Designing and Implementing for Impact - Case Study on Community Engaged Design

oThrough a joint effort of the City of Houston, NOMA Houston, and AIA Houston, architects, design professionals, students, community stakeholders, and citizens worked together to generate project ideas for ten historically underserved neighborhoods. Volunteer teams worked closely with residcommunity-engagedmmunity engaged design process, and generated executable visions for these communities. Both participants and observers saw firsthand how designing for these underserved communities with a community community-engaged helps build a more resilient fabric and sustainable community legacy. The engagement process helps identify ways to invest in developing these communities and their current residents without promoting complete gentrification.
oComplete Communities focuses on capital projects and strategic programming that eliminate structural barriers and improve the quality of life for Houston’s most vulnerable populations. The most significant outcome for the major anchor projects is to correct historic underinvestment (i.e., redlining) that remains evident in Complete Communities neighborhoods to this day. The projects will serve as a catalyst to attract new development and expand resources throughout the area. These workshops included community residents from Houston's Complete Communities, individuals with development interests in the communities, and design, planning, and development professionals. It is valuable to have many different stakeholders in one room to provide input and create the opportunity to listen to each other.
oMany would agree that our country faced a dual pandemic in 2020. One was health-related, and the other resulted in a call for social change. Many design professionals were left seeking ways to be more equitable in their design practices and wanted to put their talents to good use immediately.
oMany of our colleagues want to participate in the community-engaged design but do not have the tools or training. Others may believe they have the time or that it does not apply to their everyday work structure. Our session will show how to engage with the community at whatever level they choose and how the process can lead to impactful design solutions.
oThe Houston Land Bank is reviewing and implementing the recommendations from the charrette series on property owned and incorporating the community input in the implementation process. The Land Bank is hosting adaptive reuse visioning sessions to illustrate the location of proposed site structures and site features as per the desired reuse scenarios. Practitioners will be better able to respond to the needs of their low-income and middle neighborhoods if standard program tools are carefully designed to reflect lessons learned from recent efforts in Houston. Neighborhood-level strategies are critical to building an equitable future, particularly since the pandemic. The session will provide planners and their partners with practical guidance to strategically engage neighborhoods that can most benefit from their expertise.