NDC Travels to…Colombia

NDC Project Coordinator Maria Isabel Garcia Diaz is back in the office after participating in the International Development Design Summit (IDDS): Construyendo Paz, Reconciliación desde la Co-Creación. IDDS is a program that runs from MIT’s D-Lab and serves to educate participants on co-design methods while engaging in place-based challenges of the summit’s host country. In partnership with the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, the IDDSCPaz, for short, was focused on how to construct peace, especially after the Colombian government signed a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to end their 53-year civil war. The summit ran from January 20 to February 4 in the ECTR Jaime Pardo Leal, a designated zone in the Guaviare region of Colombia, where ex-combatants have been placed as they reintegrate into civilian life.

Here are three lessons Maria brought back after co-designing with fellow professionals, university students, ex-combatants, and local residents:

Three Lessons from Colombia by Maria Isabel Garcia Diaz

  • Building confidence…literally: To get us comfortable with building items from scratch, we did different DIY challenges, like building a water pump. a wooden tool to turn plastic bottles into thread, and a table to use in our group projects. It made me excited to come back and finally put my Station North Tool Library membership into good use.
  • Forgiveness through action and interaction: This was a professional development opportunity for me, but the topic hit on a personal level. When I left Colombia with my parents violence was at an all time high and the FARC were seen at the forefront of it. By being in teams with ex-combatants, we focused our energy on working together to design interventions to build peace in our country. We discussed past experiences and laughed quite a lot as we worked until the hours of the night to finish our projects.  
  • Sustainability can be accessible: At IDDSCPaz, we were always thinking about innovative ways of caring for the earth, but in a practical and accessible way. We did it for two reasons: one, the FARC ex-combatants take pride in caring for the earth, especially after spending decades living with the jungle ecosystems. The second reason: basic resources, like water, were always scarce. As participants we learned to be conscious for the earth as we went through our packed schedules for each day.  

This experience was unforgettable in many ways—I met some incredible people through IDDS, and I brought back many lessons to integrate in my work at NDC. However, the thing I miss the most is seeing the sunrises and sunsets in Guaviare.

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Community Art for Darley Park Stage

 

The Neighborhood Design Center has been partnering with the Darley Park community since 2015 to create a public space on the corner of Harford Road and Normal Avenue. Originally a vacant dirt lot, this neighborhood gateway park has become a multi-generational, multi-use gathering place through the hard work of the community and partnering organizations. In the past two years the community has secured a playground, mural, and performance stage at the park.

A long term plan for Darley Park with concept for the sun sails over the stage.

In the design for the stage, an overhead structure was planned as a sun shade made out of sail material (see photo above). This project, funded in part by BOPA’s Transformative Arts Prize, has evolved into a community arts project, a collaboration between artist Whitney Frazier and the women’s senior group of the neighborhood. Inspired loosely by the quilts of the black women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, the artists have been developing abstract quilt designs to be sewn into shade sails.

A cutout design by community member Sandy Wilks.

Another quilt-inspired design for the stage shade sails by Ada Cathcart.

NDC welcomes all to see the unveiling of this art piece at the Light City event at Darley Park on April 13th at 6pm. The event will feature projected artworks by Baltimore’s own Kyle Yearwood, music by TT the Artist, and much more.

The arts group meets every week to design and create the stage sails at the local community center. Contact Whitney Frazier if you are interested in getting involved in the project, and check back for updates as the project moves forward!

A community member creating a design cut-out.

Whitney Frazier with several collaborators discussing color options.

NDC Travels to…Banff

NDC Deputy Director Briony Hynson attended the Active Living Research Conference at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity this month, presenting research entitled “Activating Public Spaces for Play: Opportunities for the Built Environment as a therapeutic tool in Neighborhoods Exposed to High Levels of Community Violence.” The research was conducted in partnership with Gwen Brown (BUILD), Colin Lyman, (The 6th Branch) and Dr. Carol Vidal (Johns Hopkins University), and supported in part by grants from the Urban Health Institute and the Robert W Deutsch Foundation. 

