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Posts Tagged ‘New York’
Design Connect: a fresh look at your community
June 21st, 2010
Does your small town have an ugly concrete wall, like the one to the left, which ruins the aesthetics and design of your community? Maybe it’s a highway that divides the town in half or a wetland that conjures up 
memories from the Swamp Thing.
Regardless of what they are, most communities have design elements that create barriers to how the community functions as well as how other people perceive the community.
I admittedly have miniscule visual design abilities. As I look at the image above, feelings of emptiness and helplessness creep in. I would not be able to help a community figure out how to improve the aesthetics of a wall like this. There are, however, lots of people who look at walls and see opportunities. And luckily they are willing to volunteer in projects like design:SD and Design Connect.
Bringing professional services to underserved rural areas
We’ve talked previously about the Rural Learning Center’s involvement with Design:SD. Today, I want to highlights the efforts of Design Connect, a similar project sponsored by students at Cornell University in Upstate New York.
Similar to design:SD, the project seeks to “create comprehensive and sustainable design solutions” in partnership with underserved rural communities. It differs in three noticeable different ways:
- First, it’s a student led-project. Founded by Jennifer Ng and Chris Hardy, Design Connects links students seeking real life work experiences with communities who lack the resources to hire a professional design firm. For the most part, Design:SD has focused on bringing together community development and design professionals who are already in the field. The opportunity to involve more students in Design:SD should increase as South Dakota State University get’s its architecture program off the ground. (The program’s new dean, Dr. Brian Rex has already expressed interest in design:SD.)
- Second, Design Connect appears to use a broader array of disciplines in their planning teams. The Design Connect website suggests that participating students come from the Real Estate, Architecture, Historic Preservation, City and Regional Planning, Interior Design, Design and Environmental Analysis, Landscape Architecture, Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and Natural Resources Departments. For the most part, DesignSD has relied heavily on architects, landscape architects, and community development professionals. I’m wondering if there’s an opportunity to connect with students in various programs in colleges across South Dakota.
- And finally, the Design Connect project appears to be more project specific. In other words, the community defines a problem and asks Design Connect for assistance. DesignSD takes a more comprehensive look at the community before making its recommendations. I’m not sure if one way is better than the other, but its iteresting to see other approaches.
Design:SD and Design Connect are not the only programs brining volunteers to rural communities to help with design elements. In fact, Minnesota Design Team was instrumental in helping Design:SD get off the ground. If you know of any others, I hope you will share links to them so that other people can benefit from their experience.
Photo Credit: Design Connect website (with permission)
Tags: community design, Design Connect, Design SD, New York
Posted in Community Development, Rural | Comments (1)
Hilltowns Build on Local Foods
April 29th, 2010
Can the development of farmers markets lead to larger economic activities than just selling fresh food? Many Hilltowns residents in rural Albany County, NY believe it can. And they’ve formed the Helderberg Hilltowns Association to lead the charge.
According to an article titled “More than farmers markets,” the new association will seek to “promote sustainable economic development in the small, rural towns by featuring their farms, hiking trails, historic sites and sweeping vistas.” (Source: Christen Gowan, “More than farmers markets,“ Albany Sun-Times, April 9, 2010).
Sustainable economic development; that’s awesome. As I looked into the Association a little closer, several items caught my attention:
- The region is rural. Of the four communities represented in the Association, the largest has a population of 3500.)
- The organization is tapping into an underutilized asset as its foundation. The region is already blessed with a cluster of farmers growing foods for local farmers markets. They hope to connect these and other craft businesses with the region’s natural beauty to attract visitors.
- It’s a grassroots organization. Membership is open to anyone who shares the association’s goals, and decisions about the organization’s future will be shaped by those who participate.
- They’ve got a good start with Web 2.0 tools: They used wiki technology to build their website and have a Facebook Group to connect with their community. Transparency in community development is becoming increasingly important.
I still sense that most South Dakotans don’t see the local foods industry as real economic development. Just a couple weeks ago, I was told by a person who operates a bed and breakfast on a rural acreage that South Dakotans can’t make money from growing local foods. It caught me totally by surprise because I believe B&B’s and local foods are a perfect marriage.
I responded to this criticism saying local foods is economic development and pointed out the success of Hardwick, VT. I also mentioned the Business Week article touting the local foods industry as an economic development strategy. Unfortunately, I sensed my argument fell on deaf ears.
Now I realize the local foods strategies employed in rural South Dakota would have to be different from those of the Helderber Hilltowns Association; we don’t have the population base nearby like they do in the Hilltowns of Albany County. But we do have other assets that we can marry with local foods to build a new economy. We just need to be creative and open to new ideas.
After all, isn’t that what we mean by “ReImagine Rural?”
Photo Credit: Miamism – Flickr
Tags: farmers markets, Helderberg Hilltowns Association, local foods, New York
Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, Rural | Comments (0)