Presentation to the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) North America Conference in Winnipeg on the design assistance progress, it's adapted models, and how it applies to a variety of community settings.

1. designer democracy:
50 years of practice & growing

2. THE PAST

3. The Design Assistance Program
• Began in 1967 – inspired by civil rights movement. First
community was a post-flood recovery for a downtown.
Over 200 communities in US & Canada since. Adapted
across communities in UK & Europe.

4. Brief History of a Movement
Cities have the capability of providing
something for everybody, only because, and
only when, they are created by everybody
-- Jane Jacobs
The civil rights movement taught us to listen,
and to hear those whose voices had gone
unheard for generations. R/UDAT has taught
us how to turn the aspirations of citizens, and
their descriptions of urban value, into action.-
- David Lewis/Peter Batchelor
Behind all the current buzz about
collaboration is a discipline. And with all due
respect to the ancient arts of governing and
diplomacy, the more recent art of
collaboration does represent something new -
- maybe Copernican. If it contained a silicon
chip, we’d all be excited.
-- John Gardner
1960s
1980s
1990s

5. Designer Democracy
Beginnings…
• 1963 – first urban studio program
• 1964 – first Community Design
Center program. (Architects
Renewal Committee in Harlem)
• 1967 – first R/UDAT project
• UDA’s Pontiac, Michigan school
integration process
• 1968- Neighborhood Design
Center forms in Baltimore, MD
Today…
• more than 70% of schools of
architecture now have studio
programs
• Over 5 dozen Community Design
Centers in US alone
• Hundreds of DAT projects,
national/state/local programs
• “Charrette” norms in business
• Adaptation all over the world

6. Framework Principles
• Holistic, Interdisciplinary Approach to Community Design
(Customization)
• Neutral Outsiders (Pro Bono Public Service)
• COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION (Citizen Experts, Authentic
Community Process, meaning)

7. Design Assistance Process

8. R/UDAT Impacts in large cities over
the years…
• San Francisco
(Embarcadero)
• Portland (Pearl District)
• Seattle (Downtown housing)
• Denver (LoDo/16th Street
mall)
• Austin (Downtown
Revitalization)
• Santa Fe (Railyard
Redevelopment/Park)
• Process adaptation in
US, Canada, UK and
across Europe

10. What distinguishes it?
• We are NOT:
– Another Consultant Team
– A process to produce a
planning document
• “Please don’t give us
another plan. We have
plenty – they all sit on the
shelves. We need
implementation
strategies.” – Almost Every
community
– Government-focused
– “Green”-focused
– Building-focused
• We ARE:
– Public Service in the Public
Interest
• “Consultants work for
somebody. Design
Assistance Teams work for
everybody.”
– Action-Oriented
– Community-focused
– Holistic, Customized
• “It’s about the space
between the buildings, and
the people that inhabit
that space”

11. Interactive Community Process

12. Workshops

13. Student contests

14. students

15. University Students

16. Civic Branding

17. Context Specific Community
Engagement
• Survey
• Website
• Multi-media films
• Flyers
• Banners
• Student Book
• Press
• Utility Mailers
• Door Contest
• Event kick-off

18. Kick-off cultural events
Boerne, TX

19. “Sugar on Snow” Event Kickoff –
Newport, VT

20. Kauai
“A baby lu‘au is an important time among local families. That first birthday
marks a major milestone in a young child’s life. It offers an opportunity to
welcome the baby into the family. It requires fairly complex planning,
bringing relatives from all over to help celebrate the occasion, always with
plenty of food. Family members help out by sharing responsibilities and
making sure everything runs smoothly. For parents, the baby lu‘au is often a
time to think about the future for that baby and how much love, nurturing,
learning and protection will be needed in the years ahead as the child grows
to adulthood. It is a time to reflect on how will they be educated, what
opportunities they will have and where will they live as adults. How can we
plan our communities to ensure that the babies of today will have a high
quality of life in the future? For everyone who lives, works or shops in the
Lihu‘e district, that will be the question the public will be asked at a Nov. 12
meeting called “Lihu‘e’s Baby Lu‘au: Planning Our Keiki’s Future” at 7 p.m. at
the Kaua‘i Veterans Center in Lihu‘e.”

22. Englishtown, NJ: Historic Inn

23. Beatrice, NE: National Homestead
Monument

24. Location Choices with Visibility

25. International Potluck Dinner –
Portland, Maine

29. THE PRESENT

30. The Democratic Expectation
• National League of Cities survey of U.S. Cities (2010) -
81 percent use public engagement processes "often" (60
percent) or "sometimes" (21 percent)
• American Planning Association (2012) – “More than 50
percent want to personally be involved in community
planning efforts, including more than half of Democrats,
Republicans, and independents as well as majorities of
urban, suburban, and rural respondents.”

