Life,” explains it this way:
Figure 2
degree the center will provide design assistance versus mediate between
designers and clientele. Each diagram will establish a matrix of decisions
7.5 The order in which the diagrams forming an operational structure. 7.5
are defined in this essay does not
reflect the order in which they should
be considered. In fact, working with Step 3a: Organizational Matrix: Who we are.
each chart may not be a linear task.
You may work on each diagram
simultaneously, because the content
of one diagram will directly relate to
another, and visa versa. 0% Research 100% Projects
Projects
0% Academic 100% Professional
0% Professional
Professional Academic
100% Academic
50/50
Research
Figure 3
Organizational Matrix 100% Research 0% Projects
Visit the DCDC website for
TheOrganizational
Organizational MatrixMatrix
(Figure 3) sets up two axes of relational dualities
usable downloadable diagrams.
Please see the end of the chapter (Figure 3). Axis 1 is the Professional Office and/or Academic Department,
for Diagrams filled in the the and Axis 2 is the Project-Based Center and/or Research-Based Center.
Detroit Collaborative Design These lines do not separate, but connect and establish a field for making
Center (DCDC) Information. decisions. As stated previously, the charts tend toward the both/and, as well
as shades of gray. This suggests that the responses marked on this matrix
The Activity of Activism 86
may not be exactly on either axis; but will most likely be within the green
and gray Cartesian field defined by the axes.
Axis 1: Professional/Academic
The activity of constant, while the students are replaced every semester. This makes a total
of around ten full-time-equivalent (FTE) employees at any given time of the
research is to “search
year.
closely”—to search
and re-search, again In the introduction to this volume, the bcWorkshop in Dallas (and now
with a center in Houston) was introduced through a project called the
and again.
Light House. This Dallas-based center is somewhat of a hybrid of the
CDCP and the DCDC models. It is an independent center that engages
many of its projects through collaboration with the University of Texas at
Arlington. It is not financially, but instead pedagogically, supported by the
University.
Axis 2: Project-Based/Research
7.8 http://www.etymonline.com/ The activity of research is to “search closely” 7.8 —to search and re-search, again
index.php?term=research (accessed and again. The Project/Research axis establishes the direction in which
January 15, 2015).
projects will occur in the center. Will the design center participate in client-
based design projects such as buildings, master plans, and/or landscape
designs? Or will it conduct research on people, programs, and geographies?
Again, this does not suggest that there is no research in design projects.
Instead it is directed toward the underlying focus of the work—actual
projects designed and built within communities, or study [research] on those
communities. One cannot happen without the other. They are distinct, but
interrelated.
For example, since 2001, as part of our mission, the DCDC has worked
alongside community residents and artists to coordinate and perform
mercenary artistic/architectural installations within several burned houses
throughout the City of Detroit. This project is titled FireBreak: Architecture
FireBreak engenders and Community Agitation. FireBreak engenders the position that everyone—
the position that the next-door neighbor, the person down the street—can shape their physical
everyone—the next- world. The DCDC’s research through these catalytic interventions and
interferences has thrown the urban context—and one’s power over it—
door neighbor, the
into the public discourse, through both event and word. At face value, the
person down the advantage that the DCDC has being in an academic environment is that it
street—can shape has access to creative methods of research and project delivery, which are
their physical world. potentially more limited in a traditionally professional context. FireBreak is
The Activity of Activism 88
Landscape
0% Urban Design 100% Urban Planning
0% Urban Design
Urban Design Urban Planning
Figure 4
Activity/Activism Matrix
Architecture
centers engage, activism occurs (Figure 4). The axes of the Activity/Activism
Matrix are listed as Architecture and Landscape Architecture; and Urban
Design and Urban Planning. These particular labels are fluid and dynamic.
The types of projects that the center will engage may be different than the
ones listed. For example, following stakeholder input, a center may focus
more on object design like furniture and pavilions, or graphic design, and so
forth. Obviously, the labels can be altered and changed with other activities.
These four labels are suggested only for the purpose of example. The
particular labels chosen will also reveal whether a center is leaning toward
being primarily project-based or research-based.
Design centers engage and design in varied ways within their respective
communities. The axes for each of these centers may be labeled quite
differently than the four that are currently listed on the chart as place-
holders.
The Activity of Activism 90
ty
Profe
ci
Capa
ssiona
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n
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ls
za
Maximum
ali
vit
Importance
Re
St
ud
n
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Ur
ts
ent
Gove e velopm
rnme
nt Ag y Based D
encie munit
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Minimum
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s Innov
nitie a
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mmu Ecolo tive Desig
er ve gical D nS
der s esign olutions in
ts/Un and U c
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esign
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ign
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r
s
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e/
un
Ad
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vo
Co
ss
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ollabo
ac
to Pr
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onal C
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nizati
n
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Orga
vices
Figure 5
Determining the Mission
The mission of a design center is specific to that center, and has a particular
Determining the Mission
Visit the DCDC website for
usable downloadable diagrams. agenda. The mission statement should be concise and precise—one or two
Please see the end of the chapter sentences. It should reflect work that the design center can have direct
for Diagrams filled in the the influence in achieving. The mission statement must not be constructed and
Detroit Collaborative Design construed at the outset, only to be laid to rest without further attention. It
Center (DCDC) Information.
needs to be reevaluated and discussed frequently.
The Activity of Activism 91
To help stabilize the shifting nature of a mission statement, three other brief
definitional elements are needed: a vision statement, strategies, and tactics.
The last two are often misused as meaning the same thing; the difference
between them will be discussed briefly below.
The vision statement is the center’s directed view of a future larger than
the center itself. The vision facilitates constructing the design center’s
mission within this larger future. Ultimately the question becomes: With the
help of the design center, what could be a possible future for the district,
city, region, and so forth?
Strategies are the means and methods used by the design center to
accomplish its defined mission. Examples include teaching through doing
projects, urban projects that relate to the mission, and urban research that
furthers issues relative to the mission.
Tactics are the specific actions taken by the center that are guided by the
strategies. They are the day-to-day tools or activities used to foster the
strategic objectives, which in turn center on the mission.
Let’s examine how the mission statement plays out at two different design
centers.
The items that surround the circular chart in Figure 5 are all important to
formulate the mission although several of them may receive a minimum
response from the center staff. This does not mean that they are
unimportant, but that they may not have prioritized attention. All the items
should be considered, even though some or many of them will not be
ultimately engaged. The diagram is divided into four sections that essentially
address Who, Why, How, and What. Finally, everything that the design
The Activity of Activism 92
center lists on the chart may not be accommodated within the actual
mission statement. The mission statement should be the key prioritized
intention with the chart as the supporting information.
Who is Engaged?
Typically, design centers focus on the urban community. Their work is about
expanding the nature of practice to include communities often left out of
the process. If the center is in a university context, the student may also be
an important constituent to help provide leaders in urban revitalization.
Providing opportunities for recent graduates can help them connect with
projects that expand their professional experience and may influence how
they practice in the future.
What are the ultimate objectives of why the design center will do what it
does, and with whom? Beyond just “providing great design,” design and the
design process are tools to leverage and engender alternative possibilities
for urban communities. Design Centers can play a role in developing great
urban places for all people, providing input on urban design plans that
include all neighborhoods, and fostering socially and culturally responsive
projects.
The Activity of Activism 93
Often communities or nonprofits have the desire and even the resources
for a project, but lack the capacity and knowledge to initiate and complete
it. Design centers can provide programs that help build capacity. A design
center’s ability to help revitalize the urban landscape in areas of
disinvestment can help define the city as an entity composed of all of its
parts, rather than as a city with “good” neighborhoods and not-so-good
ones. Finally, when considering how development will occur, design centers
might suggest community-based development. With this approach, existing
assets are acknowledged and celebrated with the local residents, as a key
part in the decision-making process.
These criteria define the actual process of how the design center will
interact with its constituents. Figure 5 lists community participation and
organizational collaboration. There is a difference between a collaborative
design process—which includes many stakeholders at the table and carries
out its resolutions through an organizational collaboration—and a top-
down process that sets and carries out priorities through a hierarchy
imposed from above.
What is Provided?
What are the core products used to achieve the issues identified in the
“why” category? These decisions begin to help focus or distinguish between
project-based outcomes and research-based outcomes. Design centers
must remember the most obvious and prosaic observation that “design is
the first word in their name,” and should reflect what they do as an entity.
That does not mean that they must always or only be designers or
designing projects. But design centers can be supporters of well-designed
The Activity of Activism 94
and innovative solutions. They can provide design advocacy, and offer access
to professionals who deliver quality and thoughtful designed products. As
discussed in the Introduction to this book, well-designed space is a social
justice issue.
Part of defining how the center will operate in day-to-day activities, the
center’s operational structure needs to be designed. This includes structure
for the board of advisors, and a protocol for staff reporting. The DCDC’s
structure can serve as an example (Figures 6-11).
That is not to say that the DCDC hit the ground running, as a fully
professionalized and year-round practice. In fact, to help start the DCDC,
its founders initiated a Neighborhood Design Studio where students had
the opportunity to work with community groups from the Detroit
metropolitan area that were seeking to make a difference in their
neighborhoods. This studio evolved into the Detroit Collaborative Design
Center, with its full-time professional staff. The Design Center staff now
includes one executive director, one associate director, three research/
design fellows who act as project managers, three interns/recent graduates,
two full-time students and two or three part-time students. Since the
students change every semester, they are the one component that is tied
directly to the semester schedule. The Dean of the School of Architecture
is not considered part of the Center’s staff, although the executive director
reports directly to the Dean.
Figure 6
Administrative Reporting
Organizational Structure
Honorary
Board
The Activity of Activism 96
Honorary
Board
Leadership/Fundraising
1 Times / Year
Leadership/Fundraising
1 Times / Year
Executive
Board
Executive
Board
Working Group
6 Times / Year
Working Group
6 Times / Year
Figure 9 Figure 7: Project Management Organizational Structure
Executive
Board
Working Group
Executive
Board
DCDC
6 Times / Year
Working Group
6 Times / Year
Working Group
6 Times / Year
50/50
Design Technical Assistence
Independent Collaborative
Design Build
Figure 12
Operational Barometer Operational Barometer [Tactics]
Visit the DCDC website for
usable downloadable diagrams. The Operational Barometer (Figure 12) establishes the day-to-day
Please see the end of the chapter structure of activities. In what way will the center operate? How will it
50/50
for Diagrams filled in the the perform the day-to-day work? Each sliding scale has been marked with a
Detroit Collaborative Design dot to represent the DCDC’s work. Following each scale is a brief
Center (DCDC) Information.
description on some of the issues behind how the dot’s location was
Design Technical Assistence
determined.
Independent Collaborative
50/5
The Activity of Activism 98
Design
Participatory Process Technical Assistence
Traditional Process
Independent
Perform Services MediatorCollaborative
for Services
Figure 13
Participatory
Design Process Traditional Process
Build
Independent/Collaborative (Figure 13): DCDC has the skill and resources to
operate independently on most small to midsize projects. To enrich the
50/50
Perform
Professional
process Services
and final Staff
product, Mediator seekfor
Student
however, we persistently Services
Projects
out collaborative
possibilities similar to the one we pursued in New Orleans with Wayne
Design
12 Month
Troyer Full
Architect. Our Time
collaborators otherTechnical
Semester
than architects AssistenceBuild
Based
have included
artists, health care consultants, other activist groups, and economic
development consultants.
Independent
Professional Staff
Politically Active Collaborative
Student
PoliticallyProjects
Inactive
Participatory
12 Month
Project FullProcess
Fees Time Traditional
Semester
Philanthropic Process
Based
Funding
50/50
Figure 14
Perform
PoliticallyServices
Operational Active
Barometer Mediator for Services
Politically Inactive
Participatory Process/Traditional Process [Tactics]
(Figure 14): This scale is partially
influenced by whether the center is more project-based or more research-
Design Technical Assistence
Design
Project
based. Fees
The DCDC submits that one of the Philanthropic
50/50 core aspects of a design Build
Funding
center
working in a community is its use of participatory processes. People who
Independent Collaborative
Professional
are more engaged with Staff
the process understandStudent
Operational Barometer [Tactics]
how the Projects
resulting
architecture relates directly to their needs, desires, and mission. But there
Design Technical Assistence
Participatory
are times when a moreProcess Traditional
traditional process may be appropriate. Process
12 Month Full Time Semester Based
50/50
Independent Collaborative
Perform Services Mediator for Services
Politically Active Politically Inactive
Design
Participatory Process Technical
Traditional Assistence
Process
Design
Figure 15 Build
Project Fees Philanthropic Funding
Perform Services/Mediator Between Services (Figure 15): As illustrated earlier,
Independent
Perform
the Services
DCDC primarily Mediator
performs the services Collaborative
for
needed, while Services
other design
Professional Staff Student Projects
centers have different
Operational approaches. The[Tactics]
Barometer CDCP, for example, mediates
between the client and the designer. Both approaches are valid and
Participatory
Design Process Traditional Process Build
12 Month Full Time
important. It is important to note that design Semester Based
centers have sometimes had
tenuous relationships with the architecture profession—they are
50/50
Perform
Professional
sometimes Services
viewed unfair competition.Mediator
asStaff Student
The DCDC for
has Services
Projects
established
Politically Active Politically Inactive
several mechanisms to help alleviate this friction:
Design
12 Month Full Time Technical Assistence
Semester Build
Based
Project Fees Philanthropic Funding
Independent
Professional Staff
Politically Active Collaborative
Student
PoliticallyProjects
Inactive
Operational Barometer [Tactics]
The Activity of Activism 99
50/50
• We have an AIA member on our Board to advise on the projects we
accept and to keep us in touch with the perception of the
Design
professional community. Technical Assistence
• We primarily work on projects that otherwise would never reach the
Independent
desk of an architect. Collaborative
• On almost all our projects, we partner with an architecture firm to
Participatory Process
complete the work. Traditional
Since we usually take Process
projects that would
50/50
otherwise never make it to an architectural office, we have essentially
generated work for architects.
Perform Services Mediator for Services
Design Technical Assistence
Design Build
Independent Collaborative
Figure 16
Professional Staff Student Projects
Participatory
Design/Build (Figure 13):Process Traditional
Only one of the projects that DCDC Process
pursues in
each year is design/build. We pursue this when we feel our insertion into
12construction
the Month process Full Time
will add a unique valueSemester Based
and quality. Often we may
Perform Services Mediator for Services
build a small portion of the design that would normally be eliminated
Politically
under traditionalActive Politically
processes. For instance, The DCDC Inactive
built approximately
Design
20 percent of the overall for the St Joseph Rebuild Center, a homelessBuild
day
center in New Orleans designed collaboratively with the local firm, Wayne
Project Fees Philanthropic Funding
Professional Staff
Troyer Architect. Student Projects
Politically Active
Figure 17
Politically Inactive
50/50
50/50
Politically
referenced earlierActive Politically
in this essay, is a politically active work. Inactive
Project
Design Fees Philanthropic Funding
Technical Assistence
Figure 19
Operational
Independent Barometer [Tactics] Collaborative
Project Fees/Philanthropic Funding (Figure 18): Another way to label this
sliding scale could be mission-driven versus fee-driven. The DCDC is
Participatory
funded Process
through two primary Traditional
sources: two-thirds from project Process
fees; and
50/50
one-third from grants, donations, and foundation support. We struggle to
find the economic balance between these two sources. The more we need
Perform Services Mediator for Services
to accept projects for the purpose of “paying the bills,” the more we
Design Technical Assistence
potentially drift and shift away from our core mission objectives. [Refer to
Design
the section on “Validating the Center” for further thoughts on the gap Build
Independent
present Collaborative
between projects fees and philanthropic funding.]
Professional Staff Student Projects
Participatory
Validating the Center Process Traditional Process
If12 Month
the center is notFull Time entity and is associated
an independent Semester Based
with another
Performlike
organization Services Mediator
a university, it is important to establish for Services
concrete ways of
validating the center’s place within the organization’s core operations and
Politically Active Politically Inactive
mission. This is because the financial stability of a design center is tenuous
Design Build
and fleeting. One method is to develop a cost-benefit analysis that looks
Project
beyond Fees bottom line. A modified
the traditional Philanthropic Funding
cost-benefit analysis gives
Professional
concrete numbers toStaff
the more intangible benefitsStudent
and values Projects
that the
center brings the organization. Typically the expense and revenue budget
Operational
breakdown Barometer
for theFull
Detroit [with
Collaborative DesignCenter
Design Centerislocated]
based Based
on our
12 Month Time Semester
projects’ sources and uses. The gap between these sources and uses must
be filled by fundraising efforts, which often fall short. This gap only exists
because it is viewed through the lens of projects and their bottom lines.
