Volunteer Spotlight: 2008 Baltimore Volunteers and Hall of Fame Awards

This year, the Neighborhood Design Center is proud to honor several volunteers who have made an extra effort in both the quality and quantity of the pro-bono services they provided for our Baltimore office.  They are Volunteers of the Year Jennifer Leonard, Mary Stevenson, Michael Schwebel, Judy Floam, and Tom Woolfolk, and Hall of Fame Inductees Frank Gant, Barbara McClinton, and Tom Woolfolk.

Jennifer Leonard, Mary Stevenson, and Michael Schwebel; STV, Inc.

Although more than 20 professionals participated in the community design process for the Northwood Plaza Master Plan project, lead volunteers Jennifer and Michael (landscape architects), and Mary (architect) of STV, Inc. together put in more than 500 hours (valued at more than $50,000 of pro bono services). Final plans included numerous LEED-qualified green design features such as reducing vast areas impervious surfaces by adding numerous passive and active green spaces, as well as storm water management facilities, green roofs, and energy efficient buildings. Many of these features were highlighted in a stunning 7-minute fly-through video of the site created in Sketch Up.  Click here for information and images on the Northwood project.

Jennifer Leonard is is a licensed landscape architect (RLA) and Leader in Energy and Environmental Design approved Professional (LEED ®AP) with STV Incorporated.  She has eight years experience in the design of neighborhood developments, mixed used developments, commercial, intuitional and industrial projects in Baltimore and the mid Atlantic region.  Jennifer in currently working on several mixed use planned unit develops in Baltimore, including one high density transit oriented development.  “ If we all want a better world to live in, it starts with you and me and our communities. And I really like the group. They all wanted to do a good job to create the best design. The Northwood Plaza design group had an energy about it that was contagious.  A strong desire to contribute to society underlies my commitment to volunteer work.  Volunteering is my  social activity with three young children I have to make every minute of every day count and what better way to meet interesting,  driven, like minded people than to volunteer for something that you love and that you are passionate about."

Mary Stevenson is a 1980 graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art with a BFA/Designer Craftsman degree, Mary spent several years as a furniture artist including 2 years as a Studio Artist at Baltimore’s School 33 Arts Center. Her interests gravitated toward architecture and she attended the Institute for Architecture and Planning at Morgan State University receiving her M. Arch in 1995. Mary joined the architectural group at STV Inc. in 1997 where her work has been focused on hospitality and multifamily projects.  She was first recruited as an NDC volunteer by one of her fellow MSU students NDC staffer Jim Potter to work on a Coldstream /Homestead/ Montebello Community Revitalization Study.  “This experience really opened my eyes to the problems and needs of the communities in the city and how they need an agency like NDC to help them focus and act on their goals. As an NDC volunteer I am able to have a personal impact on the quality of life of my neighbors and by extension the vitality of the city.  I also get to exercise some interests and skills that I do not utilize in my daily work."

Michael Schwebel is a 2005 graduate of Penn State University, receiving a BLA in Landscape Architecture, and a minor in Spanish.  Upon graduation, Michael received the Veronica Burns Lucas Memorial Travel Award and ventured to Costa Rica, Panama, and Nicaragua where he studied ecotouristical norms and variants within Central America.  In 2006, Michael joined STV Incorporated and soon after attained his LEED ® certification and is currently working upon a variety of LEED ® registered projects.  Concurrent with working full-time, Michael also attends Johns Hopkins University, where he is in the midst of attaining a Masters of Science in Environmental Sciences and Policy, concentrating in Environmental Planning.  Of working with NDC, Michael states that “having dozens of enthusiastic residents from the local community actively seeking to regenerate, enliven, and empower their environs is my inspiration and motivation for assisting with the very worthwhile Northwood Shopping Center project.”

Judy Floam and Tom Woolfolk; Colbert Matz Rosenfelt, Inc.

Volunteers Tom and Judy worked for more than a year to design an off-leash area within Patterson Park for canine citizens.  After researching issues and best practices in other dog parks, they worked closely with the Patterson Park Dog Park Committee on each detail to ensure a dog-friendly area that would be a community asset. Tom and Judy have both offered to help the client in future meetings with the city. In addition, both of them (who have done many NDC projects) volunteered immediately for a new project.

