Sustainable Cities Design Academy
San Francisco | April 11 – 13, 2012

UPDATE: Click here to check out the SCDA 8 recap and photo gallery that features Team Leaders from our participating cities as well as design experts that collaborated on project ideas.

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The American Architectural Foundation will convene its 8th Sustainable Cities Design Academy April 11 – 13, 2012, in San Francisco.

The Sustainable Cities Design Academy provides technical assistance to community leaders who are planning sustainable building projects in their communities. City leaders from diverse disciplines and professions (including mayors, city managers, transit planners, economic development authorities, and non-profit executives) bring specific design issues to the sessions, and they work collaboratively with resource teams of design professionals as well as other experts (e.g., real estate developers, educators, and other community stakeholders) who help them to consider new, innovative options and solutions.

SCDA charrettes use the design process to guide the discussion around challenges and opportunities for each community project, effectively analyzing the specifics of a particular design challenge in order to identify appropriate solutions. The intensive collaboration builds the community’s sustainable planning capacity through rigorous design sessions that inform not only the project at hand, but future projects and policies as well.

Prior to conducting the charrette, AAF staff visit participating cities to gather information, initiate relationships with the participants, and discuss the projects to be presented at the charrette. Three to four project teams participate in each session, with each team composed of four key project influencers and 10-12 design experts. AAF draws from a wide network of contacts to consistently bring the right people around the table.

The upcoming SCDA session will serve public-private partnership teams from Brooklyn, Fresno, Macon, and New Haven.

 

 

 

Project Team Members:

Beatriz de la Torre, Assistant Commissioner
New York City Department of Housing
Preservation and Development

Rosanne Haggerty, President
Community Solutions

Fred Harris, Executive Vice President for Development
New York City Housing Authority, Department of Development

Michael Singer, Principal
Michael Singer Studios

Design Experts:

Faith Okuma, RLA, AICP, LEED AP, Principal
Surroundings Studio, LLC

Casius Pealer, Principal
Oystertree Consulting, L3C

Katherine Williams, RA, LEED AP, Project Manager
San Francisco Housing Development Corporation

Project Overview: The Brooklyn project team is developing a new and urgently needed approach to the preservation and revitalization of publicly-assisted housing in New York City. The team hopes to create a prototype to redesign and “green” housing structures in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The team believes that they can help to develop a retrofi t model for existing housing as well as for tenant involvement in this process.

Project Team Leaders:

Brian Angus, Executive Director
Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission

Elliott Balch, Downtown Revitalization Manager
City of Fresno

David Cisneros, Manager of Special Projects
City of Fresno Public Works Department

Sevak Khatchadourian, CEO
Beverly Hills International

Design Experts:

Leila Aman, Senior Development Project Manager
Metro

Susan Rogers, Director of Community Design Resource Center and Assistant Professor
University of Houston, Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture

Clark Wilson, Senior Urban Designer
U.S. EPA – Office of Sustainable Communities

Project Overview: The City of Fresno is the cultural and economic center of California’s San Joaquin Valley, and home to over 500,000 residents. Fresno has the fi ft h highest concentration of poverty in the nation, and Downtown Fresno faces several challenges, including private disinvestment, underperforming commerce, high vacancy rates, and diminished city funding for maintenance. However, Fresno is also poised to capitalize on several timely and unique opportunities including Mayor Swearengin’s prioritization of the revitalization of Fulton Mall, a pedestrian mall designed by famed architect Victor Gruen and landscape architect Garrett Eckbo completed in 1964, a future highspeed rail station to connect Fresno to Los Angeles and San Francisco, Fresno’s designation as a White House Strong Cities, Strong Communities program recipient, and several City-driven planning processes underway, including a General Plan update, the Downtown Neighborhoods Community Plan, and the Fulton Corridor Specifi c Plan.

 

 

 

Project Team Leaders:

Mike Ford, President and CEO
NewTown Macon

Daniel Foth, Vice President, Rail & Transit
CHA Consulting, Inc.

Gil Prado, AICP, Assistant Director of Economic and Community
Development City of Macon

Jim Thomas, Executive Director
Macon-Bibb Planning and Zoning Commission and Metropolitan Planning Organization

Design Experts:

Craig Churchward, ASLA, Transportation Landscape Architect
LHB Corporation

Ruth Todd, FAIA, AICP, LEED AP, Principal
Page & Turnbull

Laura Weiss, Principal
Laura Weiss Business + Design

Project Overview: Founded in 1823 on the banks of the Ocmulgee River, the City of Macon was envisioned to be “a city within a park” with a grid design of wide boulevards alternating with narrow streets and parks. Early in the City of Macon, leaders understood the importance of the Ocmulgee River and Macon’s role as a transportation and commercial hub. Today, Macon, like many cities across the nation, has experienced a shift away from the traditional urban core to suburban scattered growth. The City of Macon desires to redevelop Second Street into a sustainable, green, multi-modal complete street that expands transportation options to residents and visitors of Downtown Macon. This complete street system could provide needed transportation and related infrastructure to connect people with jobs, entertainment and civic destinations, educational institutions and eventually expand the system to serve the region and include green infrastructure to manage storm water, integrate shade street trees and pocket parks to increase pedestrian comfort, minimize impervious surfaces and calm traffic. The Second Street project is an important catalyst project to connect residents and visitors to Middle Georgia’s assets and generates viable opportunities for continued public and private investments.

 

 

 

Project Team Leaders:

Kevin Hively, Principal
Ninigret Partners

Kelly Murphy, AICP, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development
City of New Haven

Pedro Soto, Assistant General Manager
Space-Craft Manufacturing Inc.

Design Experts:

Phil Erickson, AIA, Founding Principal
Community Design + Architecture

Eric Zickler, Senior Associate
AECOM Design and Planning

Project Overview: Mill River District is an urban, light industrial, 206 acre district located at the heart of New Haven, Connecticut that contains many successful and diverse businesses attracted by the district’s low rents and strategic regional location. However, Mill River also contains many neglected and underutilized parcels with significant environmental challenges related to past industrial uses as well as its location along the Connecticut shore.

In order to address challenges and build off the area’s native advantages, the Economic Development Corporation of New Haven (EDC), and the City of New Haven Department of Economic Development have entered a public-private partnership with the existing Mill River businesses to create a development plan that will maintain the City’s industrial base, establish the district’s distinct identity, attract new businesses, and address sustainability challenges at the local and regional level. In particular, this project is an opportunity to shift regional development patterns away from the suburban, big-box model toward a sustainable, urban model that takes advantage New Haven’s population and workforce density as well as its regional connectivity.

Click here for more information about Sustainable Cities Design Academy, including past events and projects.

{Images courtesy of our participating cities}