We have begun to modify this by calculating the added value of, for
example, the DCDC’s contribution to the School of Architecture
curriculum; the unsolicited marketing and visibility brought to the university
through publications, exhibit invitations, and awards directly associated with
the Design Center; the increase in student enrollment that has resulted
from the attractiveness of the DCDC; the support that the DCDC gives to
students and faculty of the university; and the support for School of
Architecture building repair that the DCDC performs without
compensation. If the Design Center were not present, these benefits would
not occur. It becomes clear the Design Center actually makes and saves
money for the University, after these numbers are added to the revenue
side of the equation.
Another place where validating the DCDC is critical is exactly the same
place the DCDC wants to do its work: the community. A design center
should never take it for granted that the community residents and
nonprofit organizations will view the center’s work as essential or even
beneficial to their needs and circumstances. The value of thoughtfully
designed space and form, whether a single building or a neighborhood plan,
is seen by many nonprofit organizations to be out of the reach of their
budget. Also, many of these organizations have the perception that if the
space for their offices, service centers, or other activities is well designed, it
will give the impression that they have allocated their financial resources to
the wrong endeavor—that they have mismanaged their money. Part of a
design center’s responsibility is to reveal to clients how a well-designed
space can enhance the mission of their organization and the quality of life
of its users; furthermore, a design center must be able to show that its
design support does not necessarily have to come at a high price.
Conclusion
Design centers and their processes are a work in progress. So for this
chapter to provide a definitive model or series of models of what a
successful design center might look like would limit this investigation.
Community design centers look and operate differently today then they
did 20 years ago. If they continue to grow and shift then they will look and
operate differently in the next 10 to 20 years. With this in mind, this essay
offers a process and a series of diagrams to assist in making the decisions
required for setting up a center. These diagrams and the process they
illuminate can also be revisited as a center develops, to reflect and evaluate
its impact and direction. As a center uses these diagrams, it can also
speculate beyond itself and help develop new directions for what a design
center in general can be in the future. This essay not only stands as a
document of what design centers are and what they have done; but also it
is a provocation of what they can become.
100
0
The Activity of Activism 103
Research
Organizational Matrix
with the DCDC Located
100% Research 0% Projects
Organizational Matrix
Projects
Detroit Collaborative
Design Center
0% Academic 100% Professional
0% Professional
Professional Academic
100% Academic
50/50
Research
100
The Activity of Activism 104
Activity/Activism Matrix
100% Architecture 0% Landscape
with the DCDC Located
Landscape
Detroit Collaborative
Design Center
0% Urban Design 100% Urban Planning
0% Urban Design
Urban Design Urban Planning
Activity/Activism
Activity/Activism Matrix Matrix Matrix [with Design Center located]
Visit the DCDC website for
usable downloadable diagrams.
Continue Reading.
The Activity of Activism 105
y
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io
ls
t
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vit
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Re
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ts/Un and U c
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siona
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50/50
Design Technical Assistence
Independent Collaborative
Design Build
Operational
Operational BarometerBarometer [with Design Center located]
Visit the DCDC website for
usable downloadable diagrams.
Continue Reading.
08
A
Actions
[Insert Practitioner Here]
Volunteer Models of Community Design Centers
Frank Russell
108
While the medical and legal professions benefit respectively from both a
8.1 The Institute Bylaws state two foundational ethical claim (i.e., the Hippocratic oath in medicine) and an
ethical objectives among others: “to infrastructure to implement that claim (i.e., public defenders in the legal
insure the advancement of the living
standards of people through their profession), the architectural profession has neither, apart from a broad
improved environment; and to make the mention in the American Institute of Architects bylaws.8.1 This is despite the
profession of ever-increasing service to
society.” The 2012 Code of Ethics and
centrality of architecture to life, safety, economic, and social systems at the
Professional Conduct defines broad legal global level. Individual practitioners have often attempted to square
and business ethics for practicing
themselves against this deficit by seeking to contribute volunteer time,
architects. (Sources: Institute Bylaws,
revised June 2014, at http://www.aia.org/ typically on an ad-hoc basis, as time and desire allowed. This essay argues
aiaucmp/groups/aia_members_only/ that a formalized, ongoing volunteer effort can pay off for both the community
documents/pdf/aiab080715.pdf,
(Accessed March 25, 2015)and Code of and the profession through alternative community design center models.
Ethics and Professional Conduct, 2012,
http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/
documents/pdf/aiap074122.pdf. [Insert Practitioners Here]
(Accessed March 25, 2015)
Four such organizations have been recognized as models for this type of
structure:
8.2 Rex Curry, “The History of poverty.”8.2 Their intent was to modify the very structure of service
Community Design,” The ACSA delivery, shifting it from a vertical process of professional expertise
Sourcebook of Community Design
Programs at Schools of Architecture in delivered to the client, to a horizontal, collaborative process that engages
North America (Washington: ACSA the professional and the client (a community group, for example, or a
Press, 2000): 51. Curry describes a
shift in emphasis in strategy from the
neighborhood) as mutual stakeholders for social justice.
idealism of the 1960s, which was
inspired by a cultural movement and The MDT and the CDC were established much later, in 1983 and 1991
supported by the Great Society respectively, in a different context of pragmatism and entrepreneurialism.8.3
programs, to pragmatic
entrepreneurialism of the 1980s,
Not short on idealism, both the MDC and CDC aspired to “envision
necessary within the context of alternative preferred futures” as well as recreate lost “Civitas.”8.4 Both
fiscally conservative public policy.
groups are tied closely to established hierarchical structures, embedded in
8.3
the local AIA chapters for technical and financial support. Today, all four of
Curry, “The History of
Community Design,” 52. these organizations have refined their missions to reflect less unbridled
idealism and more understated pragmatism to provide design assistance
8.4 W. Arthur Mehrhoff, “A Process and promote education about best design practices in their respective
of Place-Making Stimulates a State’s
Communities,” Small Town (Sept.–Oct.
communities. Each CDC represents a type pf volunteer model listed below.
1995): 2,6. They are, in no order of preference:
Limitations
As mentioned in the Stephen Vogel’s essay in this volume, “The
Foundations of Community Design Centers,” the volunteer model is
intended to pump-prime a construction effort. It enables a minimum level
of service to move the proposal forward to the stages of feasibility
assessment, fund raising, and design development. In stopping short at low-
or no-cost conceptual/schematic design, the volunteer model is structured
to benefit the provider almost as much as the recipient of services. These
projects, if eventually funded, later feed the private sector full-fee work that
might not otherwise exist. Consequently, the volunteer design centers avoid
unfair competition issues which full-service design centers often face, while
at the same time educating the public and future clients about the value of
8.7 CDCP asserts that its programs design.8.7 These models work to both meet the perceived obligation of
have supported an economic stimulus design professionals to “give back” to the community and provide significant
of $90 million in capital investments
resulting from contracts arranged advantages to the profession. Benefits to individual volunteer architects may
through its Design Fund Grant
Program.
[Insert Practitioner Here]:Volunteer Models of Community Design Centers 111
8.8 Mehrhoff, 5. include future work from service recipients.8.8 In total, volunteers not only
accomplish significantly more work than a limited staff would,8.9 but they
8.9 As a measure of volume and
also constitute an army of advocates for the mission of the design center, its
impact, consider that the NDC
reports engaging 500 volunteers who education programs, and the appreciation of professional design services.8.10
provided 28,000 hours valued at $1 In addition, if adequately funded, volunteer providers can engage in deeper
million. These efforts helped recipient
organizations raise over $8 million for
explorations into problems that for-profit firms cannot provide for
further design and implementation economic or political reasons.
(Cameron email 11/3/08).
There are also drawbacks to limited-service and volunteer models, which
8.10 Mehrhoff, 9. may shortchange recipient organizations or even undermine public
confidence in the value of design assistance. Simply connecting
organizations with volunteer designers carries with it no client education or
design advocacy. Without education, recipient organizations may subject the
design to uninformed changes that may undermine the original project
intent. Volunteer efforts may be plagued by poor quality control, as contributors
and managers frequently turn over. Also, adequate funding is needed to
support continuity and effective management of between 300 and 500
annual volunteers, which can become extremely challenging. Finally, limited
in-house professional capacity may be necessary to cover commitments
not carried out by promised volunteer efforts.
Summary
To close, the volunteer model may offer a messianic support base from
which to educate the public and to empower communities. Both design
service recipient and design volunteer act as patron and provider of
invaluable design advocacy and education, thus raising expectations for all
parties about a community’s entitlement to more successfully designed
places.
09
A
Actions
Community Outreach as a Pedagogical Tool
for Both Students and Professionals
Charles C. Bohl
David Brain
Andrea Gollin
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
113
Although initially funded by a grant, the CBP was also accomplished with
relatively little institutional overhead. The original grant provided for the
Fellowship program, an annual charrette, the director’s salary, one
administrative staff person, a part-time publications manager, and some
publications support. The grant funding was supplemented through
partnerships organized for particular projects and events and some
additional fellowship sponsorships. The School’s reputation and connection
to an international network of multidisciplinary practitioners also allowed it
to leverage the resources of the program with outstanding speakers,
community building experts and supplemental charrette team members
(consultants) who participated at little or no cost.
Conclusion
University-based centers, institutes, and design studios often take up
community problems in a way that reflects the narrower perspectives,
training, and expertise of the professionals rather than as a reflection of the
community’s own understanding of its issues. Between the two programs,
the School of Architecture situates design in a comprehensive approach to
community outreach that extends from the very local to the national, and
ultimately to the global. As Pitera points out in his introduction, the most
profound contributions of design centers involve moving beyond a
conventional “service” model to a model of community-based activism that
simultaneously solves complex problems and contributes to community as
well as academic understanding. The direct civic engagement and dialogue
Community Outreach as a Pedagogical Tool 118
inherent in this model are not without risk—in fact, the model purposefully
embraces community conflicts—and design skills must be supplemented
with very specific training about the public process, facilitating community
dialogue, managing conflicts, and negotiating solutions and compromises. In
many respects, the charrette method is aligned with recent thinking about
community-based approaches and with the idea of research and civic
engagement that involves communities as equal partners rather than simply
as subjects or clients. Yet, post-charrette implementation represents a
critical challenge for all design centers and often gets overlooked as either
beyond the scope of the charrette or beyond the capacity of a design
center. The limitations of design center staff and resources require a balance
to be struck between providing direct design assistance to new client
communities and the ongoing demands for post-charrette implementation
assistance in support of past charrettes. Part of the solution is to secure
more resources and staff for centers dedicated to implementation and
ongoing assistance. Another is to build local and regional capacity to
support implementation by training more design practitioners and
community-building partners. Some of the capacity-building strategies might
include the creation of stewardship committees consisting of community
leaders, stakeholders and citizen representatives who continuously
prioritize, track, and renew local community design plans and strategies; the
training of community staff and design professionals in dynamic planning
processes (e.g., visioning, charrettes, neighborhood model block
workshops), form-based coding, and LEED; the creation of a public officials’
design institute modeled on the Mayor’s Institute on City Design;
establishing a partnership network of professional design and development
firms capable of refining and implementing plans and recommendations;
working with partners such as the AIA and higher education institutions to
help establish local and regional design centers; and providing training and
advocating for the establishment of city architects and professional urban
design staff positions. These are initiatives that can be replicated nationally
and internationally to build local community design capacity, sustain design
center initiatives and advance post-charrette implementation of plans and
recommendations.
10
A
Actions
The Community Design Movement’s
Early Relationship with the AIA
Kathleen Dorgan
120
Poluard was designated as the AIA staff administrator. Hugh Zimmer took a
leave from the community design center, Philadelphia Workshop, to work
for the initiative. Moving ahead quickly, the Task Force also identified the
need to organize action teams for “seeking out methods of actually
changing many of the building restraints that affect the poor,” established
partnerships with committees at 76 local chapters, and sponsored what
turned out to be a “fairly volatile” national conference at Howard
10.6 AIA, “Proceeding, 1970 University in March 1970.10.6 This event brought CDCs together with
Convention” (Washington, D.C.: The private practitioners and government officials. At this first national meeting
American Institute of Architects, June
22-25, 1970, Boston, Massachusetts), 32. of CDCs, the differences in approach among the groups as well as the
profession—and tensions therein—were openly discussed. For example,
Willie Vasquez, director of The Real Great Society CDC in East Harlem,
charged that “[w]e’re wasting our time; we should be overthrowing the
system,” while architect and Episcopal priest Taylor Potter charged, “It’s
pathetic; these people don’t know that to win power in this country you’ve
got to convince the moderates. Your message has to be reasonable.” An
advisory committee representing thirteen centers was formed to continue
the dialogue; yet despite measurable progress, the Task Force concluded
that “[the] Institute somehow is still living with an inordinate amount of self-
serving programs to create public image and programs which in terms of
10.7 All quoted material in this society’s needs are archaic.”10.7
paragraph is from “AIA Proceeding,
1970 Convention.” Many are also cited The exchanges at the 1970 AIA convention only confirmed the ongoing conflict
in Dorgan, “Seventh Generation.”
between the Task Force and the AIA leadership, as well as racial tension and
substantial confusion between traditional charitable projects and advocacy for
systemic change. George T. Rockrise revealed that, “It sounds really negative
to me to say this, because I’m part of the Task Force, I feel I can say…I do
know the AIA is not fully behind it. I’m sure we are more aggravating to the
leadership than helpful.” Sanford Goldman of the Architects’ Center of
Florida suggested, “individual efforts would be more effective than getting
bogged down with…administrative fundraisers, putting out pamphlets on
what we are doing and what we want to do.” Harlem community design
practitioner Art Simms countered, “I don’t think very many architects
around the country would really want to deal with political problems that
poor communities black, white or Mexican or Puerto Rican whatever, have
to deal with. So it’s a clear point for CD [Community Design].” Another
participant, identified only as Alex B. from San Francisco, added
The Community Design Movement’s Early Relationship with the AIA 123
There was even the plaintive plea from an unidentified speaker from
Florida, “I don’t know how to start integrating with the blacks. Can
10.8 Ibid. someone help me?”10.8
Under Williams’ tutelage, the number of design centers expanded and the
network of practitioners strengthened. The next year, the AIA’s CDC Listing
– Community Design/Development Centers included 74 organizations. Yet,
after the initial $100,000 success and a contribution of $500,000 by the
The Community Design Movement’s Early Relationship with the AIA 124
Learning to walk
Following the loss of staff support from the AIA, the Association for
Community Design continued as a voluntary association whose activities
were, until recently, generally limited to holding an annual conference at
which members exchange information about projects and debate proper
community design practices and epistemology. There were also a few
special projects, such as support for adopting technology through a
computer gift program and a shared nonprofit network. Until the beginning
of the millennium, Rex Curry and the Pratt Institute Center for Community
Economic Development (PICCED) provided a quarter-century of in-kind
administrative support to ACD, including planning the annual conference
and providing assistance to community design center start-ups and
community design researchers. Under PICCED leadership, ACD expanded
its affiliation with planners and landscape architects.
The Community Design Movement’s Early Relationship with the AIA 125
After a long silence, After a long silence, there seems to be a revival of interest in community design
there seems to be a at the AIA and within the profession at large, as well as the principles that
inform the practice. In the fall of 2008, ACD and the AIA Housing and
revival of interest in
Custom Residential Knowledge Community collaborated on the
community design at symposium “Innovations and Collaborations in Affordable Housing.” The
the AIA and within the AIA’s Communities by Design programs encourage collaboration with
profession at large. CDCs, and AIA publications (such as the Design Assistance Team Program
Guidelines for Disaster Response and Recovery Programs) recommend the
10.11 AIA Disaster Assistance Team establishment of community design centers.10.11 The Boston Society of
Program, Guidelines for Disaster Architects (BSA) made a five-year commitment to supporting its new
Response and Recovery Programs
(Washington, DC: The American Community Design Resource Center (CDRC), which has attracted more
Institute of Architects, 1999): 7. than 300 skilled professional volunteers. The U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development experimented with engaging architectural and
planning schools in rebuilding communities through the COPC Futures
Demonstration Grant Program, along with the Universities Rebuilding
America Program Community Design (URAPCD) program, in response to
10.12 Kathleen Dorgan, Michael Monti, the Gulf Coast devastation.10.12 It is yet to be determined if the interest
and Kinnard Wright (eds), “Design and
represented in these examples translates to the availability additional
Disaster: Higher Education Responds to
Hurricane Katrina,” Cityscapes 10:3 resources for community design at a national level, either from the AIA or
(2009). from other professional organizations’ policy initiatives. Similarly, it remains
to be seen whether these examples have led to a corresponding
recognition of the role of community design practice in enhancing quality of
life and achieving justice.
