designer democracy: 50 years of practice & growing

THE PAST

The Design Assistance Program

• Began in 1967 – inspired by civil rights movement. First community was a post-flood recovery for a downtown. Over 200 communities in US & Canada since. Adapted across communities in UK & Europe.

Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only

because, and only when, they are created by everybody

-- Jane Jacobs

The civil rights movement taught us to listen, and to hear those whose

voices had gone unheard for generations. R/UDAT has taught us

how to turn the aspirations of citizens, and their descriptions of urban value, into action.-- David

Lewis/Peter Batchelor

Behind all the current buzz about collaboration is a discipline. And with all due respect to the ancient arts of governing and diplomacy, the more

recent art of collaboration does represent something new -- maybe Copernican. If it contained a silicon

chip, we’d all be excited.-- John Gardner

1990s

1960s

Brief History of a Movement

1980s

Designer Democracy

Beginnings…• 1963 – first urban studio program• 1964 – first Community Design

Center program. (Architects Renewal Committee in Harlem)

• 1967 – first R/UDAT project• UDA’s Pontiac, Michigan school

integration process• 1968- Neighborhood Design

Center forms in Baltimore, MD

Today…• more than 70% of schools of

architecture now have studio programs

• Over 5 dozen Community Design Centers in US alone

• Hundreds of DAT projects, national/state/local programs

• “Charrette” norms in business• Adaptation all over the world

Framework Principles

• Holistic, Interdisciplinary Approach to Community Design (Customization)

• Neutral Outsiders (Pro Bono Public Service)• COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION (Citizen Experts, Authentic

Community Process, meaning)

Design Assistance Process

R/UDAT Impacts in large cities over the years…

• San Francisco (Embarcadero)• Portland (Pearl District)• Seattle (Downtown housing)• Denver (LoDo/16th Street

mall)

• Austin (Downtown Revitalization)

• Santa Fe (Railyard Redevelopment/Park)

• Process adaptation in US, Canada, UK and across Europe

What distinguishes it?

• We are NOT:– Another Consultant

Team– A process to produce a

planning document• “Please don’t give us

another plan. We have plenty – they all sit on the shelves. We need implementation strategies.” – Almost Every community

– Government-focused– “Green”-focused– Building-focused

• We ARE:– Public Service in the

Public Interest• “Consultants work for

somebody. Design Assistance Teams work for everybody.”

– Action-Oriented – Community-focused– Holistic, Customized

• “It’s about the space between the buildings, and the people that inhabit that space”

Interactive Community Process

Workshops

Student contests

students

University Students

Civic Branding

Context Specific Community Engagement

• Survey• Website• Multi-media films• Flyers• Banners• Student Book• Press• Utility Mailers• Door Contest• Event kick-off

Boerne, TX

Kick-off cultural events

“Sugar on Snow” Event Kickoff – Newport, VT

Kauai

“A baby lu‘au is an important time among local families. That first birthday marks a major milestone in a young child’s life. It offers an opportunity to

welcome the baby into the family. It requires fairly complex planning, bringing relatives from all over to help celebrate the occasion, always with plenty of food. Family members help out by sharing responsibilities and making sure everything

runs smoothly. For parents, the baby lu‘au is often a time to think about the future for that baby and how much love, nurturing, learning and protection will

be needed in the years ahead as the child grows to adulthood. It is a time to reflect on how will they be educated, what opportunities they will have and

where will they live as adults. How can we plan our communities to ensure that the babies of today will have a high quality of life in the future? For everyone who lives, works or shops in the Lihu‘e district, that will be the question the

public will be asked at a Nov. 12 meeting called “Lihu‘e’s Baby Lu‘au: Planning Our Keiki’s Future” at 7 p.m. at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center in Lihu‘e.”

Englishtown, NJ: Historic Inn

Beatrice, NE: National Homestead Monument

Location Choices with Visibility

International Potluck Dinner – Portland, Maine

THE PRESENT

The Democratic Expectation

• National League of Cities survey of U.S. Cities (2010) - 81 percent use public engagement processes "often" (60 percent) or "sometimes" (21 percent)

• American Planning Association (2012) – “More than 50 percent want to personally be involved in community planning efforts, including more than half of Democrats, Republicans, and independents as well as majorities of urban, suburban, and rural respondents.”

