Shrinking Cities : Growing Communities

Association for Community Design: 2009 Annual Conference
June 4 to June 7
Rochester, New York
 

Thursday, June 4

Models of Cooperation:  Community Design and the Public Sector (MuCCC - 142 Atlantic Ave)
 Panel Discussion, 2 – 3:30pm
Transforming neighborhoods and communities collaboratively: engaging citizens, employing creative planning and zoning techniques and utilizing public subsidy to catalyze private development that is designed well and public improvements that strengthen the public realm.
Panelists:
Chuck Thomas, Director of Planning, City of Rochester
Brett Garwood, Director of Development Services, City of Rochester
David Perkes, Gulf Coast Community Design Studio

Rochelle Bell, Environmental Planner, County of Monroe

Dominic Robinson, Assisi Center of Syracuse

Daily Workings of Community Design Centers (MuCCC - 142 Atlantic Ave)
 Working Session, 4 – 5:30pm 
Exploring the inner workings and dynamics of these organizations: interactions and partnerships, finances, staff issues, board management and other important aspects of their operation and influence.
Facilitator: 
Joe Fama, Executive Director, Troy Architectural Program (TAP)

Reception at RRCDC, 7-9pm (RRCDC - 1115 E. Main St.)

Featured Exhibits in the RRCDC Design Gallery:
“Healthy and Happy Cities: Urban Design with Nature” – Case studies from Doug Farr’s book Sustainable Urbanism
“Food is Landscape” Projects for a Sustainable Food System – an installation of the work of Landscape  Architecture students from the College of Environmental Design, SUNY, Syracuse
 
Friday, June 5

Community Food Supply/Environmental Justice (GEH - 900 East Avenue)
 Panel Discussion, 8:30-10am

A central challenge presented in contemporary communities is making it possible to access affordable, healthy and environmentally responsible food  every neighborhood, regardless of wealth. This condition profoundly effects public health and quality of life.  Panelists will discuss projects and initiatives which have been successfully implemented to make food available through community agriculture as well as retail channels and discuss ideas about strategies that might be tried.  

Panelists:
Elizabeth Miller,  Executive Director, Community Design Collaborative, Philadelphia
Matthew Potteiger, Professor of Landscape Architecture, ESF Syracuse University
Diane Picardo, Massachusetts Avenue Project, Buffalo
Responders:
Wade Norwood, Fingerlakes Health Systems Agency
Christine Johnson, Director, GRUB (Greater Rochester Urban Bounty)  
Eleanor Coleman, Director of Youth and Family Services, SWAN

Eastman House Exhibits, 10am-Noon

Featured Exhibits at George Eastman House
“Not a Cornfield”
“New Topographics”
“Nature as Artifice: New Dutch Landscape in the Photograph as Art”

Shrinking Cities (MuCCC - 142 Atlantic Ave)
 Panel Discussion, 2 – 3:30pm
Considering creative opportunities for development of vacant land and underutilized buildings in core areas and cities with decreasing population including a wide array of non-traditional land uses and temporary use strategies that activate, change and then disappear.
Panelists: 
Anne-Marie Lubenau, Executive Director Community Design Center of Pittsburgh (CDCP) 
Terry Schwarz, Senior Planner, Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative
Joan Iverson Nassauer, Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Michigan


 
Susan B. Anthony and Marketview Heights neighborhoods (MuCCC - 142 Atlantic Ave)
 Case Study Presentations, 4 – 5:30pm
The stories of ongoing revitalization efforts in two unique urban neighborhoods flanking Rochester’s Downtown looking at the areas’ histories and physical development through the 19th and 20th Centuries, issues of changing population and demographics and responses to today’s challenges.
Panelists:
Dawn Noto, Susan B. Anthony Neighborhood Association
Pamela Reese-Smith, Community Outreach Coordinator, Pathstone Corporation
Craig Jensen, AIA, CJS Architects
Francisco Rivera, 
Marketview Heights Neighborhood Association
Judy Douglas, Property Manager, Pathstone Corporation
Rich Holowka, Marketview Heights Resident
Martin Pedraza, Marketview Heights Resident

Keynote Speaker:  Alan Greenberger, Planning Director, Philadelphia, 8 - 9pm (GWA - 1000 University Ave.)

Planning for the Post-Industrial City,  Initiatives from Philadelphia

Saturday, June 6 

Participant Led Discussions, 9 - 11:00 a.m. (MuCCC - 142 Atlantic Ave)
 There are more slots available, submit your proposal soon!
Conference participants will lead small group discussions covering a range of issues which those with an interest in community design face on a regular basis.  Sessions will include a presentation of how one community design center has found ways to be effective with shrinking funding sources, the challenges another community design center finds in working with small towns, and a number of other topics that will allow us to think through the challenges and opportunities of community design work.

Marketview Heights and Susan B. Anthony Historic neighborhoods (begin at MuCCC - 142 Atlantic Ave)
 Guided Walking Tours, 1-4:00 pm
 
Sunday, June 7

Strategies for meeting current challenges and opportunities (MuCCC - 142 Atlantic Ave)
   Working Session, 9:30-Noon   

Beginning with a brainstorming session focusing on challenges facing community design centers as well as the communities they serve, we will break into small discussion groups by region, the services offered, and areas of interest so that people can work on strategies with others in the same context.

Participant Led Discussions
Conference participants will lead small group discussions covering a range of issues which those with an interest in Community Design face on a regular basis. Sessions will include ways in which one design center has been effective with decreasing funding sources; another faces challenges working with small towns. A number of topics will allow us to think through the challenges and opportunities for community design work.