The Community Design Movement’s Early Relationship with the AIA 127
Anthony J. Costello
Response:
Stephen Vogel, FAIA
129
Anthony J. Costello
150 Begins
In May 2005, the AIA 150 Oversight Task Group named a subgroup to
develop the objectives, schedule, methodology, criteria for funding, and
products of the BFA initiative. Then-AIA president, Doug Steidl, FAIA, asked
me to chair this committee and I gladly accepted.
Three major concepts were at the heart of the BFA. First, AIA architects
would work through their state and/or local chapters with an array of
diverse community partners, representing the public, nonprofit, and private
sectors. Second, architects and their partners would address their
communities’ distinct issues and needs—as designated and framed through
public discussion and consensus—with the goal of producing a shared
vision for a more livable and sustainable future. Third and finally, the
national AIA would act as a partner in a supporting role by providing
consultation, supplemental funding, public exposure, and the celebration of
results. Every chapter was invited to submit an application for
Almost $1.4 million supplemental funds in 2006. As a result, almost $1.4 million dollars were
dollars were awarded awarded to help offset the cost of chapter initiatives, allowing thousands of
architects in the AIA anniversary year of 2007 to provide pro bono services for
to help offset the cost
a diverse array of community-based service initiatives. These services were
of chapter initiatives, provided to state and local government officials and agencies, nonprofit
allowing thousands of organizations, social service agencies, allied professionals, community and
architects in the AIA neighborhood-focused associations, schools of architecture, and local
anniversary year of citizens.
In late 2005, each state and local chapter participating in the BFA initiative
was required to name a “champion,” a member of their component who
would provide the leadership and management necessary to make the
initiative or project successful. Champions ranged from ‘60s retreads, like
this author, to those emerging professionals who were Associate AIA
members. Another important function of the BFA group was to consult
with state and local components through either their champion or the
chapter’s AIA 150 planning committee. After at least four dozen face-to-
face consultations and many phone conversations with champions, some
common problems became apparent, shared by most local and state
components. In response, the committee developed two documents to
assist them, entitled, Ten Ways to Improve Your Application and Where’s the
Money? Recommendations Concerning Local Fundraising Efforts. Both guides
proved to be quite useful to chapters over the course of the initiative and
beyond.
BFA in Action
The scale of initiatives that were undertaken varied greatly; state chapters
addressed state or even regionwide issues relevant both to politics and to
public policy, such as efforts to pass state legislation that would establish
sustainability standards for public buildings; approaches to regional issues
associated with the long-term, strategic planning for a river valley or major
transportation corridor; and promoting “smart growth” at a county or
municipal level. Many local chapters, often serving a large or medium-size
city and its metropolitan area, focused on smaller-scale issues that centered
on their community’s need for downtown and neighborhood revitalization,
affordable housing, adaptive reuse of historic buildings, or growth
management, also known as “smart growth.” In addition, given the stress
placed by the BFA on projects or initiatives leaving a legacy, several
communities chose to focus their efforts on creating an entity that would
become a vehicle for assuring that planning and design efforts would
continue to be based on the principles promoted by the Institute’s
Communities by Design program, resulting in the creation of a community-
based design studio that used the resources of local architects, fellow
professionals, and the local school(s) of architecture and planning through
pro bono and service-learning efforts. The following three projects—AIA
Memphis, AIA Indiana, and AIA Springfield —demonstrate the incredible
11.3 For the reader interested in all of diversity of issues, contexts, process and products produced.11.3
the projects, I recommend visiting the
AIA link that appears on the iconic
globe of the Google Earth website Memphis Regional Design Center
The Memphis Regional Design Center initiative by AIA Memphis—with Lee
Askew, FAIA, as its champion—worked with the American Society of
Landscape Architects (ASLA), University of Memphis, Urban Arts
Commission, Urban Land Institute, and the University of Memphis to create
a regional design center as a vehicle for developing and implementing a
strategic plan to improve the quality of life of the three-state Memphis
Metropolitan Area (Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee) to initiate a public
education program explaining the concept and need for “buy-in” to ensure
its success. Consultants experienced in community design centers were
brought in to the initial public town meeting, including Steven Luoni,
Community Design Writ Large 133
Columbus, Indiana:
Respecting the Past, Educating the Present, Designing the Future
Under the stewardship of Nolan Bingham, AIA, AIA Indiana worked with
Columbus Indiana Architectural Archives (CIAA), Columbus Visitors Center,
Ball State University Department of Architecture, and Indiana University-
Purdue University-Columbus to establish a series of activities under the
umbrella of “Columbus, Indiana: Respecting the Past, Educating the Present,
Designing the Future.” This multi-faceted project represents a unique
approach to both promoting and serving a city that has achieved an
international reputation for its 40-year commitment to the triad philosophy
that could be labeled: Good Design = High Quality of Life = Good
Business. It also represents a solution to a difficulty that some state chapter
components faced in trying to serve an entire state without alienating the
many local components in which a project did not take place.
It was easy for AIA Indiana to gain support from its four local chapters to
support the initiative in Columbus, especially since each of them had their
own BFA projects (3 funded; 1 that did not seek funding). The multi-faceted
project included:
Community Design Writ Large 134
Although the grant amount was not significant, it proved very useful when
national recognition of the partnership was used to secure a $300,000
grant from the Cummins Community Foundation to support the growth
and staffing of the CIAA.
The R/UDAT report and other planning studies had all arrived at the same
critical conclusions about the lack of downtown housing, the lack of
activities that attract residents and visitors (increased dramatically with the
opening of the downtown-located, Lincoln Presidential Library and
Museum), and the loss of downtown’s retail role to suburban malls.
Final thoughts
I know of no safe repository of the ultimate powers of the
society but the people themselves; and if we think them not
enlightened enough to exercise their control with a
wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them
but to inform their discretion.
have a very hard time believing how far the American Institute of
Architects (AIA) has come in the last 40 years.
In researching and writing about the pioneers and programs that built the
foundation upon which the AIA 150 Blueprint for America was based, it is
very reassuring to see the AIA focus its major sesquicentennial activity
directly involving the greatest number of its members in a socially
responsible public service initiative. This, along with its incorporation of the
term pro bono into the 2007 in The AIA Code of Ethics and the
development and issuing in 2008 of the AIA Guidelines on Pro Bono Services,
leads me to believe that a new paradigm involving our profession has been
forged and mainstreamed. The future looks very bright.
11.1 In fact, the AIA, through the foresight and dedication of a small number of socially conscious members
who believed in community advocacy, has distinguished itself through its R/UDAT (Regional / Urban Design
Assistance Teams) Program since sending a team in 1967 to Rapid City, SD. This programs owes its
existence to a group of “Young Turks” that included Jules Gregory, FAIA (now deceased); David Lewis, FAIA
FRIBA; Chuck Redmond, FAIA; Johnny Desmond, FAIA (now deceased); Larry Milello, FAIA (now
deceased); Charles Blessing, FAIA (now deceased); and Ron Straka, FAIA. This group of architects
challenged the Institute to step beyond the traditional role of the architect that focused on the design of a
single building. Instead, they became advocates for urban design and activists for the social responsibility of
architecture. But maybe the most innovative aspect of their activism was the focus on engaging and
empowering citizens in developing a vision for the future of their communities.
Now managed by the institute’s Center for Communities by Design, the R/UDAT program had, by
mid-2006, assisted 138 cities and towns by bringing together multi-disciplinary teams to identify ways to
encourage desirable change. The DAT (Design Assistance Team) approach—which can address social,
economic, political, and physical issues—offers communities a tool that mobilizes local support and fosters
new levels of cooperation.
Offered as a public service of the institute, the R/UDAT program has used a charrette-style, visioning
approach to help create livable communities. Combining local resources and citizen participation with the
expertise of professionals from across the nation, the team undertakes an intensive, four-day, workshop on
site, with emphasis on engaging all members of the community in creating a vision for the future. Obviously,
the BFA initiative owes much of its concept and format to this Institute program that has distinguished itself
for over 40 years.
A second program that has served as a model for the initiative is the relatively new Sustainable Design
Assistance Team (SDAT) program, initiated in 2005. Although patterned somewhat on the R/UDAT model,
the SDAT program is focused on providing a broad assessment to help frame any future policies or design
solutions in a community in the context of the principles of sustainability. SDATs bring teams of volunteer
professionals (such as architects, urban designers, planners, hydrologists, economists, attorneys and others)
to work with community decision-makers and stakeholders to help them to formulate a vision and
framework for a sustainable future. They use a three-day, charrette styled methodology that directly
engages local participants in developing a roadmap for them to improve their community’s sustainability. In
2006, eight communities—from Guemes Island, Washington, to Syracuse, New York—were chosen to
receive this technical assistance.
Continue Reading
Response: After 150: What Is AIA Up to Now? 137
Response
After 150: What Is AIA Up to Now?
Stephen Vogel, FAIA
Resilience
Resilience promotes design that is adaptable to changing climate conditions
and resulting natural disasters, but that also that responds to man-made
disasters such as the abandonment of post-industrial cities. The creation of
design centers has gained tremendous momentum in the United States
including those initiated by the AIA 150 Blueprint for America and promoted
by the AIA’s Communities by Design program. Added to that is now the goal
of creating five Regional Resilient Design Studios in partnership with
Architecture for Humanity and Public Architecture and funded in part by
the new AIA Foundation. These centers will be located in coastal areas of
the United States. The first center has been launched at the New Jersey
Institute of Technology. These centers will focus on urban and building
design responses that respond to natural disasters. In addition, the Center
for Communities by Design launched the pilot for resilience strategies to
address sea level rise in Bath, Maine and Provincetown, MA. Information
from these strategies has been promulgated across the globe. The AIA has
also trained scores of architects to be part of the Safety Assessment
Program and HURRIPLAN Resilient Design for Coast Construction.
Response: After 150: What Is AIA Up to Now? 139
Energy
The building industry is a major consumer of fossil fuels and a significant
contributor to green house gases. Consequently, the AIA and many of the
architectural firms in the United States have adopted the 2030 Challenge
that calls for all buildings in the United States to be carbon neutral by the
year 2030. In fact, during the last ten years, advances in building design have
The AIA has been put us ahead of schedule to meet the goal. The AIA has been instrumental in
instrumental in furthering the goal of carbon-neutral buildings through the Union of
International Architects (UIA), which recently adopted the goal of being carbon
furthering the goal of
neutral globally by the year 2050. The AIA formally adopted the 2050
carbon-neutral Challenge in September 2014.
buildings through the
The longstanding AIA R/UDAT (Regional/Urban Design Assistance
Union of International Team) program is still very much in existence and serving communities
Architects (UIA), which across America. This program essentially brings architects and planners
recently adopted the together at the invitation of communities to brainstorm how they will
goal of being carbon address physical community issues. Now, however, an SDAT (Sustainable
Design Assessment Team) program also exists to work with communities
neutral globally by the
toward long-term sustainability. Tool kits have been developed to assist
year 2050.
communities to organize to address local issues.
Conclusion
This response to Costello’s original essay provides only a sampling of
efforts at the AIA. One thing is clear: the AIA has come out of the
recession a much more nimble and viable organization. Although AIA
members must address many internally focused issues, there is a strong
commitment to a widespread external focus to show communities and the
world the value of architecture in dealing with the most pressing issues
facing us as a society. Additionally, there is an embracing of our young and
diverse members as they become the voice of the “new” AIA. To affirm
Anthony Costello’s own closing statement, there really is a bright future
ahead.
12
A
Actions
This essay will focus on the two dozen academic charrettes that I organized
in as many years, starting at the University of Washington in 1985 and at
the University of Michigan in 1999. They were usually four- or five-day
competitive charrettes that brought together three or four teams to
generate and present different visions for the same project and site.
Typically, each team was led by one or two distinguished visiting
professionals (architect, urban designer, landscape architect, or urban
planner), one or two leading local design professionals, and one or two
members of the design faculty. They co-led a team of ten to fifteen
graduate students from architecture, urban design, urban planning, and
landscape architecture programs, sometimes from more than one
university. Most teams tended to operate like temporary offices, with the
professionals and faculty members acting as design partners and the
students as the design and production team, although the roles, modes, and
methodologies varied with the composition of the teams and their
leadership.
Each charrette began with a morning-long bus and/or walking tour of the
site and environs, led by local residents and professionals. After lunch, there
The Seattle and Detroit Design Charrettes 142
Figure 2
The charrettes typically dealt with an urban design and planning issue,
project, or site of local significance. Several variants emerged: ones some to
test and illustrate new public policies or design ideas on real sites; some to
respond to requests for help from community/civic organizations or
government agencies; and some to explore a particularly glaring problem
or promising opportunity offered by a specific site. Most charrettes were
hybrids, for example testing new ideas on a promising empty or under-
The charrettes always utilized site. They always addressed real problems on real sites for real clients
addressed real and users, as opposed to being a theoretical or academic exercise for the
sake of the students (although the pedagogic benefits were manifold). The
problems on real sites
sites varied in size from 50 to 500 acres, preferably ripe if not already on
for real clients and the radar for development or redevelopment.
users.
The level of feasibility among these proposals varied from project to
project and from team to team, and whether the time horizon of the
proposal was ten, twenty, or more years. Some proposed designs were
unrealistically ambitious or visionary, but most proposals tended to seek the
sweet spot between an inspiring vision and a feasible proposition. In any
case, the results were more illustrative than definitive, and only one step,
preferably early, in the longer planning and development process.
The Seattle and Detroit Design Charrettes 145
Figure 3
Figure 4
The Seattle and Detroit Design Charrettes 147
Stephen Luoni
150
Demand-side Practices
The world of nonprofit community design practice is hardly monolithic. The
motivations behind nonprofit work vary considerably among its
practitioners, and are reflected in their organizational structures.
Community design practices in this group share missions, methodologies,
and work outcomes oriented toward targeted service delivery and civic/
political engagement. Their stated interests lie primarily with solving for
An Ecology of Nonprofit Design Practices 155
Supply-side Practices
Community design practices in this category claim their mission as
innovation through social entrepreneurship rather than an immediate focus
on equity. Like demand-side practices, equally committed to participatory
methods and a triple-bottom line—linking social equity, environmental
issues, and economic development—supply-side design practices target
development of venture approaches to livability issues. Motivated by the
internal need to innovate and/or demonstrate an intrinsic value system, this
nonprofit sector focuses on shaping priorities and barrier busting through
entrepreneurial methods.13.11
13.11 Some examples listed in alphabetical order not by priority:
Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC)
Florida Community Design Center (FCDC)
University of Arkansas Community Design Center (UACDC)
Urban Ecology (UE Oakland)
Vermont Design Institute (VDI)
Jana Cephas
160
Jana Cephas
Prioritizing safe, clean, and beautiful spaces for communities still serves as
the basis for the work of many design centers today. While new and
renovated physical structures provide the necessary space for working and
living, the physical redesign of neighborhoods and interior spaces also have
an important psychological effect on residents. Clean and fully functioning
spaces reflecting the desires and goals of a community can bring a sense of
pride and dignity to public and private places. Well-designed interiors can
provide residents with a sense of comfort and safety, allowing them to
attend to more pressing issues in their lives. Thus, the physical design of
spaces is critical to the sustenance of communities, and the work done by
community design centers provides an important foundation for long-term
community health. An excellent example of this influence can be found in
the form of environmental WORKS (EW), a nonprofit community design
center founded in Seattle in 1970.
Zoning and planning Zoning and planning policy represents a single, yet vital, way in which the work
policy represents a of community design centers can have a lasting influence on housing, economic
development, landscape planning, regional growth, and the overall livability of
single, yet vital, way in
communities. As a system of land-use regulation, zoning laws provide the
which the work of basis for future neighborhood design and community planning. Successful
community design planning can be nearly impossible without zoning guidelines that are
centers can have a appropriately matched to the needs and goals of a community.
lasting influence on Consequently, a CDC that is able to influence zoning and planning policy is
presciently situated to contribute to long-term changes. To that end, the
housing, economic
Pratt Institute Center for Community Development (PICCD), established in
development, landscape 1963, is an exemplary model to emulate.
planning, regional
PICCD began as an advocacy planning and technical assistance organization
growth, and the overall based in the planning department of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. As the
livability of oldest university-based community design center, PICCD represents a
communities. wealth of research, advocacy, and collaboration, which has had a significant
impact on planning policy in New York City neighborhoods since its
The Influence of Community Design Centers on Society 163
Over the course of more than three decades, PICCD has worked with
community organizations in both the Greenpoint and Williamsburg
neighborhoods in Brooklyn, moving toward a more equitable distribution of
jobs, affordable housing, and open space in the Greenpoint-Williamsburg
area. When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced plans in
2003 to rezone more than twenty New York City neighborhoods, residents
of Williamsburg and Greenpoint already had decades of experience in
community organizing, collaboration, and advocacy behind them. This
allowed them to effectively engage with and challenge the new rezoning
proposal. Through critical engagement with the New York City Department
of Planning, collaboration with community groups, and the political
organizing undertaken by scores of grassroots community organizations,
PICCD and the residents of Williamsburg and Greenpoint were able to
influence the proposed rezoning of this 175-block area. By proposing a list
of critical recommendations to the City—largely focused around the
development and sustenance of affordable housing units and ensuring that
the new rezoning proposal responded to community needs—like
recommendations due largely to the extensive research conducted by
PICCD – inclusionary zoning provisions, as well as affordable housing
prevailing living wages and health benefits for building-service workers, the
preservation of existing affordable units and the use of public lands for
additional affordable housing units, were approved for the neighborhood in
the new Greenpoint-Williamsburg Land Use and Waterfront Plan.