Democratic Wave in last 25 yrs

• Decentralization - Neighborhood Council Systems and Neighborhood Associations

• Empowerment – over 100 Neighborhood College and Citizen Academy programs

• Civic-led change - visioning, funding of projects, implementation

• It has it’s own language/jargon: textizen, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, tactical urbanism, the sharing economy, etc

“Civic Resources”

• Volunteerism = $171 billion (only 64 mill people)

• Total Charitable Giving = $298.42 billion.

• Non-profits = $300 billion in investment into local communities

• Over half of all states have enacted legislation to enable private-sector participation in infrastructure projects, where there is an estimated $180 billion to be leveraged

• Crowdfunding - $3 billion in 2012 alone!

Local Exceptionalism

• “What works other places won’t work here. We have some unique circumstances, we aren’t like other communities.”

• Context is always unique, but issues are mostly the same.

• Common Obstacles:– Nostalgia– Inertia– Conflict– Institutional sclerosis

Most Communities Today“If we can just get that one, big, transformational investment done, it will change everything for us.”

[years of effort…no visual progress during this time…loss of excitement…bottom falls out.]

The Snowball Effect

“a figurative term for a process that starts from an initial state of small significance and builds upon itself, becoming larger and faster at every stage”

Applied to a community, this is a transformational principle…

“You gave us hope. Back in 1992, your ideas seemed like dreams. Now we are living those dreams.” – Rick Smith, San Angelo Times-Standard, 2012

CASE STUDY: Port Angeles, Washington (17K)

2009 Project

1. Parking study in the downtown area.

2. Increase housing opportunity and multi‐use buildings in downtown.

3. Institute the use of form based codes rather than conventional zoning.

4. Remove the parking regulations in downtown and let the market drive parking.

5. Return the Farmer's Market to the downtown area.

6. Signage and wayfinding system for pedestrian and vehicles.

7. Improve existing buildings (appearance, facades, etc. in downtown and elsewhere).

8. Provide visitor information kiosks.

9. Create an entryway monument.

10.Create nodes / centers of key intersections.

Immediate Implementation

Port Angeles, WA 2009 Project: 2 months later, 43 buildings repainted with volunteers and donated paint, led to a façade improvement program, then

private $

Public PrioritizationPaint 43 BuildingsFaçade ImprovementWayfinding

Waterfront EsplanadeMajor new anchors downtownPeninsula Campus ExpansionDowntown Health ClinicNew Transit Center

Bike/Ped FacilitiesNew small businessesFerry Terminal RenovationRenovated shopping/restaurants at adjacent block

First 3 months-1 year

1-2.5 years

4-5 years

Today: Millions in New Investments

Transforming Downtown

Waterfront: from SDAT to Masterplan to…

Realizing their aspirations

Award-winning design

Bringing People Back to the Waterfront

Creating an Attractive Sense of Place

Snowball Effect: $100+ million

Leveraging Investment for Placemaking

And, it keeps going

The Future

Our Urban Future• By 2030, 6 in 10 people will

live in cities.• In the developing world, 3

out of 5 will live in cities.• There are currently one

billion people living in slums and squatter settlements and that number is expected to double by 2030 and reach 3 billion by 2050

• Climate change, equity, housing, livability, economic development, etc….

Millennial Values Will Dominate

• Millennial’s values:– Collaboration and Community– Technology & Innovation– Democratic/Open Information– Social Value– Sharing (the sharing economy)

What about Winnipeg?The democratic vernacular every community is the product of its physical setting, governance system, culture, and its traditions – all of which contribute to a unique context.

“the house becomes a body language of democracy, and the grid becomes a body language of democracy from the ultimate privacy of the individual to the ultimate public of the grid that you see from the airplane. Oh, that tells you something about that street and that plan. It tells you something about community. It tells you something about citizenship. It tells you about how the thing works, how the city works physically, and how the city works politically, and how the city works economically, and what the role of citizenship is. And what the Founding Fathers envision when they drop in the constitution: we, the citizens.” – David Lewis

The Challenge

• The stakes are high, the challenges immense, and the need for process expertise is pervasive.

• “We are all faced with a series of historic opportunities, brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.” –John W. Gardner