’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, the home of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design’s graduate program in urban design and architecture, has issued a call for proposals to communities throughout Northeast Ohio in need of urban design assistance.
Kent State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative is seeking a community partner from an Ohio city, suburb, town or neighborhood facing a unique urban design or planning challenge and in need of fresh ideas and perspectives to host its 2015 Urban Design Charrette. A charrette is a collaborative session in which a group of designers draft solutions to design problems.
Kent State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative and its two partner urban design schools – Lawrence Technological University’s College of Architecture and Design in Detroit, Michigan, and Ball State University’s Urban Design Center in Indianapolis, Indiana – will bring graduate students in urban design and architecture to the selected partner community for a three to four-day intensive workshop charrette. The Midwest Urban Design Charrette, as the three schools call the partnership, has been conducted for four consecutive years, traveling to Detroit in 2014, Indianapolis in 2012 and 2013, and Cleveland, Ohio, in 2011.
Students and staff will produce a series of analytical drawings, diagrams, renderings, design guidelines and other relevant planning and urban design graphics to be presented to the community partner at the end of the charrette period. Following the charrette, Kent State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative staff will assemble the design proposals into a final report and presentation to be delivered to the community partner no later than the end of 2015.
The ideal community partner will be a municipality or other vested stakeholder with the ability to engage local community stakeholders and potentially realize some of the final design recommendations. The partner will also be responsible for basic food and lodging for approximately 30 students and staff over the three to-four-day charrette period. The team of partners will bring staff, supplies and expertise.
The Midwest Urban Design Charrette promises to be a unique and rewarding experience for students, who get an opportunity to face real-life design challenges and propose solutions, and for cities, which receive a wide range of design and planning ideas in a short and intense period of time.
“We welcome the chance to bring our partner schools to Northeast Ohio in the fall of 2015 and hope to hear from cities, towns, suburbs and neighborhoods equally excited about this opportunity,” said Terry Schwarz, director of Kent State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative.
Interested communities that would like to be considered for this year’s charrette, need to send a proposal of no more than two pages, that includes:
• A brief overview of your city, town or neighborhood
• Design challenges, opportunities and issues the charrette team could address
• Description of charrette site or neighborhood, including any unique information or specific characteristics
• Map of site, or written description of site boundaries
The 2015 charrette will be held in October. The specific dates will be coordinated with the host community. Proposals should be submitted to Kent State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative by April 15. This will allow time for staff to plan curriculum and coordinate logistics.
Proposals can either be submitted electronically to kzeiber@kent.edu with “2015 Charrette” in the subject line or mailed to 1309 Euclid Ave. Suite #200, Cleveland, Ohio 44109.
An example of a previous year’s final report, the 2012 charrette in Put-In-Bay, Ohio, can be found at .
For more information about Kent State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, visit .
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Media Contacts:
Kristin Zeiber, kzeiber@kent.edu, 216-357-3434
Emily Vincent, evincen2@kent.edu, 330-672-8595