Ultimately, the approved plan allowed the benefits emerging from sustained
growth to be equitably distributed across the community. Additionally, what
The Influence of Community Design Centers on Society 164
began as a local effort by PICCD and others for inclusionary zoning has
now spread to other communities and is part of a citywide effort to
mandate inclusionary zoning. Thus the work of PICCD in Greenpoint-
Williamsburg provides an important precedent for community
development occurring elsewhere in New York, allowing PICCD’s research,
testimony, and reports to service a much broader population than for
which they were originally intended.
planning work of community design centers can shape the social health of
communities, design centers can also more directly participate in social
issues. Through the localized efforts of community design, CDCs often build
long-term and trusting relationships with advocacy groups and community
members. Thus, with the trust built through years and even decades of
difficult but successful work, community design centers can branch out
beyond physical design and planning imperatives to address social and
cultural issues relevant to the communities in which they are working.
Conclusion
The work of community design centers broaden the scope of architectural
practice by recognizing the necessity of civic engagement in design and by
developing both the strategies and tactics necessary for implementing
successful design processes. For years, social justice advocates and
community activists have addressed issues of inadequate affordable housing,
lack of public space, and inequities in access to education, public
As design activists, transportation, and necessary amenities. As design activists, community design
community design centers have joined community advocates in the struggle for more equitable
centers have joined conditions for living and working. As shown here, acknowledging the emerging
role of community design as social critique requires recognizing the variety
community advocates
of ways in which design activism can have long-standing positive effects on
in the struggle for neighborhoods.
more equitable
Beyond the physical changes prompted by new architectural and landscape
conditions for living interventions, the organizational, economic, and socio-cultural effects of
and working. CDCs on communities are profound and far-reaching. Organizations and
individuals seeking to establish new community design centers should look
beyond the physical to understand the broad range of options available
The Influence of Community Design Centers on Society 168
that would allow the newly established CDC to have the maximum
positive impact on local communities. Additionally, through distribution of
literature detailing results from extensive research reports, testimonies, and
community actions, community design centers can begin to extend their
impact beyond the localities in which they work, influencing regional and
even national design-related issues.
Finally, the community design centers discussed here exhibit some similar
approaches to the places where they work, thus amplifying their intended
Design centers with impact and extending their range of influence. First, design centers with
broad influence tend to broad influence tend to focus on the capacities and assets of the community
rather than solely on the needs and deficiencies. The approach of successful
focus on the capacities
community design centers must be goal-oriented rather than problem-
and assets of the directed in order for residents to gain a sense of ownership over the
community rather than renewal of their communities. Second, CDCs with significant impact on
solely on the needs and communities tend to emphasize community-centered processes. Whether
deficiencies. through partnering with other community advocacy organizations, testifying
at city council meetings, or forming new development groups, CDCs build
upon existing community activities as a basis for new initiatives. In rooting
their initiatives in a community-centered process, CDCs ask questions like:
What are the values of the community? What are the values of the city and
its planners? How can the designers and planners interact with the
community in such a way that does not mistake the values and desires of
the designers, funders, and politicians with the actual values and desires of
the residents of the community?
The influence of
Ultimately, community design centers must exhibit a significant influence on
community design the communities in which they work in order to be successful in the long
centers on society can run. Whether that influence is physical, organizational, economic,
be extensive, crossing sociocultural or, most likely, a combination of some or all of these,
professional and community development cannot proceed without informative
disciplinary boundaries, collaboration, networking, and partnerships among community advocates
and neighborhood residents. The influence of community design centers on
as well as
society can be extensive, crossing professional and disciplinary boundaries, as
neighborhood, city, and well as neighborhood, city, and regional boundaries. The dissemination of
regional boundaries. research, design analyses, and planning strategies by CDCs also feeds into
The Influence of Community Design Centers on Society 169
the knowledge base of other community design centers. Thus CDCs greatly
influence each other, serving as models for innovative planning, community
organizing, and design aesthetics. As such, the cross-pollination of design-
centered knowledge among community design centers fosters a
broadened community of design professionals looking to one another for
inspiration and ideas, while generating new and innovative design strategies
for further dissemination across the vast field of design and planning
knowledge.
15
A
Reflections
The Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship
An Evolving Role for Community Design in Affordable Housing
Katie Swenson
171
Numerous architectural treatises have been put forth that imagine a future
in which all people have a beautiful home that not only provides a safe,
stable, enriching environment, but also that is part of a thriving
neighborhood with all the necessary resources of transportation, schools,
health care, and nutritious food. Recent initiatives in the affordable housing
community are attempting to make this designed vision a reality. This
momentum includes the evolving perspective and role of architects,
embodied by the Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship, a program that
embedded its first class of Rose Fellows with community developers in
2000. In recent years, programs like the Rose Fellowship that focus on the
professional development of young architects have
15.2 “About the Enterprise Rose on communities across the country.15.2 Community development host
Architectural Fellowship,” Enterprise organizations hire Rose Fellows to bring the vision and resources of design
Community Partners, http://
to the development team and into the critical path of affordable housing
www.enterprisecommunity.com/
solutions-and-innovation/design- projects.
leadership/rose-architectural-fellowship/
about-the-fellowship. Although community developers certainly share a goal to create quality
(Accessed January 9, 2015)
housing, no stated methodology incorporated design principles into the
development process. Convincing the leadership of community
development organizations to invest in design quality has been a major
challenge in the housing community in recent decades, but the investment
in integrated design has since become a central component in the
community development field. In turn, the demand for professionals to
work in this field calls for architects with a broad set of skills.
Community Relationships
The Rose Fellowship has shown that when designers enter into a long-
term relationship with a community—and when the lines are blurred
between community member, planner, designer, and advocate for a better
future—the rewards are robust. A member of the first class of Rose
Fellows in 2000, Jamie Blosser, partnered with the Ohkay Owingeh Housing
Authority (OOHA) at Ohkay Owingeh, a Pueblo in northern New Mexico.
To build 40 new units and a community center, OOHA used the 1996
Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act
(NAHASDA) Indian Housing Block Grant and the Rural Housing and
Economic Development grant to leverage five other sources of financing,
including low-income housing tax credits. NAHASDA created an
opportunity for local residents to institute their own vision and make
decisions regarding land use planning. It also created a unique opportunity
for architects, planners, and landscape architects to bring their skills to the
15.3 Jamie Blosser, Personal benefit of these communities.15.3
communication (interview with author),
2009.
Since the 1960s, lacking mortgage financing, the Pueblo had typically
received single-family HUD bungalows spread out on suburban lots. The
new development built on the ancient, community-oriented settlement
patterns of the historic plaza and village center, Owe’neh Bupingeh. The
plaza area was once lined with several hundred historic adobe homes
dating back at least 700 years. More than 60 percent of these adobe
homes had fallen into ruin and disrepair by the turn of the 21st century.
During the development process, some tribe members at first had difficulty
with the notion of attached housing, having become accustomed to single-
family homes, but tribal elders began to tell stories of what life was like
growing up on the plaza before it had fallen into disrepair. The new project
at Ohkay Owingeh, called Tsigo bugeh Village, was designed to set a
standard for incorporating community-driven, culturally significant design
into all aspects of the planning, and its success set a new precedent for the
15.4 For additional information, see tribal council.15.4
Tomasita Duran, “Tsigo bugeh Village,”
Honoring Nations symposium, Harvard
Project on American Indian Economic Design Quality
Development, John F. Kennedy School
of Government, Harvard University. Relationships between designers and communities consequently also yield
Cambridge, Massachusetts: September better design. In Los Angeles, Rose Fellow Theresa Hwang partnered with
17, 2009. Presentation.
https://nnidatabase.org/video/honoring- Skid Row Housing Trust (SRHT), to work on housing and empowerment
nations-tomasita-duran-tsigo-bugeh- for formerly homeless individuals through better-designed housing, resident
village.
(Accessed January 9, 2015)
engagement, and social services.15.5 Supportive housing has been a recent
innovation in the housing sector, based on the realization that providing
15.5 “Rose Fellowship: Theresa Hwang, housing alone is not enough. Housing providers have found that
Hosted by Skid Row Housing Trust, Los incorporating social services and medical care into their buildings creates
Angeles, California,” Enterprise
Community Partners, http://
better success rates for residents, especially chronically homeless individuals
www.enterprisecommunity.com/ or those with addictions or disabilities. Supportive housing models typically
solutions-and-innovation/design-
have two legs: (1) the permanent apartment unit, and (2) the social
leadership/rose-architectural-fellowship/
fellows/theresa-hwang. services, including physical and mental health care.
(Accessed January 9, 2015)
With the creation of Hwang’s main project, the Star Apartments, SRHT and
its partner Michael Maltzan Architecture pushed this model to include a
15.6 Robbie Couch, “New Skid Row
third leg: nonclinical therapeutic amenities such as yoga, basketball,
HomelessApartment Complex Has a
Running Track and Art Studio,” gardening, and art classes. Star Apartments provides more than 15,000
Huffington Post, October 13, 2014, square feet of community space with amenities that contribute to the
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
2014/10/10/star-apartments-los- integrated approach to resident support.15.6 For SRHT, design goes beyond
angeles_n_5961558.html.
(Accessed January 9, 2015)
The Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship 175
aesthetics to enhance programs and building functions. The building and the
overall living environment have a significant effect on the rehabilitation
15.7 Ibid.. process and the challenge of ending homelessness.15.7
Organizational Changes
In the early days of the Rose Fellowship, only a few affordable housing
developers were thinking about green building. In 2001, Rose Fellow Colin
15.9 “Responsibility,” Community Arnold was working with Community Housing Partners (CHP), one of few
Housing Partnership, https:// groups to see the potential for sustainability to reshape its organization.15.9
www.communityhousingpartners.org/
CHP’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Janaka Casper, has grown the
79/responsibility.html.
(Accessed January 9, 2015) organization exponentially during the past 13 years; Casper now manages a
portfolio of more than 6,000 units.15.10 When CHP brought on Arnold, it set
15.10 About CHP,” Community Housing
about using the concepts of sustainability to affect every aspect of its
Partnership, https://
www.communityhousingpartners.org/ business, from construction to accounting. Arnold pushed CHP to build to
55/about-chp.html. a high green standard and constructed a LEED Silver-certified boys home
(Accessed January 9, 2015)
in 2003, which became both a symbol and a learning laboratory for
15.11 Melissa Byrd and James Ruhland, research.15.11
The Tekoa Boys' Home: A Melding of
Vision, Functionality, and Sustainability,”
Journal of Green Building: Summer
2011, Vol. 6, No. 3, 33-45.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3992/jgb.6.3.33
(Accessed January 9, 2015)
In May 2013, Matel and his colleagues invited 85 local artists to spray paint
garage doors. The event drew more than 1,000 people to the bus yard site
that had been fenced off for 20 years, energizing it first with art and not
15.15 Yvonne Abraham, “Let’s Open the long after with music, dancing, food trucks, and ice cream vendors.15.15 The
Door to Arts in Boston,” Boston Globe,
electricity of that day led Mark and the organizers to create “Bartlett
August 29, 2013, http://
www.bostonglobe.com/metro/ Events,” which offered a structure through which community members
2013/08/28/let-open-door-arts-boston/ could stage their own events on the site. Roxbury still plans for 323 units of
BNOCk7n4UUJuHBfA20ThrM/
story.html housing plus retail, parking, open space, and so on. Now, however, thanks to
(Accessed January 9, 2015)
The Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship 178
Broadening Scale
Early in its history, Enterprise Community Partners was aware of the broad
scope of issues associated with any one housing development. Founder Jim
Rouse recognized that “decent, affordable” housing is a fundamental
platform for a successful life, but he knew that housing alone was not
15.17 Swenson, “Designing Better enough and needs a place within a thriving, uplifting neighborhood.15.17 The
Designers,” 114. Rose Fellowship exposes young professionals to the larger challenges and
aspirations of communities. Some of the most exciting design work is going
on in neighborhoods where CDCs are investing deeply in green
infrastructure at the neighborhood scale, intentionally directing benefits
toward low-income residents.
The Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship 179
A few miles from Matel’s work in Roxbury, Rose Fellow Mike Chavez is
working with three ambitious CDCs that have joined in a collaborative
effort to revitalize a transit corridor in Dorchester. Close to the center of
Boston, this neighborhood had a commuter rail line running through it that,
until recently, made no local stops. Community organizing led the three
CDCs and many others to unite and successfully advocate for new stops in
their neighborhoods. Today, four stops are open and three are in process,
and the successful advocacy campaign gave neighbors in the Talbot-Norfolk
Triangle an organizing framework. CDCs are taking bold steps to ensure
that residents will not only have a better quality of life, but also that they
will retain their neighborhood fabric, identity, and commitment to the
15.18 Swenson, “Designing Better mutual empowerment of themselves and their neighbors.15.18
Designers,” 114-115.
Thomas A. Dutton
181
Social change happens The Center and the Residency Program continue to learn and evolve
through the community-based relationships that nurture us. This practice-
when people with
rich environment has sharpened our theory of community engagement: that
wealth and privilege social change happens when people with wealth and privilege learn to cross
learn to cross borders, borders, and engage with people in poverty in an honest way. The work of the
and engage with people Center for Community Engagement is powerful and effective because it
in poverty in an honest immerses students and faculty in a new setting, complemented by readings,
way.
Engaging the School of Social Life 183
Architecture programs tertiary status—a distant third after research and teaching. Architecture
across the country programs across the country might have more leeway in these kinds of struggles
in that consistent creative work and practice can lead to tenure, at least at
might have more
Miami. Thankfully, national forces and groups such as Imagining America and
leeway in these kinds Campus Compact, for example, have emerged to deal directly with these
of struggles in that questions and to provide a forum for faculty to present and share their
consistent creative community-based work and to provide national leverage for it. It remains to
work and practice can be seen whether the contradiction will eventually resolve itself, but in the
meantime the pressures of traditional research and publication records will
lead to tenure, at least
likely dominate.
at Miami.
Over-the-Rhine in Four Narratives
“Like genocide, so econocide”
16.13 Alice Skirtz. Econocide: Elimination
of the Urban Poor (Washington D.C.:
Alice Skirtz16.13
NASW Press, 2012).
The Center for Community Engagement’s relationship with its other home
in Over-the-Rhine raises another set of questions: What does the Residency
16.14 Manning Marable. “The Crisis of
Program enable as a set of social practices pertinent to a neighborhood like
Black Leadership: Building African-
American Political Empowerment— Over-the-Rhine in light of world, historical conditions characterized by
Past, Present and Future,” Keynote neoliberal globalization? What does “community-based work” mean today
address delivered 10 November 2007
at the “Second Annual Ongoing in a world far more integrative of global and local forces that condition
Covenant with Black Iowa Summit.” everyday life, a moment that has produced within the U.S., as historian
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/
10.1080/10999940801937318?
Manning Marable says, an African-American community marked by “mass
journalCode=usou20#.VI5camTF9Bg. unemployment, mass incarceration, and mass disenfranchisement?”16.14 This
(Accessed December 14, 2014) “New Racial Domain” of America’s political economy constitutes an “ever-
16.15 Ibid.
widening circle of social disadvantage, poverty, and civil death.”16.15 Ethel
Long-Scott, editorial board member of Black Commentator and Executive
Director of the Women’s Economic Agenda Project, expresses similar
16.16 Ethel Long-Scott. “Justice—It’s in
concerns when she characterizes the “new racism” as stemming from a
the Details.” Commentary on “Obama’s
Race Speech” by members of the “growing polarization of wealth and poverty.”16.16 In this new “harsh global
Editorial Board of capitalism,” a “new class of dispossessed” is not only growing in America but
BlackCommentator.com. http://
blackcommentator.com/ is “discarded and thrown away.” She continues: “We are becoming more of
269/269_cover_obama_race_speech_a a police state as this impoverished low-wage and no-wage class is seen as
nalysis_ed_bd.html.