With the Canadian Rockies as an inspiring backdrop, temps down to -12degrees F kept conference attendees mainly indoors and focused at the 4-day convening. Practitioners and researchers from the fields of public health and planning explored a wide range of content. Here are Hynson’s top 5 picks from the conference:

Active Living Research Conference: Top 5 Sessions

  1. LA DOT General Manager Seleta Reynolds’ keynote on the future-proofing transportation (hint; it takes self driving cars AND road ‘buffets’ AND arts and creativity.
  2.  Simon O’Byrne of City of Edmonton’s approach to become a top WINTER city, using design.  And iceskates.
  3.  Poster Sessions!  So many smarts in one room.  
  4.  Salud America’s campaign to encourage shared use agreements, so that communities can access public land at schools outside of school time.
  5. Measuring Inclusion in Place with Gehl Institute’s Jennifer Gardner and Andrea Marpillero-Colomina, and Baltimore’s own Prof. Keisha Pollock

All in all, a great gathering of researchers, planners and public health experts. One last takeaway; every single round of applause at the Active Living Conference was a standing ovation, because (as research shows), sitting kills.

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Jones Falls Valley Visions

The Neighborhood Design Center was pleased to join the Central Baltimore Partnership and more than twelve other partners in planning and implementing the Jones Falls Visioning Workshop last month at the Motor House.  At this event, stakeholders and community members came together to discuss existing projects, shared interests, and future visions for the Jones Falls Valley with the ultimate goal of developing a strategic plan with actionable recreational, environmental and transit recommendations for enhancing the corridor.

The Jones Falls runs through Baltimore from where it is impounded to create Lake Roland all the way down to the Inner Harbor. The valley of this stream falls directly below Interstate 83 and shares borders with a variety of neighborhoods. The Jones Falls is a unique asset; with better access it could be used by thousands of city residents.

The workshop was attended by over 75 residents, artists, business owners, and city agencies and consisted of project leaders in seven topic areas giving a brief overview of their vision, then leading small breakout groups with interested participants. The topic areas discussed ranged from arts and performance to environmental projects to the development and/or repurposing of existing assets. All of the above mentioned groups were facilitated by Neighborhood Design Center volunteers and/or board members (listed below)!

An important outcome of the workshop was the establishment of the “Friends of Jones Falls” group and the Central Baltimore Partnership has organized the Friends of Jones Falls kick-off celebration at Union Craft Brewing on March 8th from 6pm-8pm.

If you are interested in receiving the post-workshop report or getting involved with the work along the Jones Falls, please contact Aaron Kaufman, the Central Baltimore Partnership Community Projects Manager, at akaufman@centralbaltimore.org

For reference, the presenters and their topics can be found below:

Arts and Performance Along the Jones Falls

Presented by Richard Best (Section 1)

Facilitated by LaShauna Jones

Development and Land Use Along the Jones Falls

Presented by Al Barry (AB Associates), Andrew Cook (Baltimore City Office of Sustainability/Made in Baltimore), and Reni Lawal (Baltimore City Department of Planning)

Facilitated by Nariman El Said

Creating a “Friends of the Jones Falls” group

Presented by Sandy Sparks (Friends of Stony Run) and Molly Gallant (Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks)

Facilitated by Ryan Patterson

Joint User Group Greenway Visioning

Presented by Jed Weeks (Bikemore)

Facilitated by Ren Southard and Teddy Krolik

New Life for Existing Assets: Roundhouse Alternative Uses

Presented by Doug Bothner (Ziger/Snead Architects)

Facilitated by Gerald Neily

Beautifying Access Points

Presented by Zoe Clarkwest and Amanda Cunningham (Baltimore City Forestry Board)

Facilitated by Rachel McNamara

Ecological Resilience and Usable Green Spaces

Presented by Laura Connelly (Parks and People Foundation) and Ashley Traut (Blue Water Baltimore)

Facilitated by Kelly Danz

 

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Dreaming Big for Hyatt Park

The City of Hyattsville, Maryland  is looking to enhance Hyatt Park, one of the many open space amenities in the city.  NDC is leading the community design process to gather resident’s insights and ideas and translate them into a conceptual plan. Currently Hyatt Park is home to a small playground and a community garden, but after a community visioning session on January 9th, we learned that many participants have larger visions for the space.

