Architecture
and Planning receives Congress for New Urbanism award
By Carolyn
Gonzales
 |
| Sketch
of award-winning planned development for Doña Ana
plaza. |
The Design
Planning Assistance Center (DPAC) within the University of New
Mexico School of Architecture and Planning will receive a Charter
Award from the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) for the Doña
Ana Plaza Plan, a project DPAC undertook with Moule and Polyzoides
Architects and Urbanists.
The award
is one of 15 for excellence in urban design chosen out of a
field of 169 nominees from around the world. The award will
be presented at the CNU conference July 21 in Washington D.C.
Chris Calott,
visiting associate professor and urban designer, led one of
the three teams at the design charrette. Calotts team
developed the basic development concept chosen for Doña
Ana Plaza. The design plan includes a small sitting plaza in
front of the old church, a community plaza with a larger, open
multi-purpose space, a cloister courtyard adjacent to the new
and old churches with a new portal fronting the parish hall.
Also included in the design plans are a small community library
and computer center opposite the old church and a heritage center
in a small new building. Two restored historic houses east of
the sitting plaza potentially to house a state Camino Real interpretive
center.
Led
by State Senator Mary Jane Garcia, the community of Doña
Ana collaborated closely on the development of the plan. The
concept envisions a plaza park where an asphalt parking lot
now stands in front of the old church and lays the groundwork
for the revitalization of this oldest settlement in southern
New Mexico, said Roger Schluntz, dean of the UNM School
of Architecture and Planning. He added that the project also
received funding from the UNM Center for Regional Studies.
The
New Mexico Heritage Preservation Alliance, with funds from the
McCune Foundation for community-based preservation planning,
made possible the community visioning workshop and report that
initiated the process for the project, said Wilson, visiting
associate professor, architecture and planning. Wilson will
represent the school at the CNU conference.
Other UNM
architecture and planning faculty and students who contributed
to the project include: Wilson, Mark Childs and students in
the DPAC studio, Teresa Cordova and students in the Resource
Center for Raza Planning, Alf Simon and students in the landscape
architecture studio and Baker Morrow, adjunct associate professor
of landscape architecture.
Communications
and Journalism Professor Miguel Gandert and students Lynée
Busta and José Zelaya also contributed.
The international
jury was headed by San Francisco-based architect Daniel Solomon
and included the varying perspectives of Hans Stimmann, director
of urban planning for Berlin, Germany; Larry Beasley, co-director
of planning for Vancouver, British Columbia; professors Ellen
Dunham-Jones of Georgia Tech University, and Robert Fishman
of the University of Michigan; author Peter Katz; and Maryland-based
architect and urbanist John Torti.