Everybody has one: A place you pass by every day that has potential to be something more. A barren patch of weeds along your bike route. A neighborhood in need of sidewalks. An abandoned building steeped in history and in need of new purpose. These are sites in our communities that fall somewhere on the spectrum of space, but that no longer achieve “place.” Last semester, Heidi Bulich, a MAPP lecturer and Director of the Construction Project Management and Real Estate Development Minors, challenged students to move the needle forward, leveraging skills learned in the classroom to re-envision a community space into something more useful, joyous and sustainable. The course, People, Planet and Profit: Building Sustainable Places (ARCH 271/RDEV 250), which is being offered again this fall, introduces students to key elements of sustainable development and the skills necessary to assess spaces holistically, combining them to create a community asset.
Originating in the 1960s, the concept of “placemaking” captures a community’s assets and identity to spur public spaces that promote people's health, happiness and well-being. Bulich uses the concept of placemaking to tie in the four disciplines housed at the School—architecture, urban and community planning, historic preservation and real estate development—examining how, together, they work to create socio-cultural, economic, environmental and design sustainability within the built environment. The course teaches students not just the concepts of creating great places—including funding, design and planning—but how to apply them with hands-on work in a real scenario. Throughout the course, Bulich introduces the components of creating a great place; students learn about tax policy, adaptive re-use, municipal finance, design, transportation and public-private partnerships. The meat of the course, however, revolves around an actual site that the students must develop a plan for a renewed, sustainable place. They are required to document their progress in their own blogs, create videos, conduct fieldwork and submit photographs and renderings to convey their visions. Speakers throughout each stage of the process—from planners and developers to community stakeholders—are rolled into the curriculum, encouraging students to think about how their idea might intersect with the site’s history and culture and how to address challenges they encounter along the way.
"This project has opened my eyes to the endless possibilities for sustainable redevelopment, and has allowed students to apply key elements learned in this course to create a great place,” says Lillia Damalouji, who took the course last spring. “The Sustainable Placemaking Challenge is a way for students to demonstrate their knowledge of the course while incorporating personal creativity and design into their site of choice. I think the most valuable aspect of completing this project is realizing the potential that anyone has to make a positive impact on this earth."
Because students were encouraged to find a location special to them, the project roster was eclectic. A “pocket park” added to a transit hub in College Park could increase walkability in the area. A beloved community site in Belcamp, Maryland, now a weedy dumping ground for trash, is resuscitated as a community garden. Abandoned New York City subway platforms were re-envisioned into public pools, art galleries and underground gardens that provide fresh produce for vulnerable populations. While the class is a case study by origin, Bulich found that many of her students wanted to see their visions become a reality.
“There was an overwhelming desire by many of my students to actually execute their project, that this class wasn’t the end of their story,” explained Bulich. “Many of them chose to work on projects in and around UMD. Their work was so thorough and thoughtful, I knew I needed to help open up the door to potential development.”
Grassroots networking conducted by Bulich over the summer was a good start and has created a foundation for growing the course into a community engagement opportunity. To help students envision how they could achieve their proposals, she added a new module this fall that introduces some of the practical considerations of fund raising, long term maintenance and viability, advocacy and community organizing. The hope is that, in semesters to come, the course will be a gateway for community outreach and grassroots revitalization. Bulich believes it also provides students with a sense of ownership in their community’s future.
This project is a small example of good citizenship,” explains Bulich. “I frequently tell my students that they have both a duty to serve and the potential to lead their communities—and this project allows them to experience the pride and satisfaction of doing this. I wanted to give them the confidence as well as the tools to help them get their projects done and, more importantly, to inspire them to tackle bigger projects in the future that will benefit their communities.”