(Accessed March 21, 2015)
potentially explosive and must be held in check…Managing and controlling
the new class of dispossessed is the new paradigm of policing and
16.17 Ibid. incarceration.”16.17
Engaging the School of Social Life 188
For a very long time, Americans have been taught that so-called free
markets are the magic elixir to bring forth an equality of opportunity and
prosperity for all; that cities and states should provide a good business
climate for the unfettered, corporate-dominated economy; that public
assets should be privatized and private operations deregulated to advance
the public good; and that with corporate welfare, we can eliminate social
welfare. The result of all these years of neoliberal policy has been precisely
the opposite: Massive inequality and misery on both the national and world
Engaging the School of Social Life 191
No longer is the state the protector of the public realm and the whole
body politic. As one social critic put it, “the idea that government will
16.23 Andrew L. Barlow. Between Fear guarantee the welfare of all citizens is gone.”16.23 These are the new
and Hope: Globalization and Race in the conditions of social erasure, where marginalized populations the world
United States (Lanham: Rowman and
Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2003), 74. over are being written off and targeted for removal.
Conditions evident in What does it mean to bring mostly white, privileged students into that kind
Over-the-Rhine today of context? Conditions evident in Over-the-Rhine today drastically challenge our
understandings of what community means, what democracy means, and even
drastically challenge
what social change means. They are conditions that challenge us to think
our understandings of about how architectural practices and community-university relations might
what community counter the stealth narrative of econocide.
means, what
democracy means, and The Praxis of the Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine
even what social The Miami University Center for Community Engagement has a special
relationship with the Over-the-Rhine People’s Movement. Indeed, the
change means.
Center would not exist without the blessing and full support of the
People’s Movement, and as such, the Center serves as a unique site for
learning and for producing knowledge that intersects with the needs of that
Movement. We bridge the gap between academic research and the
community organizing taking place in Over-the-Rhine. This demands that
the Center and the Residency Program confront the econocidal, domestic
neocolonial conditions at play in Over-the-Rhine.
Three challenges emanate from the People’s Movement and animate all
that we do in the Residency Program.
The first challenge is: “If you’ve come to help me, don’t waste your time.
But if you’ve come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let
us work together.” This powerful challenge, attributed to Australian artist
and activist Lilla Watson, hangs as a poster above the desk of Bonnie
Neumeier, long-time resident and activist and the Community Liaison with
the Center for Community Engagement. Living up to this challenge reveals
how the language of “help” is not very helpful, because lurking behind such
16.29 For a deeper development of the language are the colonialist assumptions that “to help is to fix.”16.29 What
colonial undertones of “help,” see Peter
typically follows from this view is that Over-the-Rhine needs correcting, and
Block, Community:The Structure of
Belonging (San Francisco: Berret-Koehler that experts or outsiders or even newcomers already know what the
Publishers, Inc., 2008). And Tania D. community needs. In place of “help,” community people offer terms like
Mitchell, “Traditional vs. Critical Service-
Learning: Engaging the Literature to assist, support, walk with, “and to see us for the gifts we are.”
Differentiate Two Models,” Michigan
Journal of Community Service Learning The second challenge is: “Expression is the first step out of oppression.”
(Spring 2008). This is actually the motto of the Peaslee Neighborhood Center, one of our
most important community partners, which will turn 30 years old this year.
Engaging the School of Social Life 194
The intellectual/ While simple, it is not simplistic. One reading of the motto is the obvious
theoretical core of the one—that when the oppressed express themselves, they are then asserting
their agency, their humanity. But a deeper, more powerful reading here links
Center for Community
expression and oppression dialectically, such that expression, when tied to
Engagement’s an analysis of oppression, is the liberating practice. Peaslee’s motto directly
Programs is the work challenges our work to not reproduce models of community engagement
of Paulo Freire, the and service based on charity and philanthropy because they fundamentally
world-renowned fail to challenge students’ self-awareness as to why charity may be needed
in the first place.
Brazilian educator who
unashamedly placed And the third challenge is: “Seek out those most vulnerable and oppressed
so that you may learn how to live.” This powerful ethic runs through all the
love at the center of
hearts and minds of social justice organizers in Over-the-Rhine, and
his work. challenges Miami students and faculty to place compassion, forgiveness, and
love at the heart of what we do. It is a very hard ethic to live up to. The
intellectual/theoretical core of the Center for Community Engagement’s
Programs is the work of Paulo Freire, the world-renowned Brazilian educator
who unashamedly placed love at the center of his work. Freire instructs how
love is a commitment to others, and is possible only through the reciprocal
sharing when the self opens up to the Other: “No matter where the
oppressed are found, the act of love is commitment to their cause—the
16.30 Paulo Freire. Pedagogy of the cause of liberation.”16.30
Oppressed (New York: The Seabury
Press, 1970): 78. Developing reciprocal relations based upon an authentic engagement with
others is our primary quest at the Center for Community Engagement. By
directly engaging this divide between self and other, the hope is that all
participants—students, faculty, community members—come to recognize
their own partiality and challenge their own assumptions. They try to
Privilege and identify the ways privilege and internalized oppression are learning disabilities
internalized oppression that create barriers to achieving a vision of just and equitable communities.
are learning disabilities Taking all three challenges seriously shapes our understanding of
that create barriers to community engagement. We have evolved four principal practices to
address these challenges. The Residency Program, because it is a full-time
achieving a vision of
immersion experience, greatly increases our capacity to collaborate with
just and equitable the People’s Movement organizations to help define the problems that
communities. obstruct equitable development in Over-the-Rhine—to build community—
Engaging the School of Social Life 195
Community Assistance
Through Community Assistance, students in majors other than architecture
spend their community engagement practicum working in neighborhood
organizations of the People’s Movement. They work with people
experiencing homelessness at the Drop Inn Center, with children at the
Peaslee Neighborhood Center, and with the tenants of Over-the-Rhine
Community Housing, to name a few. Teacher education majors work full-
time in neighborhood schools. All students attend various community
meetings, perform community activities, and host weekly dinners with
community guests.
In spring 2002, the Housing Network asked us again to assist them in their
Low Income Housing Tax Credit Financing application development, this
time for fifteen new units in six existing buildings. Students, again, measured
existing conditions and proposed design solutions that were then more
fully developed by professional architects. Units came on line in 2003.
In the spring of 2010 we began an entirely new initiative, the Atelier. This
unique and exciting program was the brainchild of John Blake, the
Community Projects Coordinator of the Center for Community
Engagement, and Graham Kalbli, project manager and designer (formerly)
of CR architecture and design in downtown Cincinnati. Conceived not as a
job or internship or co-op, the program has students in residence in Over-
the-Rhine, working in CR (but not for it), and designing a project for one of
our community-based nonprofits. Atelier is actually a bit of a misnomer as it
implies neophytes learning at the feet of an expert, whereas the impetus of
this collaboration has students (and occasionally recent grads) drive the
project, with professional assistance and oversight all the way through
Design Development. This is in contrast to the conventional co-operative
assignment or internship, in which students look over the shoulder of
experienced professionals. Here CR provides focused project development
guidance in the form of code review, design critiques, specification writing,
and project scheduling. CR provides access to expertise, both in-house and
with consultants, code officials, and product representatives. John Blake,
who works directly with the students, ensures that academic requirements
Engaging the School of Social Life 197
are fulfilled, while CR architects Tim Wiley and Rick Fussner ensure that the
project meets professional expectations.
Community Advocacy
Community Advocacy entails community-based campaigns and projects
that advance the organizing already in motion. Advocacy work helps
articulate the neighborhood’s position on issues of equitability, capture the
history of the community and the People’s Movement, and broadcast the
desires of the neighborhood to the public at large. Students and faculty
have worked closely with community leaders to further the Oral History
Storytelling Campaign documenting the People’s Movement history;
conducted participatory workshops that produce alternative design
schemes for economically mixed housing and neighborhood parks;
conducted petition campaigns; and assisted neighborhood leaders to
organize marches, meetings, forums, and conversations across different
constituencies. Since 2002, the Center has organized hundreds of forums,
panels, meetings, and conversations in consultation with the community.
These have often been organized around noted speakers such as Dennis
Engaging the School of Social Life 198
16.31 Cincinnati Freedom Summer 2004 Kucinich; Bobby Seale, former chairman of the Black Panther Party;
coincided with “Voices of Freedom historians Manning Marable and Robin D. G. Kelley; author Barbara
Summer Reunion Conference,” held at
Miami University also on September 17 Ehrenreich; Lian Hurst Mann of the Labor/Community Strategy Center in
– 19. Fifty minutes northwest of Los Angeles; consultant Peter Block; Cameron Sinclair of Architecture for
Cincinnati, Oxford, Ohio and the
campus of Miami University (which now Humanity and Worldchanging; Noah Adams of National Public Radio; many
incorporates the Western College Cincinnati leaders and activists; and architectural figures such as Mike
Campus), is the site where the
Freedom Summer participants trained
Pyatok, Teddy Cruz, Peter Fattinger, and Tom Fisher.
before traveling to the Deep South to
register voters, participate in Freedom Like an architectural community design center, we have hosted design
Schools, and to pressure the U. S. charrettes to address design issues at varying scales in Over-the-Rhine. One
government to stop the brutality of the
KKK and the local police. 2004 marked
of our most significant interventions in this regard happened September
the 40th anniversary of Freedom 17–19, 2004. Co-sponsored with Architecture for Humanity, Cincinnati
Summer. Freedom Summer 2004 Design Charrette for Social Justice linked design
The Reunion Conference brought
together those whose lives were advocacy with organizations of the Over-the-Rhine People’s Movement to
changed forever by that Mississippi address poverty, homelessness, and civil rights.16.31
summer. Through presentations,
performances, and dialogue, actual
Design teams explored social questions in a city that in 2001—a year
participants from the Summer of 1964
shared their experiences with those which saw the urban unrest sparked by the shooting of 19-year-old
who commemorated the past as a way Timothy Thomas by a Cincinnati police office—was the flashpoint for
to remake the future. Our effort in
Over-the-Rhine and Cincinnati rethinking a reinvigorated civil rights movement.16.32 Participants—nearly 60
complemented the Oxford experience, in all—examined the history of civil rights and the issues facing Cincinnati
and people coming to either event had
opportunity to participate in the
today through representatives of the Cincinnati Black United Front,
activities happening at each site. While Cincinnati Progressive Action, the Over-the-Rhine People’s Movement, and
the Miami Reunion was more other groups. Design teams consisted of local citizens, artists, and architects,
commemorative, the Over-the-Rhine
event offered an experience to make as well as students from Miami University, the University of Cincinnati,
history in light of that commemoration. Pennsylvania State University, and Harrisburg Community College in
16.32 For more on the unrest see my
Pennsylvania. Members of Architecture for Humanity came from as far
“Violence in Cincinnati,” The Nation away as Oakland, CA, St. Louis, Washington DC, Columbus, OH and
(June 18, 2001). Boston. Cameron Sinclair, founder and director of Architecture for
Humanity, flew in from New York City and helped manage the entire
charrette, as well as one of the design teams.
The $48 million makeover of Washington Park was under the control of
the City’s Park Board and a recently formed entity, Cincinnati Center City
Development Corporation, known more as 3CDC. Founded in July 2003
with the city’s blessing (and concurrent with the City of Cincinnati’s shut-
down of its Department of City Planning), 3CDC is a private corporate-
based development group, “created as part of the overall system to
increase effectiveness and efficiency of development activities in the City of
16.33 http://www.3cdc.org/who-we-are/. Cincinnati.”16.33 3CDC is no ordinary development group, however. It is the
(Accessed December 14, 2014)
spearhead of corporate power in Cincinnati as nearly every single Fortune
500 company in Cincinnati has CEO-level representation on its board.
The students and the community were able to present the Alternative
Design for Washington Park at a public forum held in November 2007, but
this was not by permission of 3CDC or the Park Board. At this standing-
room-only meeting, which lasted nearly three hours, the community
essentially took the meeting over and insisted that its Plan be presented by
the students, which it finally was. Within a week of that forum, Steve Leeper,
Engaging the School of Social Life 200
President and CEO of 3CDC, met with community leaders and the
students. Finally there was a dialogue. Leeper accepted the basketball
courts as part of the new design, but hedged on the deep-water pool,
saying only that a deep-water pool in or near the Washington Park area
was needed and should be accommodated. Somehow over the next five
years both the deep-water pool and basketball courts were dropped from the
brief.
16.34 For all our Agit-Prop work, see Agit-Props: Resisting Oppression and Exposing the Politics of a Place16.34
http://arts.miamioh.edu/cce/
engagement.html.
In our Agit-Prop practice students work with community artists and
(Accessed March 21, 2015) leaders, at their request and guidance, to build artistic installations that
“agitate” and “propagate” points of view regarding the neighborhood’s
history and political consciousness. These installations negotiate a line
between pedagogy and aesthetic practice, posing questions such as: What
learning opportunities can be created by aesthetic interventions conceived
within social movements? What are their critical potential? What role can
cultural production play in helping movements for social change develop
16.35 See Thomas A. Dutton and Lian their political strategy and achieve their tactical aims?16.35 Placing art-making
Hurst Mann. “Affiliated Practices and
within a strategy of social change articulated by the People’s Movement, the
Aesthetic Interventions: Remaking
Spaces in Cincinnati and Los Angeles.” Agit-Prop work assists the Movement to project its stories and concerns
Review of Education/Pedagogy/Cultural into the public realm, which encourages new learning on the part of public
Studies v. 25, #3 (July-September 2003).
The following descriptions of the Agit- audiences. All the Agit-Prop projects evolve through participatory design
Prop projects were originally published processes composed of community leaders and residents, students, and faculty.
here.
Since 1999 we have completed seven such installations, four of them in
exterior settings. Agit-Prop projects create opportunities for community
residents to share stories about their lives and history. Allow me to explain
three of them.
deny their humanity. When hegemony works to its maximum effect, the
poor have difficulty even seeing their own culture because they are locked
into the gaze and language of dominant groups. Jimmy’s work assists people
to discover their agency, principally by holding up a mirror to the many
ways in which his subjects act to transform their reality.
The first was a street corner in Over-the-Rhine that the students figured
was sympathetic to Jimmy’s message of hope and struggle. The installation
was up for about a week, and in that time the exhibit was not tampered
with or harmed in any way.
The third site was the entry plaza of the student union center at Miami
University. Here the students pressed their peers about gentrification,
asking if they would be the next generation of gentrifiers in communities
like Over-the-Rhine. Though not completely carted off, after a week one
part of the exhibit was trashed. Again, reasons for this are not clear, but we
wonder about people becoming upset with the message.
Engaging the School of Social Life 202
On May 20, 1994, the City of Cincinnati, while advocating that all city
neighborhoods should be comprised of an “economic mix,” demolished the
hotel after it had spent nearly two million dollars to acquire it. In its stead
was built Greenwich of the Park, a middle- to upper-income housing
development developed by Towne Properties, whose co-owner was a
former mayor of the city. More than hundred low-income residents were
displaced and few received the promised relocation assistance.
On Saturday, May 20, 2000 in a little park that runs down the middle of
Eighth Street and fronts Greenwich on the Park, the sixth anniversary of
the loss of the Milner Hotel was commemorated within a setting designed
by students. Former residents of the Milner, housing activists, community
leaders, and citizens gathered to hear speeches, sing songs, and re-commit
themselves to ongoing and future struggles. The artistic installation honored
the history of community activist efforts to save the hotel.
The installation had three components. First was the bright-red banner that
wrapped around trees and light posts within the park, just above head-level.
The brilliant red, in contrast with the green of the trees, caught the eye and
signaled to passerby that an event was happening. Second were five, life-
sized silhouettes, which took their form as absences cut out of wood
panels. The absences represented a critique of the dominant culture’s gaze
upon the homeless. The effect of the gaze is erasure: It operates to ignore
people without homes, to place them out of sight and to look right
through them as if they are not there. But suspended within the absence of
each silhouette was a presence, where one could read poetry by homeless
people as well as texts by former residents of the Milner. The third
component of the installation was the variety of plaques placed on the
Engaging the School of Social Life 203
16.37 Many Over-the-Rhine leaders and ground throughout the park. These plaques told the story of the Milner in
citizens draw inspiration from Native parallel with that of the Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears.16.37 The
American struggles to keep their land
and ways of life. Even “reservation” is juxtaposed stories of the Milner and the Trail of Tears challenged readers to
commonly used in public discourse look for parallels, distinctions, and differences, and provided a historical
about Over-the-Rhine. Hegemonic
power often invokes the neighborhood context for thinking about the city’s effort to socially cleanse the Central
negatively as a reservation, as a place of Business District.16.38
pathology, while Movement folk see
Over-the-Rhine as a special reserve that
needs development but not at their Example 3: Response to ArtWorks Mural Project
expense. At issue, of course, is the
control of land, and by extension, the The summer 2009 mural by the civic organization ArtWorks prompted this
right of a community predominantly of Agit-Prop project.16.39 Situated at a prominent entry point into Over-the-
color to self-determination.