Residents and elected officials braced the cold to participate in a set of activities designed to foster creative and collaborative dialogue…. and get to know their neighbors in the process.

In a former bank building, directly across the street from the park that is soon to be the new headquarters for the City of Hyattsville Police Department, residents brainstormed and weighed options, considered materials, amenities and activities that were most important.

Around the old teller box in the room, flip charts prompted responses to some real world and ‘wacky’ scenarios such as:

“What would Hyatt Park look like… 

• if Dr. Seuss was the Director of Parks and Recreation?

• if it was a great place to picnic?

• if Yayoi Kusama designed the park?

• if your kid wanted to throw his birthday there?

• during the best ever Summer Jam? (a series of concerts hosted by the city)

• if WALL-E took over the world?”

Soon, post-it notes littered the pages, suggestions ranging from the more inspired ‘rainbow path/crosswalk’ and ‘concert stage,’  to the more practical ‘shade trees’, ‘bathroom facilities’ and more.

This activity was designed to prompt participants to think both realistically as well as ‘outside the box and help the NDC design team understand the big ideas that people have for Hyatt Park. The next order of business is to dive into the many responses received, draw out themes and priorities, and create a conceptual plan that captures the creative visions that so many have for the space.The public was also encouraged to submit input for the park design via Speak Up HVL, the City of Hyattsville’s innovative online community engagement portal.  See the ‘Hyatt Park Wishlist’ here. 

Thank you to everyone who joyfully and intentionally participated!  Keep track of NDC’s social media feeds to see when we release a set of conceptual plans for feedback!

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Reverberations — Roots and Relevance of Community Design

 

CALL FOR PROPOSALS is now open!

 

reverb call for proposals

When: June 8-9 2018
Where: Station North Arts and Entertainment District

In 2018, we’re honored to be hosting Reverberations — Roots and Relevance of Community Design, the Association for Community Design’s 2018 Conference, an annual event that brings together community members, faculty and students, architecture, design and planning firms, nonprofit organizations, and local governments invested in community-engaged design.

This year’s event will facilitate conversation about strategies to dismantle systemic conditions that give rise to inequality. Through critical analysis, reflection, and dialogue, we’ll deepen our understanding of and influence on the intersection of community design, racial equity, and environmental justice.

In addition to pushing forward the conversation on equitable community design, the ACD Conference continues NDC’s role as leaders in the work of making great and inclusive places.

Conference Steering Committee:

  • The Association for Community Design
  • AIA Baltimore
  • APA Maryland
  • ASLA
  • Baltimore Planning Department
  • BARCO
  • Enterprise Community Partners
  • Gensler
  • Impact Hub
  • Live Baltimore
  • MICA Center for Social Design
  • Morgan State University School of Architecture and Planning
  • National Building Museum
  • NDC Board and Staff

Have a look at past conferences in the Annual Conference section.
Learn more about ACD.

Watch this space for the conference call for proposals in late January 2018.

Contact Briony Hynson for conference inquiries.

Elementary Schoolers get their Dinosaur Garden

How did NDC help create a dinosaur footprint garden at a local elementary school?  Through collaborative process and great partnerships!  The project is part of  the Treating and Teaching Stormwater Stewardship program, a new environmental education effort in 2017, funded by the Chesapeake Bay Trust and Prince George’s County through the County Stormwater Stewardship grant program. Treating and Teaching is built on partnership, bringing together designers, environmental educators, and advocacy groups whose work at schools intersects through tree plantings, experiential learning, and greening activities.

Treating and Teaching uses a collaborative design to implement outdoor learning spaces at local schools.  Through a competitive application procedure, an initial cohort of six public schools was selected.  Perks for educators include professional development training and teaching materials to connect students and staff to the stormwater facilities on their campuses.

