ACD Announcements Jobs
- 2008 Rose Fellowship Opportunities
- Surdna Foundation - Program Officer for Environment
- Visitacion Valley CDC - Commercial Corridor Program Manager
- Systems for Inclusion 8: April 4-6, 2008, Cambridge, MA
- Open Public Urban Spaces (OPUS2008): June 26–28, 2008, Stavanger, Norway
ACD Announcements
ACD/AIA Housing Joint Conference - Innovations and Collaborations in Affordable Housing: October 3-5, 2008, Phoenix, AZ
The Association for Community Design and the AIA Housing Knowledge Community are pleased to announce a joint conference, Innovations and Collaborations in Affordable Housing. The conference will take place in Phoenix, AZ from the 3rd to the 5th of October, 2008 and will include a variety of panel discussions and symposia that focus on innovative and collaborative processes which have been used to address the crisis in housing affordability in communities. The symposia will be followed by an exciting half-day of tours to housing sites in the city. Please save the dates for this exciting collaborative conference and plan on joining us in Phoenix.
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Jobs
2008 Rose Fellowship Opportunities
Applications are now available for four new Rose Fellowship opportunities in diverse communities. Applications are available at http://rosefellowship.org/ for the following positions:
- Community Housing Partnership, San Francisco, CA - San Francisco attracts tourists, innovators and industry leaders from around the world. At the same time, more than 7,000 San Franciscans have no place to call home. But for many of these vulnerable people, the situation is changing.Community Housing Partnership (CHP) successfully provides housing for people who have been homeless, as well as support services, training and employment opportunities that help people become involved in their communities and secure in their homes.
- Gulf Coast Community Design Studio, East Biloxi, MS - Hurricane Katrina may have washed away homes across Mississippis coast, but it could not wash away hope. Since that devastating storm in 2005, the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio (GC CDS) has partnered with the East Biloxi community to plan, design, and build or rehabilitate more than 80 homes for low-income households. Now GCCDS is expanding its service area to all three coastal counties, multiplying its community partners and growing in scale to encompass much larger projects.
- Project for Pride in Living, Minneapolis, MN - Must affordability mean less than quality design or barebones systems and maintenance? Project for Pride in Living (PPL) in Minneapolis answers this question with a resounding, No. For 25 years, PPL has focused on providing the Citys most in need with affordable, dignified, attractive housing that is well-maintained and well-managed. But five new projects will aim even higher, adopting Green design standards and a commitment to providing top-notch, consistently handsome buildings.
- Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, Slayton, MS - Every community has its unique needs. Urban, suburban, rural; new or established; mixed use, multi-generational, immigrant, and onand the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership (SWMHP) embraces them all. A regional community development corporation with national standing, the SWMHP has a long list of projects in the planning, pre-develo pment and conceptual stages. The rural Minnesota Fellow will also work in partnership with theGreater Minnesota Housing Fund (GMHF) on two Research & Development projects including testing the cost impacts of the installation of basic green product integration within in single-family home construction and providing data to revise the current Building Better Neighborhood manual.
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Surdna Foundation - Program Officer for Environment
Surdna is currently searching for a Program Officer for our Environment Program. The Program Officer will report directly to the Environment Program Director. Our Environment Program supports a healthy natural environment, the foundation upon which human communities flourish. We believe that the social and economic concerns of communities are inextricably linked to the natural world. Today, the environment is at great risk due to the interrelated threats of global climate change, biodiversity loss and unsustainable levels of resource consumption.
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
- Maintaining a breath of knowledge about current trends, emerging issues, policy interventions, and innovations in the program’s areas of focus to enhance the effectiveness of program strategy and understanding of staff and board.
- Monitoring and tracking ongoing grants and initiatives, including evaluating and reporting to staff, board, and external colleagues on performance.
- Working closely with other programs at Surdna and facilitating cross-program collaboration.
- Reviewing, assessing and proactively cultivating grantmaking opportuntities, Assisting grantees in improving proposal quality. Recommending grants for funding by soliciting peer reviews and providing critical analysis of project strengths, weaknesses and risks.
- Conducting site visits of pending and active projects.
- Helping to plan and implement learning opportunities for grantees, staff, and board.
- Working with and managing external consultants.
- Assisting with institutional efforts to enhance the sustainability of Surdna’s internal practices.
- Assisting in external communications: developing Web site content, newsletters, public presentations, and articles as appropriate.
- Develop partnerships with other institutions to extend the impact of the Foundation’s grantmaking.
- Tracking and contributing to the development of best practices among funders.
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Visitacion Valley CDC - Commercial Corridor Program Manager
Visitacion Valley Community Development Corporation seeks a Program Manager for its Commercial Corridor Revitalization. VVBOOM is the catalyst to build connections between businesses, residents and service-providers. VVBOOM provides leadership to enhance business opportunities in the neighborhood, and brings resources to support business growth that serves the Visitacion Valley Community.