Rhine from downtown, the mural is the four-story likeness of Cincinnati
16.38 It has been valuable to have resident and former City Council Member Jim Tarbell. As we learned from
architecture students involved with Kelly Jo Asbury, an artist and instructor at Chatfield College in Over-the-
other majors in Agit-Prop projects.
While such projects may not seem Rhine who participated in the initial planning of the ArtWorks mural, the
“architectural” enough to some, we decision-making process selecting Mr. Tarbell was not diversified or
have found them to be excellent
educational vehicles for a future
community-based. Mr. Tarbell was one of four candidates considered for the
architect’s training. At their core, Agit- mural. The others were legendary boxer Ezzard Charles and icons Mr.
Prop projects are community-based
Spoons (a spoon-playing rhythmic genius) and Peanut Jim (Shelton—an
and multidisciplinary. Projects involve
multiple clients and voices where African American entrepreneur who wore tophat and tails as he sold
students must learn to listen carefully to roasted nuts to generations of Cincinnati Red fans). As if the selection of
community members and design within
a participatory process that engages Mr. Tarbell (long-time proponent of gentrification) for the mural wasn’t
them. Students have to be creative in audacious enough, Mr. Tarbell is depicted in a tuxedo as the new “Peanut
order to translate people’s aspirations
into physical form. And the design/build
Jim,” tipping his hat as if to welcome the central business district to the
component of these Agit-Prop neighborhood—“Come, gentrify!”
installations present their own
architectural questions of appropriate After resigning in protest from the project, Ms. Asbury described her
materiality, detail, structure,
weatherization, and budget.
experience:
All told, since 1996 we have completed close to twenty projects ranging in
scale from furniture pieces to single-family homes. We’ve renovated two
such homes; a laundromat/meeting space; five apartments ranging from one
to three bedrooms; the Center’s storefront location; a four-room retreat
and meeting space for an on-site resident caseworker who oversees
twenty units of housing for residents who are just out of homelessness; a
game table for Washington Park; a second-story wood and steel deck; a
fourth-story terrace (over interior space); and a commercial entity called
Venice on Vine, which is a pizzeria and food-catering operation run by
Dominican Nuns who hire “hard-to-employ” persons as a job-training
program, to name the more prominent projects.
Venice on Vine was a great project with lots of actors in a highly visible
location, but of equal impact for our community partners have been
projects too difficult for mainstream practitioners to pull off. For example,
Engaging the School of Social Life 206
16.42 Workshop participants for years we heard lore about an undeveloped “mystery space” on the
completed permit drawings and began fourth floor of buddy’s Place—the home of the Center for Community
demolition, including working with an
experienced mason to set a precast Engagement on the ground floor. We heard the mystery space included a
lintel for the new opening. Some roof deck. From the parking lot one can detect a parapet notched out of
existing installed drywall was salvaged,
and subfloors were leveled and the roof slope, but it wasn’t until spring 2010 that we got up there for a
prepared for new 5/8” bamboo. The loft good look.
was dismantled. The 16-foot, 2x lumber
was lowered over the side of the When buddy’s Place was renovated in the mid-90s, the HUD project
building and taken to the Over-the-
Rhine Community Housing warehouse funding could not be applied to non-residential spaces. So a rental office
for re-use, while the remaining short with kitchenette and toilet was stubbed-in and wired, but left incomplete.
lumber was sliced and laminated with
end-grain up to create a two-piece
An adjacent space on the other side of a 14” brick wall became an attic for
conference table. leftover lumber and building supplies, with a crudely built 2 x 10 loft. The
In the fall the Design/Build Studio roof deck was completed during building renovation, but only served as a
advanced the project with meticulous
drywall and painting. They finished means of access to the lumber loft.
leveling the floor and installed the
bamboo. They installed the 300+ pound Beginning with the Summer Workshop in May 2010, the Design/Build
concrete countertop slabs, with off-the-
studio re-designed the space as the office for OTRCH’s on-site caseworker,
rack cast iron pipe legs for the bar area.
New, uncut fir French door slabs were with a completed kitchenette, accessible toilet, and a new opening through
purchased. These were framed, the brick wall into the former lumber loft that became a conference area
weather-stripped and installed by the
students. Poplar trim was used to and small retreat space.16.42 Overall, the Design/Build Studio assists
frame-out the windows and doors, with community organizations by developing properties not easily developed
exaggerated dimensions to mask fire
damage and broken bricks. A tongue-
through traditional methods. Students are responsible for all phases of
and-groove fir landing was built for work: design schematics, construction drawings for permit, working within a
code-compliant deck access, and a budget that they often formulate, construction, and meeting with building
custom bamboo shelf was installed in
the kitchenette below the recessed inspectors. By putting residential units back on line and renovating empty
microwave. storefronts for neighborhood-serving businesses, the Design/Build work
provides a tangible use-value for the community and helps fulfill the
business plans for the area’s nonprofits. The design/build projects exemplify
several levels of inquiry to the term connection: the conjunction of disparate
materials to create a harmonious composition; the insertion of new
construction into historic, urban fabric to add vibrancy and relevance
without demolishing or deprecating; the collaboration of students,
community members, consultants, and tradespeople on-site; and the
overarching theme of providing connection among people of varied
backgrounds and histories, with the assertion that we all are important
place-makers.
Engaging the School of Social Life 207
16.43 All the student reflections of the Student and Community Reactions 16.43
Over-the-Rhine Residency Program are
at: http://arts.miamioh.edu/cce/ Empathy is fellow feeling for the person in need—his pain,
residency_program.html. agony and burdens. I doubt if the problems of our teeming
(Accessed March 21, 2015)
ghettos will have a great chance to be solved until the white
majority, through genuine empathy, comes to feel the ache
and anguish of the Negroes’ daily life.
16.44 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.16.44
Do We Go From Here: Chaos or
Community? (Boston: Beacon Press,
1967), 107.
Adding labor to under-staffed organizations, “grabbing an oar” in community
campaigns, generating new knowledge through artistic installations, and
putting residential units and workspaces back on line for the People’s
Movement to carry out its work: all these activities directly benefit our
community partners. In the Over-the-Rhine Residency Program, this ethic
of working for the community is non-negotiable. As students embody the
Seeing the community four practices of the Residency Program, the challenge put to them is, can
in its full humanity you see the people and the community beyond media stereotypes that
through their sustained reinforce the narratives of Poverty and Renaissance? And when the
students let their guard down and open up, they change. They change by
service and growing
the relationships they make with community residents, through the work
empathy is the life- they provide. Seeing the community in its full humanity through their sustained
transforming process.... service and growing empathy is the life-transforming process.
At the end of the semester I have the students reflect in writing upon their
....students are experiences, and each year, I am overwhelmed by powerful, deep-hearted
transformed by the testimonies about how they wrestled with their privilege, their fears, and
Residency Program in even their anger at the recognition that little is done by city officials,
corporations, and state and federal governments to address the conditions
powerful and long-
prevalent in Over-the-Rhine. Many come to see life differently. Poverty
lasting ways.
becomes real. Voting becomes relevant. They are amazed at how the daily
lives of ordinary people affect them. They learn from those who are
homeless and their neighbors. They open their hearts and minds and
develop compassion and empathy. They see the community and realize
both its strong bonds and its responsibilities. And they see through the
16.45 See Thomas A. Dutton. “The stereotypes of middle-class biases.16.45
Over-the-Rhine Residency Program.” In
Peter Senge et al, Schools That Learn.
Engaging the School of Social Life 208
Going through a process like this can only be characterized as hard work—
students have to allow themselves to open their minds and hearts so that
they can be affected. As one student put it: “Before setting foot in Over-
the-Rhine, poverty didn’t exist. Secluded by the picket fences, cul-de-sacs,
half-acre lawns, and strip malls, my perception was that everyone had the
resources and money necessary to live in America. I also believed in the
idea of economic opportunity for everyone. However, Over-the-Rhine hit
me like a bat hitting an apple. Everything that made sensed crumbled. The
experience has transitioned me from a passive, accepting, and narrow-
minded idiot into a questioning, revolting, and active participant in this
corrupt “land of the free.”
Another student who struggled with certainty in the first weeks wrote:
“Coming to Over-the-Rhine I was confident in the permanency of my
beliefs, beliefs that had never been thoroughly challenged. Thankfully I was
not unwilling to be altered, I just didn’t think that it would happen…Every
single day provided me with something to ponder…I am the different
person I never thought I needed to be. Now the real challenge will be
returning to the main campus in Oxford.”
These testimonies are not isolated cases. Nearly every student walks away
with at least a recognition that urban life and econocide cannot be ignored.
As one student recently wrote: “People always say “ignorance is bliss,” but
indifference is a very comfortable route to take in life also. I can’t say I
arrived in Over-the-Rhine completely naïve, innocent, and ignorant to urban
issues that affect cities like Cincinnati, but I can say I was apathetic—not
Engaging the School of Social Life 209
interested or concerned, indifferent. I feel that the true gift of the Over-the-
Rhine Residency Program actually lies in its ability to make indifference
difficult. My time and experiences here have made it harder to separate
myself physically, mentally, and emotionally from the realities of injustice and
inequality.”
Community members also recognize and talk about the value of the
relationships and the shared understandings they build with students. As
students bring energy to Over-the-Rhine to learn about its people and
history through their engagement, the relationships formed provide new
opportunities for neighborhood people to tell their story, which affirms and
honors their experiences—residents become energized when they
recognize that “someone wants to hear my story.” For example, a resident
who worked with students for three years renovating a vacant storefront
for a nonprofit coffee shop, said, “Those kids have changed my life
dramatically. They have no idea. They allow me to mentor them.” Acting
now as mentors and teachers, community residents come to share their
histories and stories. And in the process, they often undergo personal
transformation and deepen their understanding of their own struggle. At
their best, these kinds of exchanges exemplify a resistance to domestic
neocolonialism and econocide because people are able to tie their
experiences to a wider social analysis and to determine their place within
that analysis.
Though the Residency Program for the students does come to an end, the
hope is that students will see their time in Over-the-Rhine as a seed to
plant elsewhere wherever they go. That as they branch out into the world,
they will seek out the Over-the-Rhines that exist everywhere and connect
there to begin the process of setting down roots. At the end of each
semester, Bonnie Neumeier tells the students one last time: “As our future
architects, city planners, social workers, advocates, journalists, teachers,
entrepreneurs, and politicians, you can bring much deeper wisdom into our
world so that equality for all is not just a dream, but can be a reality. You are
now part of this place. When you leave you will leave something of yourself
here, as I know you will take something of us with you.”
Engaging the School of Social Life 210
Conclusion
At a recent architecture conference I presented our Design/Build work and
the practices of the Center more generally when a person in the audience
characterized me as “Mockbee of the inner city” (of course, the reference is
to Sam Mockbee and his colleagues of the Rural Studio of Auburn
16.47 http://www.ruralstudio.org/. University and their many accomplishments).16.47 I appreciate the
(Accessed December 14, 2014) compliment, but there are distinctions between the programs, not least of
which is that the Center is in an urban neighborhood, dealing with city
permits and inspectors, and enacting a wide range of practices beyond
design/build—agit-prop, charrettes, design counter-schemes, productive
conversations, typical urban and architectural design investigations, and the
Over-the-Rhine Rhine Residency Program that has allowed us to deepen
these practices. Our goal is not to “do art” or to provide photogenic
shelter, but more to the point of this chapter, we engage all these practices
in order to assist a poor people’s movement in its pursuit of its self-
determination within an econocidal environment characterized by the
neocolonialist practices of gentrification and incarceration.
These conditions face many of the nation’s big cities, and Over-the-Rhine is
no exception. Over-the-Rhine, bound within a square mile, remains the
epitome of social, cultural, and economic disparity, a reality made more
apparent by the recent jargon of Renaissance. If future architects want to
be relevant within these conditions, schools and the profession will need to
move beyond the more traditional practices that are now associated with
architecture, facing squarely the striking and structural inequities that
characterize the world today. While the profession tries to change public
discourse about new building practices that can offset environmental
imbalances, it can do more to take up the mantle for social responsibility
and equitable development, and to explicitly theorize how econocide takes
form in one’s own backyard.
The strength of our work through the Center and the Residency Program
is its multiplicity, which in turn is a reflection of Over-the-Rhine as a
dynamic place of ongoing struggle over cultural and political direction, social
policy, even historical beginnings. Our work confronts these multi-layered
social-cultural and political-economic conditions of Over-the-Rhine head
Engaging the School of Social Life 211
The effort to address The effort to address the complexities of Over-the-Rhine offers the opportunity
the complexities of to rethink and reconstruct professional practices. The need for professions to
Over-the-Rhine offers take an active role in confronting issues of social justice and equity is as
great as it ever was. In the current era of massive economic inequality and
the opportunity to
austerity politics, many professions and disciplines overlook the fact that
rethink and under-served segments of society are suffering horribly. The Center, by
reconstruct linking specifically with The People’s Movement and other groups working
professional practices. to improve the conditions of lower-income residents, provides professional
services for those who rarely, if ever, have access to them. The Center
challenges disciplines to fashion their respective tools and methods to
construct a social practice, one that, through a hands-on approach to
community engagement, furthers a just, social transformation.
In his landmark The Pedagogy of the Oppressed the late Paulo Freire
discussed a concept that I hold close. His concern was “false generosity,” by
which he meant the actions of oppressors that appear benevolent and
generous but serve really to strengthen the status quo and thus their own
Engaging the School of Social Life 212
Thomas Fisher
214
17.1 Pierre Bourdieu, “The Forms of Economic capital, comprising financial resources like cash and
Capital,” Richard Nice, translator.
assets;
Originally published as Ökonomisches
Kapital, kulturelles Kapital, soziales Cultural capital, encompassing knowledge and skills;
Kapital." in Soziale Ungleichheiten
(Soziale Welt, Sonderheft 2), edited by Social capital, involving the relationships among people in
Reinhard Kreckel. Goettingen: Otto
Schartz & Co.. 1983. pp. 183-98. http:// families and communities.17.1
www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/
theory/Bourdieu-
Forms_of_Capital.html. All three forms of capital exist, to varying degrees, in every sphere of
(Accessed December 15, 2014)
human activity. But economic capital has become so dominant, and cultural
capital so complicit in that dominance, that those two forms of wealth almost
Economic capital has totally eclipse—to our detriment—the wealth that constitutes social capital.
become so dominant, We have come to assess the health of communities according to how
and cultural capital so much economic capital (financial wealth, property value) and how much
complicit in that cultural capital (educational attainment, institutional cachet) they have.
dominance, that those According to those measures, a neighborhood like Cincinnati’s Over-the-
Rhine seems impoverished and in need of improvement. But counting only
two forms of wealth
the economic and cultural capital of a place, we miss the myriad
almost totally eclipse— connections, networks, and mutual support systems within a community.
to our detriment—the These are forms of wealth as durable as any amount of money or
wealth that constitutes knowledge.
social capital. The displacement of financially impoverished people via gentrification or
the increasing dependency of a poor population on charity can result.
Although sometimes well-meaning, the misapplication of economic and
cultural capital can have the paradoxical effect of destroying the very places
The Architecture of Social Capital 215
Too great a focus on Economic and cultural capital can also negatively affect architecture. Too
economics has driven great a focus on economics has driven the architectural profession toward
commodity work, as architects increasingly find themselves pressured to do
the architectural
more repetitive projects, for lower fees, at a faster rate, with the most
profession toward predictable results. Accordingly, many buildings have become mostly
commodity work. vehicles for the amassing of financial value for their owners.