31. Democratic Wave in last 25 yrs
• Decentralization -
Neighborhood Council
Systems and
Neighborhood
Associations
• Empowerment – over 100
Neighborhood College and
Citizen Academy programs
• Civic-led change -
visioning, funding of
projects, implementation
• It has it’s own
language/jargon: textizen,
crowdsourcing,
crowdfunding, tactical
urbanism, the sharing
economy, etc

32. “Civic Resources”
• Volunteerism = $171 billion
(only 64 mill people)
• Total Charitable Giving =
$298.42 billion.
• Non-profits = $300 billion in
investment into local
communities
• Over half of all states have
enacted legislation to enable
private-sector participation in
infrastructure projects, where
there is an estimated $180
billion to be leveraged
• Crowdfunding - $3 billion in
2012 alone!

33. Local Exceptionalism
• “What works other
places won’t work here.
We have some unique
circumstances, we
aren’t like other
communities.”
• Context is always
unique, but issues are
mostly the same.
• Common Obstacles:
– Nostalgia
– Inertia
– Conflict
– Institutional sclerosis

34. Most Communities Today
“If we can just get that
one, big, transformational
investment done, it will
change everything for us.”
[years of effort…no visual
progress during this
time…loss of
excitement…bottom falls
out.]

35. The Snowball Effect
“a figurative term for a process
that starts from an initial state
of small significance and builds
upon itself, becoming larger
and faster at every stage”
Applied to a community, this is
a transformational principle…

36. “You gave us hope. Back in 1992, your ideas seemed
like dreams. Now we are living those dreams.”
– Rick Smith, San Angelo Times-Standard, 2012

37. CASE STUDY:
Port Angeles, Washington (17K)
2009 Project

38. Immediate Implementation
1. Parking study in the downtown area.
2. Increase housing opportunity and multi‐use buildings in
downtown.
3. Institute the use of form based codes rather than
conventional zoning.
4. Remove the parking regulations in downtown and let the
market drive parking.
5. Return the Farmer's Market to the downtown area.
6. Signage and wayfinding system for pedestrian and vehicles.
7. Improve existing buildings (appearance, facades, etc. in
downtown and elsewhere).
8. Provide visitor information kiosks.
9. Create an entryway monument.
10.Create nodes / centers of key intersections.

39. Port Angeles, WA 2009 Project: 2 months later, 43 buildings repainted with
volunteers and donated paint, led to a façade improvement program, then
private $

40. Public Prioritization
Paint 43 Buildings
Façade Improvement
Wayfinding
Waterfront Esplanade
Major new anchors downtown
Peninsula Campus Expansion
Downtown Health Clinic
New Transit Center
First 3 months-1 year
Bike/Ped Facilities
New small businesses
Ferry Terminal
Renovation
Renovated
shopping/restaurants at
adjacent block
1-2.5 years
4-5 years

41. Today: Millions in New Investments

42. Transforming Downtown

43. Waterfront: from SDAT to
Masterplan to…

44. Realizing their aspirations

45. Award-winning design

46. Bringing People Back to the
Waterfront

50. Creating an Attractive Sense
of Place

51. Snowball Effect: $100+ million
Leveraging Investment for
Placemaking

52. And, it keeps going

53. The Future

54. Our Urban Future
• By 2030, 6 in 10 people
will live in cities.
• In the developing world, 3
out of 5 will live in cities.
• There are currently one
billion people living in
slums and squatter
settlements and that
number is expected to
double by 2030 and reach
3 billion by 2050
• Climate change, equity,
housing, livability,
economic development,
etc….

55. Millennial Values Will Dominate
• Millennial’s values:
– Collaboration and Community
– Technology & Innovation
– Democratic/Open Information
– Social Value
– Sharing (the sharing economy)

56. What about Winnipeg?
The democratic vernacular
every community is the product of its physical setting, governance
system, culture, and its traditions – all of which contribute to a unique
context.
“the house becomes a body language of democracy, and the grid becomes a body
language of democracy from the ultimate privacy of the individual to the ultimate
public of the grid that you see from the airplane. Oh, that tells you something
about that street and that plan. It tells you something about community. It tells
you something about citizenship. It tells you about how the thing works, how the
city works physically, and how the city works politically, and how the city works
economically, and what the role of citizenship is. And what the Founding Fathers
envision when they drop in the constitution: we, the citizens.” – David Lewis

71. The Challenge
• The stakes are high, the challenges immense,
and the need for process expertise is
pervasive.
• “We are all faced with a series of historic
opportunities, brilliantly disguised as
unsolvable problems.” –John W. Gardner