The Neighborhood Design Center worked closely with environmental educators, teachers, and students to design and implement outdoor classrooms at Walker Mill Middle School and Capitol Heights Elementary School.  Both outdoor learning environments were built by landscape contractors and the Anacostia Watershed Society team with the help of students and volunteers. Walker Mill Middle redesigned an underutilized school courtyard to capture building runoff in a series of stone and planted gardens with movable outdoor seating. Capitol Heights Elementary designed a dinosaur footprint garden with a small assembly space and children’s play areas, complete with a sandbox to dig for fossils!  The garden shape is reminiscent of a dryptosaurus foot, a dinosaur in the tyrannosaurus family that was once native to the Maryland area.  On December 7th, Capitol Heights held a ribbon cutting for the dinosaur garden attended by dozens of students and staff, while the school district’s media team shot video and interviews with several students.

Gateway Media Lab Visioning

Prince Georges Arts and Humanity Council and Gateway Media Lab (a “collaborative arts space for the creative community focused on film & media”) are partnering with NDC to reimagine the Lab’s physical space in order to establish a Creative Incubator space, which includes a Welcome Center for the town of Mount Rainier.  The Lab itself is currently home to five communications entrepreneurs and has gallery space and coworking desks. They hope to expand their collaborative mission and coworking space in conjunction with the incubator project. Our partners aim to leverage the existing and growing arts ecosystem of the Gateway Arts District by providing a space for film & media, fashion, and design practitioners.  We’re working together to develop conceptual plans and to think about how the space connects to the ‘Arts Main Street’ feel of Mt. Rainer. Our first step was to hold a visioning session with key team members.

On November 8th, the Prince George’s Community Design Works team made an early morning trip to Gateway Media Lab to meet with our partners of the Lab and PGAHC. We got our creative juices flowing as our new Project Coordinator, María Isabel Garcia Díaz and Allie O’Neill, Program Manager for Community Design Works, led our partners through a series of brainstorming activities to start defining the goals, potential challenges and opportunities for the Creative Incubator Space Plan Project.

Here are of the activities we did with our partners:

  • Mind Mapping: defining what the word ‘incubator’ meant for each participant.
  • Sticky note SWOT analysis: thinking about strengths, weaknesses opportunities, and threats through a series of timed ‘sticky note dump’ session.
  • Defining _________ with AEIOU: understanding the characteristics of the space—design, business development, film & media—through their intended Activities, Environment, Interactions, Objects, and Users.

 

 

 

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Clean Up Green Up Recap

Clean Up Green Up 2017 went by in a flash! Across Prince George’s County, 4,281 plants were installed on October 28. 132 groups participated in the program and NDC’s design team worked with 50! Our team of experienced designers, Marita Roos, Rachel McNamara, and Laura Kendrick made it look easy.  

Before the team got to Planting Day, though, a lot had to be done. Planning for the 2017 year started with the design of a plant list. Every year, participants choose from 10-20 perennials and grasses, shrubs, and trees, most of which are native. Groups working with NDC for landscape design assistance get a few more plant options (one of the best kept secrets of the program- expert help AND more plants!). NDC staff also works closely with Department of Public Works & Transportation staff to plan and administer the program.

 

Speaking of design assistance, NDC designers spend a majority of their time talking with residents, teachers, and principals  about their visions and what plants might best support that vision. Many times, this means NDC staff  travels across the County to visit sites in person. Designs are focused on achieving participants’ goals, from brightly colored spring blooms to a tree canopy their children can enjoy, and range in size and layout tremendously.

 

To prepare participants for Planting Day, NDC and DPW&T staff team up to offer a series of  How to Plant a Tree workshops. Along with sharing best practices, the team answers questions and distributes NDC Action Guides (in English and Spanish) on a variety of applicable topics- pollinator gardens, rain barrels, and plant identification. NDC staff attend Planting Day events to provide extra support. This year staff was at seven sites across the County. Won’t you join us next year?

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Mark Haney

Mark Haney moved to Baltimore in February of 2014.  Since then, he dove right into volunteering with NDC and was the designer of the Mount Clare Gateway project,  Ambrose Kennedy adjacent lots entryway, New Carrollton Veterans Memorial, Edmonston Veterans Park, and the Tunbridge Schoolyard projects.

Where are you currently employed?

I’m actually in the midst of changing jobs.  I’m using the opportunity to evaluate what I’ve enjoyed thus far in my career and to focus on accomplishing more of those things.

What is your professional background?