The CCE also represents a different form of practice. Its clients comprise
not a wealthy few, but an entire community. Meanwhile, its funding comes
not from private fees, but from student tuition, public or nonprofit
organizations, and the in-kind services of many people. Nor is it like the
typical service-learning effort at universities, in which students and faculty
members do a “hit and run” project, without an ongoing relationship and
little or no follow-up with the community. Instead, the CCE’s long-term
Never before have engagement with the people of Over-the-Rhine has resulted in a wide
there been so many range of projects, depending upon what the community helps determine it
people in such needs. In the end, what matters in this type of practice is less the amount
of architecture produced, and more the quality of the relationships that
desperate
stem from it.
circumstances, in what
Mike Davis has aptly The architecture of social capital offers us one way of addressing major
societal problems, such as the growing gaps between wealth and poverty
called a “planet of
around the world. Never before have there been so many people in such
slums.” desperate circumstances, in what Mike Davis has aptly called a “planet of
17.2 Mike Davis, Planet of Slums, Verso, slums.”17.2 And never before have so few private individuals controlled such
New York, 2006. a large percentage of the world’s resources, with just two percent of the
17.3 “Pioneering Study Shows Richest
population owning 50 percent of all of the assets around the globe.17.3
Two Percent Own Half World Wealth,” Given such inequities and imbalances, social capital can play a key role in
UN World Institute for Development helping communities survive the inevitable retrenchments and
Economics Research. http://
www.wider.unu.edu/events/past-events/ readjustments ahead, as people return to the one resource on which they
2006-events/en_GB/05-12-2006/. can count: the mutual support systems of family and friends, neighbors and
(Accessed December 15, 2014)
community members. Architecture can facilitate that by creating social
space and by providing the processes by which social capital accrues.
activity. That will require that the faculty involved in such efforts not only act
in responsive and responsible ways in communities, but also that they take
their academic responsibilities seriously, vigorously researching and
reflecting upon this type of work and publishing the results of what has
been learned, not just among peers, but to a broad public audience. That, in
itself, can help build social capital. And, as the published work in this book
shows, it can also make for engaging and inspiring reading.
18
A
Conclusion
Craig L. Wilkins
219
Conclusion
This is not your Father’s Practice
Craig L. Wilkins
At a time when society For the last several decades, the discussion in and around architecture has
is generally reevaluating been driven solely by the image of the object. Post-modernists,
deconstructionists, and now proponents of “folding” and “blob” architecture,
the public role and
despite their occasional claims to the contrary, all have been primarily, if not
civic contribution of exclusively, concerned with the aesthetic form of the objects produced.
professions and their And while it is true that architecture is a visual art with specific functional
claim to expert requirements—requirements that are often at odds with its desire to exist
knowledge, we’ve put as “art for art’s sake”—the dominance of the image as the “end-all-and-be-all”
of architecture has for some, been both overdetermined and detrimental.
together both a “why-
Overdetermined, because rightly or wrongly it allows architecture to be
to” and “how-to” guide seen as a profession for the privileged—distant and esoteric, with little, if
for establishing a anything, to do with the way in which most people live their lives.
community design Detrimental, because the insistence on the primacy of the aesthetic had
center. positioned the architect as little more than a self-absorbed artist, busily
pursuing a tortured vision of art, concerned only with the creation of their
individual, autonomous work. However seductive that situation may be for
the individual designer, it is an untenable combination for the profession of
The dominance of the architecture, as establishing architects as simply aesthetic experts only,
image as the “end-all- ultimately divests them from a good, many if not all, professional
and-be-all” of responsibilities. Individually and collectively, the contributors to this book
architecture has for project have rejected this divestiture, working within the pages of this book,
in their profession, and, dare we say, their personal lives, to open up the
some, been both
conversation about the value of architecture, from simply judging its visual
overdetermined and
aesthetics to including a consideration of its visible ethics as well. At a time
detrimental. when society is generally reevaluating the public role and civic contribution of
professions and their claim to expert knowledge, we’ve put together both a
“why-to” and “how-to” guide for establishing a community design center, in all
of its various forms, as architecture’s answer to the inevitable, rapidly
approaching public inquisition.
This is not your Father’s Practice 220
Why To
It is the belief that The overarching, unifying principle running through the disparate essays
everyone, regardless of collected in this tome is simple enough: it is the belief that everyone,
regardless of race, gender, or class, should have direct access to the expertise of
race, gender, or class,
architects. Period.
should have direct
The corollary—that design centers are a legitimate, if not essential,
access to the expertise
component of the profession of architecture—is demonstrated through a
of architects. Period. variety of perspectives in these essays, including
Nope, this paradigm will require that practitioners be all that…and more.
In a time when the nation—and its concerns—have gone hyper-global and
multi-meta-faceted, the belief that a profession can remain relevant by
becoming increasingly narrow and inwardly focused is dangerously
delusional. The environment in which we work—and are charged to
steward—is simply too complex for that. The authors in this book all posit,
in one way or another, that design centers offer a place to begin to
construct the comprehensive practitioner; a place where the relevance of
the profession is visible and obvious to all; a place to think of ways in which
to practice that allow for a variety of structures, products and participants;
a place to become multi-meta-faceted. While other contemporary
professions embrace the comprehensive world of practice that they
monopolize, architecture has been regrettably reticent and recalcitrant in
following suit. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating, the “continuous
adherence to and defense of increasingly obsolete disciplinary boundaries is
18.2 Ibid., 142. foolish at best.”18.2
How to
Now, to be fair, none of Now, to be fair, none of our authors would argue that community design centers
our authors would are the only place to engage an activist paradigm of architectural practice. Yet,
as many of the essays show, CDCs do provide the physical and intellectual
argue that community
space to house the kind of critical engagement necessary to employ
design centers are the architectural design as an integrative and iterative tool to address seemingly
only place to engage an intractable concerns. In considering the full range of possibilities for
activist paradigm of professional practice, many of the pieces in this book identify existing
architectural practice. similarities between professional for-profit firms and academic nonprofit
centers, arguing for future collaborations between the two that might
suggest possible structural modifications of practice, or at least, a
moderation of the dominant paradigm of practice. The essays focusing on
the evolving AIA position on design centers is an indication that this is
indeed a very real possibility, if not already occurring.
One of the most important questions coming into this project has dealt
with the very real issue of how can one balance the conflict between the
professional’s self-interests and their position as champion of the shared
public resources in the built environment. Throughout the course of this
book, we would hope that the reader has understood that this is a false
dichotomy. The either/or paradigm no longer apples, if it ever did. The
essays here have either directly or indirectly scuttled this oppositional
binary. In fact, in one of the more useful turns of this concern, authors have
actually identified methods in which the pursuit of the kinds of work
typically left for design centers can actually be considered generators of
profit—that social entrepreneurship is every bit as legitimate, note-worthy
and, yes, even profitable as any other kind of entrepreneurship. If one needs
any further evidence to attest to this claim, look no further than the
plethora of green technologies and sustainable consultants exploding across
the capital terrain. Such developments go a long way to answering the
This is not your Father’s Practice 223
One of the more slippery concerns for the writers and editors of this book
was to demonstrate categorically how the study and practice of
architecture is made better by the work of community design centers. It is
clear to the authors of this book that we are not alone in our interest that
The sense of something from our practice go beyond just us. That sense of communal
communal solidarity is solidarity is coming not from our colleagues per se, but from our students. For
anyone with a nose for pedagogical trends, “service learning” will be a most
coming not from our
familiar term. It is currently all the rage among progressive academicians
colleagues per se, but and institutions. This puts the work of design centers in the forefront of any
from our students. service learning discussion made by any university lucky enough to house a
CDC. Now…turn that high powered perception toward the incoming
student bodies in architecture schools, and you will find similar notions with
respect to their educational pedagogy. Robert Ivy said it best in a recent
Architectural Record editorial:
Thus, university administrations find the CDC a useful model for future
service learning engagements in other departments. For students, they find
CDCs useful to engage in projects that have clients and tangible
consequences other than a poor grade, should they not solve the design
problem. However, what seems to be lacking in that analysis (and it is
reflected in the essays above) is a clear sense of where the faculty of these
institutions fall when considering the work of design centers. This is no
accident; for most are silent on the establishment and ultimate value of
such efforts. Thus, establishing anything more than a class or two, a studio,
or a short-semester workshop—much less an academic curriculum with
community design as a fundamental educational objective—has been…
ahm…let’s just say, difficult. The USFs—the Universities of San Francisco
and South Florida—can attest to that. After 40-plus years, it was inevitable
that some institution would try it as a pedagogical foundation; we’ve tried
almost everything else.
Further, and perhaps more germane to many reading this book, an area
that we would like to have had more speculation on is just what a tenure-
worthy package for a primary practitioner of community design might look
like. Unfortunately, a standard or blueprint has yet to be established, as only
a few cases have been made solely on this basis. But again: It is coming.
Back to the Preface. Not so long ago a group of miners suddenly found themselves after an
avalanche entombed unto their death in one of the diamond mines of
South Africa, starving for food and thirsting for water and the need of
spiritual comfort. Diamonds were worthless, and they slowly met their
death.
Somehow, there must be a place in our scheme of things for those broad
human values which transcend our materialistic grasping and our values
that are concentrated more around things and people, or else we shall find
ourselves entombed in our diamond mine of materialism.
It would be the most naïve escapist who today would be unaware that the
winds of change, as far as human aspirations are concerned, are fast
reaching tornado proportions. Throughout our world society, and
particularly in our own country, the disinherited, the disfranchised, the poor,
the black are saying in no unmistakable terms that they intend to be in or
nobody will be comfortably in.
Our choices are clear-cut: We can either engage in genocide and the
systematic extermination of the black poor in this country and poor
generally, and here we have an ideal model in Adolf Hitler; or we can
engage in more formalized apartheid than we already have, and here we
can use as our pattern Ian Smith in South Africa. Or we can decide that the
1968 AIA Convention Keynote Address 227
Back to the Preface. American dream and promise and the Judeo-Christian ethic are more than
rhetoric and a collection of nice clichés to be mouthed on Sunday
morning and the Fourth of July, and that they are principles to be
practiced. Here we can take as our model the Constitution and the Bible.
But the disinherited in our society today, unlike the past, are fully aware of
the gap between their standard of living and the large majority of
Americans. No longer are they the sharecroppers on farms and in rural
areas where they have not the benefit of newspapers and radio. Today, for
the most part, the poor live within a stone’s throw of the affluent. They
witness on their television sets and read in their newspapers and see
personally how the other 80 percent of Americans live. The poor no
longer assume that their status is God-made. They no longer believe that
they are congenitally and innately inferior because of their color or
because of a condition of birth. The poor are fully aware today that their
conditions are man-made and not God-decreed or constitutionally
derived.
The poor today also are quite conscious of how other people have
managed to lift themselves out of the mire of injustice and poverty—
whether it was the leaders of civil disobedience in the Boston Tea Party or
the revolutionists in the American Revolution, or the labor movement or
the woman’s suffrage movement, or the struggles of the Irish, Italians, Jews
and what have you. They know that their techniques today, which
sometimes are so glibly discredited, are the same techniques that others
have used in other periods of history when they found themselves
similarly situated.
Back to the Preface. permit 20 percent of its people to live in squalor and in poverty; a society
that willingly taxes itself to rebuild western Europe, to rebuild West
Germany. There are no slums today in West Germany; the slums are in the
Harlems of our community where black people live who have been in this
country several centuries, whose blood, sweat and tears have gone to build
this country, who gave it 250 years of free labor and another 100 of cheap
labor. They are the ones who live in the slums and who are unemployed.
These students point out how a budget of approximately $140 million was
spent last year: less than 20 percent for things that are esthetic and cultural
and educational, for health, education and welfare, and almost 70 percent
for weapons of destruction or defense against destruction.
We are not at a loss in our society for the know-how. We have the
technology. We have the scientific know-how. We have the resources. We
are at a loss for the will.
The crisis is not in our cities. The crisis is in our hearts, the kind of human
beings we are. And I submit to you that if you are a mother or a father,
today you are being challenged either silently by young people or you will
be challenged even more violently by them, but you are risking the respect
of generations not yet adults and generations yet unborn.
In this situation there are two or three positive aspects and possibilities that
are present today that were not present in the past. One is that we today
are all aware of the problem. The black person—and I make no apology for
singling out the Negro, although I am fully aware that there are poor white
people in Appalachia, poor Mexican-Americans, poor Puerto-Ricans and
Indians—the Negro is a sort of symbol, the only involuntary immigrant in
large numbers. I make really no apologies, but the Negro today is at least
on the conscience of America. This is not to say that he loves it. Probably it
is irritating to most people, a source of great unhappiness, but it is better to
be hated than ignored. The Negro has been largely the victim, not of active
hate or active concern, but of active indifference and callousness. Less than
10 percent of white Americans wanted to lynch Negroes; less than 10
percent wanted to free them. Our problem has been the big 80 percent,
1968 AIA Convention Keynote Address 229
Back to the Preface. that big blob of Americans who have been so busy “making it,” getting
ahead in their companies, getting a little house in the suburbs, lowering
their golf scores, vying for admittance to the country club, lying about their
kids’ I.Q. that they really haven’t had time to be concerned.
Our sin, then, is the sin of omission and not of commission, and into that
vacuum have rushed the prophets of doom, the violent people, the vicious
people who hate, and they have come all too often around the world to
be the voice of America. But at least we recognize the existence of a
problem. The communication is probably more candid, though more painful
than ever before, and this is progress.
And today, for the first time, we have the full attention and concern of the
establishment in America, the decision makers, the top people—I’m talking
about the Henry Fords and the Tom Watsons and the George Romneys,
the truly big people in the field of business and in government and in your
field as well. The most enlightened governors, the most enlightened mayors,
the most enlightened college presidents, even the religious leaders, are now
beginning to decide that race relations are no longer a spectator sport and
in their own enlightened self-interest they have to get involved.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the final report. We invited
these gentlemen to take a visit to the ghetto—more specifically, to a
tenement house. They smilingly but naively agreed, and that was the
beginning of a significant report. We took these men into a typical
tenement house, some 14 floors, and immediately they discovered that as
sophisticated as our communications media happen to be, they still are not
able to give all the dimensions of the situation—the dimension of smell, for
example, of feel, of taste. The minute these men walked into the building,
they smelled the stench of urine. And why shouldn’t they. Little 2- and 3-
1968 AIA Convention Keynote Address 230
Back to the Preface. year old boys out in my neighborhood, just when they have to go to the
bathroom and can’t make it into the house, go around to the bushes—sort
of an accepted pattern. When you live in the 14-story tenement house
with no elevator, little boys can’t quite make it and do what little 2- and 3-
year old boys do normally.
These men went up the stairs. They made it as far as the seventh floor;
they weren’t in the best of physical shape. We took them into an
apartment, typical, six people living in it, two rooms, four children. They saw
the little 1-1/2 year-old with a shrunken stomach. All he had to eat that day
was a bowl of cornflakes, and it was 2 o’clock in the afternoon.
They talked to the mother whose eyes were bloodshot because she had
stayed awake all night trying to keep the rats from biting the children. They
saw the rat holes, saw the roaches. Then they talked to the father—
alienated, bitter, because he suffered the daily humiliation of not being able
to support his children, not playing the role of father, not being able even to
buy the kid an ice cream cone.
Repeated experiences like that left no choice except to, as we say, tell it like
it is. It upset many Americans, accused of being racists, to be told in no
uncertain language that, in fact, there is this gap between how some
Americans live.
We are a proud people. We like to kid ourselves into believing that we are
good Christians, good human beings; but it isn’t true. These men were not
starry-eyed liberals, not sentimental do-gooders. These were white
conservatives. I’ve always been told that white people were always right; I
assume they’re right. Rap Brown didn’t write the report. The report was
written by these people that you know as well as I do. And you know that
when good people want a social audit, you take it just as seriously as a fiscal
audit that says you’re in arrears and bankrupt, or a health audit that says
you have tuberculosis and you wouldn’t go out to see a mechanic and try
to get him to dispute the claim.
We are a racist nation, and no way in the world could it be otherwise given
the history of our country. Being a racist doesn’t mean one wants to go out
and join a lynch mob or send somebody off to Africa or engage in crude,
vulgar expressions of prejudice. Racism is a basic assumption of superiority
1968 AIA Convention Keynote Address 231
Back to the Preface. on the part of one group over another, and in America it had to happen
because as a society we enslaved people for 250 years, and up until 1964 it
was written into our laws and enforced by social custom—discrimination
against human beings that a man because of the color of his skin couldn’t
go into a restaurant or hotel or be served in public places.
This is a racist statement. I pointed this out. The only reason he could think
of leveling down was that he was assuming that superiority relates to
acquisition of material things, technology, money and clothes. It’s
conceivable that it might be a leveling upward, or it might be a bringing
together on the one hand qualities of humaneness, compassion and style.
This society needs a great deal of technology and money and material
things. And so we are giving to each other.
Second, you are not a profession that has distinguished itself by your social
and civic contributions to the cause of civil rights, and I am sure this does
1968 AIA Convention Keynote Address 232
Back to the Preface. not come to you as any shock. You are most distinguished by your
thunderous silence and your complete irrelevance.
You have a nice, normal escape hatch in your historical ethical code or
something that says after all, you are the designers and not the builders;
your role is to give people what they want.