Judy Floam is Chief Planner for the engineering and site planning firm of Colbert Matz Rosenfelt in Baltimore.  She came to Baltimore from New Jersey where she worked as a planner for over 20 years. She is a native New Yorker, with a Master's degree in urban planning from Hunter College of the City University of New York.  "I enjoy doing NDC projects as a way of getting to know some of Baltimore's many diverse neighborhoods and to give something back to my profession and to my adopted city."

Tom Woolfolk grew up in the Baltimore suburbs.  He’s been practicing since the late Sixties and has been a registered Landscape Architect for nearly 20 years.  He is currently registered in Maryland and Virginia.  He works at Colbert Matz Rosenfelt, Inc. in Mount Washington.  He has been an NDC volunteer since the mid 1980s.  " Working with NDC and the community groups has been such a positive experience over the years.  The schematic design and plan really clarify what they want to do, make it real, give them something to focus on, help them to raise funds or get volunteer assistance, materials, whatever they need.  NDC has given me the opportunity to work on things – parks, playgrounds, streetscapes, master plans – that I rarely have in my job.  And I’ve had the chance to learn in a way I never would have – about CPTED, about dog parks and play equipment, about fundraising and school greening.  But most of all, I’ve learned how great it is just to help people out, to make their community, and Baltimore, a better place."

Hall of Fame Inductees

Frank Gant
As an inductee in the Neighborhood Design Center's Hall of Fame, Frank is recognized as being one of the original volunteers - serving as project manager for the Workers Allied Toward Community Unity (WATCU) project, which included a neighborhood health clinic, a social services office, a daycare, a halfway house for alcoholics, and a cultural center.  Click here to view a video interview with Frank Gant as he talks about Baltimore and NDC's early years.

"In 1968 a bunch of us in reaction to the riots after Martin Luther King’s assignation, decided to offer our skills to be advocates helping to rebuild the neighborhoods.  I had no idea at that point we were planting seeds that would lead to a long term organization dedicated to helping neighborhood design challenges  It was quite cool to be anti-establishment in those days.  The last thing I wanted was an organization.  Charlie Lamb pointed out to me the need was greater than anyone of us could fill.  We needed an organization in Charlie’s words “To have legs to grow, we would find ourselves encouraging others to volunteer”.  Charlie was right on, long live Neighborhood Design Center."

Frank Gant started his career in 1961 at Rogers Taliferro, Kostrisky, Lamb in Annapolis, Maryland.  He was the principal of Frank Gant Architects for 25 years before partnering with John Brunnett in 1998 to form Gant Brunnett Architects.  He is a licensed architect in Maryland and Delaware, has been a member of the A.I.A. most of his adult life and holds a NCARB certificate.  Frank has 40 years of experience in designing a variety of projects from daycare centers to large scale hotels and conference centers.

Barbara McClinton
Barbara is recognized for her years of volunteering - assisting over ten projects since she first began volunteering in the early 1990s while she was a student at Morgan State University.  Projects include an open space master plan for Druid Heights, gardens for the Boyd Booth neighborhood, Catonsville Adult Day Care Center, and the Holt-McCormick Center for the Arts, and a landscape plan for East Towson.  She also assisted on two community charretes - for the Bloomingdale Oval (now Leon Day Park) on the Gwynns Falls Trail and the Redline Transit Workshops.

Barbara McClinton is a native of Seattle, WA.  She has degrees in Psychology from Whitman College and Tulane University in the late 60s and early 70s, and taught Psychology for 20 years at Essex Community College before going back to school and receiving her Masters in Landscape Architecture degree from Morgan State University in 1996.  She then worked for DMW for 10 years until retirement.  Barbara enjoys a busy retirement, occasionally working with friends on site design, plant design, and especially drainage (of her own property)!  “Good design benefits everyone.  Especially in neighborhoods where residents have little experience with design, a few hours of conversation and drawing can make a big difference toward solving a site or architectural problem.  A charrette may be my favorite kind of NDC project, because it brings together so many people and ideas, and it helps people see new possibilities."

Tom Woolfolk
Like Barbara, Tom is also being recognized for volunteering on more than ten projects.  Projects include clients such as the Maryland SPCA, the Babe Ruth Baseball League, and the West Pratt Street Merchants Association, park plans for Roundhouse Square Coalition, Garwyn Oaks, Patterson Park's Library Square, and Bocek Park, and several playgrounds, including Garrett Heights Elementary, James McHenry Elementary, and the Joseph Lee Community Association. Through Tom's efforts, hundreds of thousands of dollars were leveraged to create new community spaces and safe play spaces for children throughout Baltimore.

(To read a brief bio about Tom see above)