Responsibilities:
- Maintain Economic Development of Business Corridor by supporting Merchant Driven Programs and Events, implementing a Business Retention and Recruitment strategy, providing business technical assistance, assisting in corridor marketing and business merchandising.
- Support Community Development Programs through Holiday and Event Planning
Desired Experience:
- Must have Degree in City Planning, Business Administration, Urban Studies, Public Administration, or Marketing.
- Experience in event planning, recruiting & organizing volunteers, grant writing, and community organizing.
- Must have excellent verbal and written communications skills, with careful attention to detail.
- Flexibility and ability to prioritize and balance multiple projects independently.
- Self-directed ability to fulfill workplans and meet timely deliverables.
- Strong collaboration, mediation, and team-building skills.
- Responsible and punctual; warm and professional demeanor on the telephone and in person.
- Proficiency in MS Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) necessary; knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat a plus.
- Bi-Lingual in either Cantonese, Spanish, or Tagalog HIGHLY DESIRABLE
For More Information, please request a VVBOOM Information Packet from Jennifer Dhillon at
JDhillon@VVCDC.ORG.
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Grants and Awards
2007 Rudy Bruner Award Winners Announced
The Bruner Foundation is pleased to announce the 2007 Rudy Bruner Award Winners:
- 2007 Gold Medal Winner
- Pittsburgh Children's Museum and Family District, Pittsburgh, PA
- 2007 Silver Medal Winners
- Artists for Humanity Epicenter, Boston, MA
- Crossroads Project: Brady Street Bus Shelter, Urban Plaza and Marsupial Pedestrian Bridge, Milwaukee, WI
- High Point Redevelopment, Seattle, WA
- L.A. Design Center, Los Angeles, CA
- Redesign of Columbus Circle, New York, NY
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Conferences
Systems for Inclusion 8: April 4-6, 2008, Cambridge, MA
Design Corps, in association with Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, announces the eighth offering of the annual Structures for Inclusion (SFI) conference series. Entitled "Systems for Inclusion," SFI8 explores the interface of design and systemic social action: Can design(ers) challenge globally networked systems of exclusivity and inequality? What are the relationships between design and political power, economic and ecological sustainability, justice and community?
Targeted at students and young professionals who want to move beyond a purely aesthetic discussion--who see landscape/architecture and urban planning/design as an integrative and interconnected project--the conference seeks to jumpstart a new conversation about the social dimensions of the natural and built environments. The event will be hosted by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
"While planning this conference we talked to students nation-wide and there is a re-emerging trend today among students to talk about more than just form," notes Ashley Heeren, GSD student president and conference co-chair. "Young designers tend to see social responsibility as very important and want new models for design practice that connect activism with quality design." Since the first SFI was held at Princeton in 2000, SFI conference series have focused on: 1) to showcase community-based design efforts that reach out to and serve a diverse clientele; and 2) to provide information on alternative career paths available to students and young designers. The interdisciplinary group of students from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who collaborated with Design Corps in planning SFI8 changed the name from "Structures" to "Systems for Inclusion" specifically to address how design interrelates to other fields such as public policy, environmental justice and social entrepreneurship. Speakers include designers, politicians, government officials, artists and students who have pioneered innovative methods for social change.
For more information, visit www.designcorps.org/sfi or email bryan@designcorps.org.
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Open Public Urban Spaces (OPUS2008): June 26–28, 2008, Stavanger, Norway
The first international OPUS Symposium will be arranged in Stavanger, Norway June 26th – 28th 2008 at the Little Concert Hall, Bjergsted as an official event of the Stavanger2008 year as one of the Cultural Capitals of Europe. It is arranged by the University of Stavanger and the University of California at Davis in collaboration with Stavanger2008 and the National Association of Norwegian Architects.
OPUS 2008 will bring leading designers and researchers together to explore the value and design of open public urban spaces. This urban design symposium will be held in Stavanger Norway as an official event of Stavanger 2008. The symposium will explore how public spaces transform the cultural life of cities and towns including European Capitals of Culture such as Liverpool, Graz, Stockholm, etc. Historic and contemporary projects will be featured and a design workshop will be held to explore their implications for planning and better connecting public open spaces in Stavanger and Sandnes. The symposium is organized by the Open Public Urban Spaces (OPUS), a Project of the University of Stavanger and the University of California, Davis.
Emphasis of the symposium will be placed on how public spaces can contribute to a better urban life. The symposium will seek answers to these questions:
- what cultural meaning do open urban spaces represent?
- how do urban spaces function as arenas for cultural activities?
- are urban spaces open enough? can they contribute to a more inclusive urban life? if so; how?
- how are open spaces distributed from the core to the fringe of the urban landscape?
- how are urban spaces used? are they fit for evolving needs and use?
- how can they be more pedestrian oriented / walkable?
- how can they be more stimulating for business and services?
- how can urban spaces enhance and support identity?
- how can urban spaces reflect the expectations of the general public?
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