That’s a nice, easy way to cop out. But I have read about architects who
had courage, who had a social sensitivity, and I can’t help but wonder about
an architect who designs some of the public housing that I see in the cities
of this country—how he could even compromise his own profession and
his own sense of values to have built 35- or 40-story buildings, these
vertical slums, and not even put a restroom in the basement and leave
enough recreational space for about 10 kids when there must be 5,000 in
the building. That architects as a profession wouldn’t as a group stand up
and say something about this is disturbing to me.
You are employers, you are key people in the planning of our cities today.
You share the responsibility for the mess we are in in terms of the white
noose around the central city. It didn’t just happen. We didn’t just suddenly
get this situation. It was carefully planned.
I went back recently and looked at ads when they first started building
subdivisions in this country: “Easy access to town, good shopping centers,
good schools, no Negroes, no Jews allowed”—that was the original
statement. Then they decided in New York that that was cutting the market
too close, so they said the next day, “No Negroes allowed.” And then they
got cute when they thought everybody had the message, and they said
“restricted, exclusive neighborhood, homogenous neighborhood.”
Everybody knows what those words mean.
It took a great deal of skill and creativity and imagination to build the kind
of situation we have, and it is going to take skill and imagination and
1968 AIA Convention Keynote Address 233
Back to the Preface. creativity to change it. We are going to have to have people as committed
to doing the right thing, to “inclusiveness,” as we have in the past to
exclusiveness.
You are also here as educators. Many of you are in educational institutions. I
took the time to call up a young man who just finished at Yale. I said, “What
would you say if you were making the speech I’m supposed to make
today?” Because he did have some strong observations to make, he said he
did want you to begin to speak out as a profession, he did want in his own
classroom to see more Negroes, he wanted to see more Negro teachers.
He wanted while his classwork was going on for you somehow as
educators to get involved in the community around you.
What’s wrong with the people in these neighborhoods? Why do they want
– themselves just one generation removed from welfare or in many cases
just one generation within the country, where they have come here
sometimes escaping hate and have come here and acquired freedom—
why do they want to turn their backs and say in Cicero, “Al Capone can
move in, but Ralph Bunche can’t?” Why are they so insecure? Why do
people want to live in these bland, sterile, antiseptic, gilded ghettos, giving
sameness to each, compounding mediocrity in a world that is 75 percent
nonwhite, in a world where in 15 minutes you can take a space ship and fly
from Kennedy to South Africa? Why would anybody want to let their
children grow up in this kind of situation?
1968 AIA Convention Keynote Address 234
Back to the Preface. I think this kind of affluent peasant ought to be studied. These are people
who have acquired middle-class incomes because of strong labor unions
and because they are living in an unprecedented affluent period. But in
things esthetic and educational and cultural, they leave a lot to be desired.
They wouldn’t know the difference between Karl Marx and Groucho Marx.
This is where our problem is. We can move next door to Rockefeller in
Tarrytown, but I couldn’t move into Bronxville. Any white pimp or
prostitute can move into Bronxville. A Jew could hardly move into
Bronxville, incidentally.
You are part of this society. It is not easy. I am not suggesting the easy road,
but the time has come when no longer the kooks and crackpots speak for
America. The decent people have to learn to speak up, and you shouldn’t
have to be the victim to feel for other people. I make no pretense that it is
easy.
You have riots and shouts of black power. Anybody who looks for an
excuse to cop out in this can use it, but I insist that if you believe in equality
then we have as much right to have crackpots. There is no reason why
white people should have a monopoly. If we have been able to put up all
these years with the Ku Klux Klan, with burning and lynching, with the
George Lincoln Rockwells, with the citizens’ councils, with slaveowners, and
still don’t generalize about all white people, why should white people
generalize about all Negroes on the basis of a few? All Negroes didn’t riot
in Watts. All Negroes didn’t riot in Newark. One out of three in Newark
were whites and one out of five in Watts, and that’s why Newark had
more violence. White people are more experienced.
1968 AIA Convention Keynote Address 235
Back to the Preface. It’s the same business of generalizing--no such thing as a black is a black
man, a white is a white man. We have our right to an Adam Clayton Powell
if the Irish have the right to a Curley. He would make Adam Clayton Powell
the epitome of political morality. Nobody generalizes about the Italians
because of the appearance of a disproportionate number in the Mafia.
Nobody indicts all of them. Nobody indicts all white men because a white
man killed President Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, or Martin Luther King, or a
white man stands in a tower in Texas and kills 14 people, or a white man
assaults and kills eight nurses in Chicago. They didn’t call him “white.” We
called him “sick,” and that’s what he was. With the Negroes, it’s “the black
man.” We fall victims to clichés like “law” and “order.” The best example
we’ve ever had of order in this world was that created by Adolf Hitler with
his Gestapo and his police. He got perfect order. There was no dissent –
goose-stepping all over the place—and he used that order to bring about
the death of 14 million people, 6 million of them in ovens.
There will never be order without justice. And the first prerequisite for
order in this society is that there must be justice. The women would still be
disorderly in this country if they hadn’t gotten the right to vote, and the
workers would have torn it apart if they hadn’t gotten the Wagner Act, and
America would still be fighting England if we had not won the war.
A Wallace stands up and talks about law: Who was more lawless, engaged
in more civil disobedience than that man? Who stands in the doorway of
the courts and constantly berates the Supreme Court of the United
States? Talk about respect for law and order! We who have been the
victims of the most unscrupulous practices by merchants, by landlords, by
employers, by public officials, we know something about lawlessness.
When you talk about crime, talk about the syndicate boss who lives
downtown; and he’s white and responsible for the dope and the
prostitution and the numbers racket that causes 60 percent of the crime in
the ghetto. Talk about the guy who charges too much interest rate or the
guy who makes people pay $500 for a $175 television set.
1968 AIA Convention Keynote Address 236
Back to the Preface. Finally, let me dwell on your role as men, because I think this probably more
basic than anything. Sure, you’re architects. You’re a lot of things—you’re
Republicans, Democrats, and a few John Birchers. You’re a good many things
but you’re men and you’re fathers. I would hope that somehow you would
understand that this issue, more than any other of human rights, today
separates the phony from the real, the man from the boy.
Baseball’s Rickey solved the problem of attitudes and how long it takes. I
disagree with you that it takes a long time to change attitudes. It doesn’t
take any time to change them overnight. When he brought Jackie Robinson
to the Dodgers, there was this ballplayer who said I’m not going to play
with that “nigger.” He thought Rickey would flap like most employers. I
imagine most architects thought he would say that he’d pull away. But he
didn’t know Rickey very well. Rickey was kind. He said, “Give him three or
four days.” Well, at the end of a few days, Robinson had five home runs,
stolen many bases. This fellow was reassessing his options: He could go
back to Alabama and maybe make $20 a week picking cotton, or stay there
with the Dodgers and continue to work. And, now it looked like Jackie
would get him into the World Series and a bonus of $5,000, which he did.
The only color he was concerned with was green.
I do want to relate one last story. Mel Batten, who is the chairman of the
board of J.C. Penney, about four months ago was having breakfast with his
kids, one girl 21 and a boy 23, and they asked what he was going to do that
1968 AIA Convention Keynote Address 237
Back to the Preface. week. He said, “I’m going out with Whitney Young and I have a series of
luncheons in some three or four cities. I’m hosting these, and I’m going
around talking about expanding employment opportunities for Negro
citizens and giving money to the Urban League. (Incidentally, I don’t want to
miss that plus: You also are distinguished by the fact that I bet we have
fewer architects and fewer architectural firms contributing to the national
Urban League than any group in the country. This is probably my fault and I
apologize—you have not been solicited. Next time it will be your fault.)
But when he told these kids, his boy said, “You’re going to do what?” He
repeated it to him. And the boy said, “You mean you’re not going to
maximize the profits of J.C. Penney today! You’re not going out this week to
undercut Woolworth’s; you’re not going out to see if you can get
something a little cheaper and increase the margin of profits of some
product?” And the father answered, “No.”
The 21-year-old daughter, without saying a word, ran over and hugged and
kissed him with tears in her eyes. He said to me, “I never had as much
respect and affection and admiration from my kids that I had in that one
moment.”
You talk about communication with these kids; they tell you why you don’t
communicate. They tell me you are inconsistent. You tell them they
shouldn’t smoke, drink and pet because everybody else does, that you have
your own value systems, stand up for what you believe in, do what you
know is right. Then, they say “My mother and my dad never do. They never
lift their finger to let a black man in business at the top level, never try to
get a Negro into the neighborhood, into the club or church. They just go
along.”
Back to the Preface. the Kerner Commission saw—it happens even today in this country—if
you can’t as a mother and as a father, you are in worse shape than the
victims.
So, what’s at stake then is your country, your profession, and you as a
decent civilized human being. Anatole France once said, “I prefer the error
of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.” For a society that has
permitted itself the luxury of an excess of callousness and indifference, we
can now afford to permit ourselves the luxury of an excess of caring and
of concern. It is easier to cool a zealot than it is to warm a corporation.
An ancient Greek scholar was once asked to predict when the Greeks
would achieve victory in Athens. He replied, “We shall achieve victory in
Athens and justice in Athens when those who are not injured are as
indignant as those who are.”
2. Provide Choices
People want variety in housing, shopping, recreation, transportation, and
employment. Variety creates lively neighborhoods and accommodates
residents in different stages of their lives.
9. Conserve Landscapes
Open space, farms, and wildlife habitat are essential for environmental,
recreational, and cultural reasons.
http://www.communitydesign.org/
buldingcommunityWorkshop (bcWorkshop)
Campus Compact
45 Temple Place
Boston, MA 02111
617-357-1881
http://www.compact.org/
Democracy Collaborative
Design Corps
70 Corporate Center
11000 Broken Land Parkway, Suite 700
Columbia, MD 21044
800-624-4298
http://www.enterprisecommunity.com/
Community Design Centers & Support Organizations Featured in this Volume 246
http://www.edra.org/
Imagining America
AIA Minnesota
275 Market Street, Suite 54
Minneapolis, MN 55405
612-338-6763
http://www.aia-mn.org/get-involved/committees/minnesota-design-team/
In Baltimore:
1401 Hollins Street
Baltimore, MD 21223
410-233-9686
Community Design Centers & Support Organizations Featured in this Volume 247
718-636-3486
http://prattcenter.net/
Public Architecture
Auburn University
8448 AL Highway 61
Newbern, AL 36765
334-624-4483
[email protected]
Community Design Centers & Support Organizations Featured in this Volume 248
Studio 804
University of Kansas
Marvin Hall
1465 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 105
Lawrence, KS. 66045-7614
http://www.studio804.com/
University of Washington
Howard S. Wright Neighborhood Design/Build Studio
School of Architecture
208 Gould Hall, Box 355720
Seattle, WA 98195-5720
206-543-4180
http://arch.be.washington.edu/programs-courses/specialized-studios/
neighborhood-designbuild-studio
Bio
A
Biographies
250
Biographies
Editors
Dan Pitera holds the position that the future and sustainability of any
neighborhood lies in the hands of its residents. Dan Pitera co-led the Civic
Engagement process for the Detroit Works Project Long Term Planning
initiated by Mayor Bing in 2010. On January 9, 2013, Long Term Planning
team released its decision-making framework titled: Detroit Future City.
Authors
David Brain
Jana Cephas
Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley
Tom Dutton
Professor and Director, Miami University Center For Community
Engagement in Over-The-Rhine
Miami University's School of Fine Arts (1996); and more recently he has
been recognized by the Neighborhood Design Corporation of Cincinnati
for the accomplishments of the Over-the-Rhine Design/Build Studio (1999,
2005), where he and his students design and rehabilitate housing for low-
and moderate-income people in the city. Mr. Dutton received his Masters
of Architecture and Urban Design from Washington University, St. Louis
and his Bachelors of Architecture from California Polytechnic State
University, San Luis Obispo.
Thomas Fisher
Professor & Dean, University of Minnesota College of Design
Andrea Gollin
Mr. Kelbaugh received his BA degree Magna Cum Laude and Master of
Architecture degree from Princeton University. Between degrees, he
founded a community design center in Trenton, New Jersey, and later
worked for five years in local government as a planner and architect. In
1978, he founded Kelbaugh & Lee, a firm that won over 15 regional and
national design awards and competitions in half as many years. In 1996, he
was nominated for the Chrysler Award for Design Innovation and in 2007,
Mr. Kelbaugh was selected as one of the top seven Architecture Educators
of the Year by Design Intelligence. With Peter Calthorpe he edited and co-
authored in 1989 The Pedestrian Pocket Book, a national bestseller in urban
design that documented their pioneering work in transit-oriented
development and helped jump-start the New Urbanism and Smart
Growth movements. Kelbaugh also authored COMMON PLACE: Toward
Neighborhood and Regional Design, a book on the theory, design and
practice of regionalism published (UW Press, 1997), now in its second
printing. UW Press published its sequel, Repairing the American Metropolis:
Beyond Common Place, in 2002. In 2008, Routledge published Writing
Urbanism: an Urban Design Reader. AIA Michigan gave Mr. Kelbaugh its
2001 President’s Award for his contributions to architectural education and
the profession.
Stephen Luoni
Director, University of Arkansas Community Design Center (UACDC) and
Steven L. Anderson Chair in Architecture and Urban Studies
Architecture Awards, all for planning and urban design. Mr. Luoni’s work at
UACDC specializes in interdisciplinary public works projects combining
landscape, urban, and architectural design. Current work includes design
and planning for municipal infrastructure, Low Impact Development in
residential development, campuses, parks, and big box retail. His work has
been published in Oz, Architectural Record, Landscape Architecture,
Progressive Architecture, Architect, Places, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’ hui,
Progressive Planning, and Public Art Review. He previously taught at the
University of Florida and was the 2000 Cass Gilbert Visiting Professor of
Architecture at the University of Minnesota. In Fall 2006 he was the Ruth
and Norman Moore Visiting Professor in Architecture at Washington
University in St. Louis, and The Bruce Goff Chair for Creative Architecture
at the University of Oklahoma in Spring 2008. Mr. Luoni has a BS in
Architecture from Ohio State University and a Master of Architecture from
Yale University.
Gilad Meron
Frank Russell
Assistant Professor and Director, Community Design Center & Director,
Niehoff Urban Studio, University of Cincinnati
A registered architect, in 1990 Mr. Russell helped establish the Center for
Urban Design at the University of Cincinnati College of Design,
Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) serving as Assistant Director and
Adjunct Assistant Professor. Since 1996 he has directed the Community
Design Center, a state sponsored community outreach effort of the DAAP.
He initiated the Niehoff Urban Studio in partnership with the DAAP
School of Architecture and Interior Design and the School of Planning in
2002. Mr. Russell has contributed to Cities: the international Journal of
Policy and Planning, Design Review: challenging urban aesthetic control
(Chapman and Hall, 1994), and co-edited New Directions in Urban Public
Housing (CUPR Press, 1998). He has been the recipient of major grants
from the Ohio Arts Council and the American Architectural Foundation/
National Endowment for the Arts, directed the Midwest Regional Mayor’s
Institute on City Design sponsored by the AAF, NEA, and the US
Conference of Mayors, served as a Commissioner of the Cincinnati Park
Board and the Cincinnati Recreation Commission. Mr. Russell is past Chair
of the Urban Design Committee of AIA Cincinnati and currently serves as
a Trustee of the Cincinnati Zoo and board member of the Cincinnati
Riverfront Advisory Council. He holds an A.B. Art from Vassar College
(1983), an internship at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies,
New York City (1985), and a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard
University Graduate School of Design (1989).
Mia Scharphie
Mr. Vogel is the recipient of the Gold Medal from the American Institute of
Architects Michigan. He is a founding principal of Schervish Vogel
Consulting Architects with over thirty years of experience in architecture
and urban design. Mr. Vogel is also a partner in the Harmonie Development
Corporation, which develops small and medium sized urban, historic and
adaptive reuse projects and is the developer of the Harmonie Park/
Madison Avenue Redevelopment Project in downtown Detroit. This project
has received a national American Institute of Architects Honor Award for
Regional and Urban Design and a national Merit Award for Urban Design
from the American Society of Landscape Architects. The firm has
additionally received over fifty design awards from local, state and national
organizations for the excellence of its work. Mr. Vogel has been Dean of the
School of Architecture at the University of Detroit Mercy since 1993.
During that time he has focused the school's mission on service to the
urban community and to educating future architects committed to building
sustainable communities. He earned his Master of Architecture degree at
the University of Detroit in 1975.
Community design centers do not represent alternative work;
they alter how we work.
Activist
Affect change in the established way of doing things.
Architecture
Photo: DCDC Design/Build | St. Joseph Rebuild Center, New Orleans