My professional background begins with a bachelor’s degree from Penn State University in Landscape Architecture. Since graduating, I’ve worked in an urban design / planning office and a high-end residential design / build contracting office.

How did you get into design?

My family was very self-sufficient in our home’s construction projects and I think helping build a deck when I was very young got me interested in construction. Later projects, including a pool deck, putting a new roof on the house, and simply playing in the stream next to our house got me into design. My senior project in high school researched this concept of healing gardens and how nature is restorative to the human psyche and translates over into actual measurable health benefits.  As the project portion, I designed and constructed a small garden on the grounds of my elementary school with my dad’s help in memorial for a teacher I had who had passed away from cancer.

I hadn’t heard of Landscape Architecture until taking a career placement test in my junior year of high school. I’d been interesting in architecture and possibly civil engineering and saw this listed as a possible career choice, researched it further, and decided I wanted to do that. The career’s scope of building parks, studying human habitat, creating impressive civic spaces, city plazas, and squares was very interesting to me and I chose to pursue this path at Penn State, which consistently has a top program in the nation.

How did you first get involved with NDC? What is your history with the organization?

I found the NDC by searching for volunteering opportunities after I moved to the area. I wanted to get out in the city, meet other professionals, learn about Baltimore and her people, and gain experience in my career outside of my job. My first NDC project was creating an entrance gateway and revitalizing a small veterans memorial for the Mount Clare neighborhood. It was a group project and the community’s stakeholders were thrilled at what our group had produced and I was hooked. I’ve completed three other projects since, two of which are built, and it’s a very satisfying experience to know you helped a local community develop their corner of the city.

What motivates you to volunteer with NDC?

I’m a strong believer in local community groups taking control of their neighborhood projects, as I believe they care about their everyday surroundings more than any bureaucracy ever could. The people who come searching for assistance through the NDC live, work, and play in their neighborhood, and have active roles in the community. They want to see the best for their neighborhood.  Being able to help them improve their area is very fulfilling. It’s a great opportunity to practice your own professional development, meet community leaders, and find opportunities to advance yourself.

What do you find most rewarding about your work with NDC?

Completing a project, seeing it adopted by the community, and eventually seeing it implemented is very rewarding. Meeting people and making contacts in Baltimore’s small design community has also been rewarding.

What is inspiring your work now?

In my professional life, I’m seeking to move out of residential landscape design and back to my passion of urban design and planning. As the industry and world moves towards more resilient and environmentally friendly planning, I’m looking towards creative green infrastructure, adaptive urban reuse, and brownfield redevelopment. I think reclaiming old industrial sites for public civic functions is fascinating, and I look to firms that specialize in that. I also find inspiration in small-budget, neighborhood-level projects to improve the community.  A majority of jobs at this level may never appear in a high-end design magazines but they too have a direct impact on the happiness and morale of a community. Good design should be accessible to all sizes of budgets and NDC makes that happen.

Has working with NDC changed the way you practice design? If so, how?

Still being relatively young, it’s been a learning experience to see how the industry works, and perhaps more importantly, to see how the public thinks. As a person educated in design, I value certain things differently than a person with a background different than mine may. What I’ve learned is the community has a voice and goals, and they may not match with your initial thoughts of a site. Sometimes the community has a variety of voices and your first task to to hear the most resounding goals. What’s invaluable to the process is taking their goals, using your expertise in design, and mixing them together to arrive at a design that achieves their desires in sustainable, creative, and aesthetic ways.

If you had to name a favorite Baltimore building, place or landscape, what would it be and why?

My favorite building in Baltimore is the historic Belvedere Hotel.  The French aesthetic and gargantuan mass of the building are impressive today and were no doubt an accomplishment in the early 1900s when it was built.  Generations and generations of the nation’s top influences knew the Belvedere and you can see their pictures on the wall entering one of my favorite spots, the Owl Bar.  My favorite view of the city is traveling north on 83, just after you get on the freeway.  The way the city stacks itself from this angle is just the best and shows layers of brick, stone, concrete, glass and metal.  In a way, it reveals the timeline of Baltimore’s major additions. Baltimore also has an amazing civic space in the Harbor Promenade.

 

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