Build it and they will come. Communities across New Mexico struggle with decline in city centers and a need to reestablish their identities and forge plans for future development. Before it can be built, it must be envisioned and designed. Enter DPAC, the Design Planning Assistance Center, the community outreach arm of the UNM School of Architecture and Planning. DPAC has worked with scores of towns and villages in just such initiatives, in concert with New Mexico MainStreet.
This semester the DPAC studio – team taught by Phil Gallegos, DPAC director, Steve Borbas, adjunct professor, Jacobo Martinez, DPAC program specialist and Levi Romero, research scholar – are ambitiously pursuing projects in three communities.
In Deming and Lovington downtown revitalization is at the forefront of community conversations and classroom collaborations; and in Grants, they are designing a pavilion for the town’s annual Fire and Ice Bike Rally. They’ve got an eye focused on Grants’ Main Street, too.
The students are divided into groups. Each group visits its assigned community armed with maps and demographics, drawing paper and laptops. They hit the streets with cameras to look at buildings, peer in windows, observe traffic flow and scan alleyways.
Deming...
Deming isn’t just about its duck races, they heard. One of the many ideas the students received was for a farmers or growers market in the city center. “A market for farmers to sell watermelons and other produce that isn’t the right size for commercial sale would be a good idea,” one community member said.
The residents noted with pride the town’s 16 historic buildings and their potential as retail space.
At the end of their intensive two days, the students presented their ideas to a community gathering at the old train depot. The interstate needs to be a bigger draw, they said.
The students posted paper where Deming residents could fill in the blank: Deming Is____________. Deming is wine country, they said – St. Clair Winery is located four miles out of town. One thought was to have a tasting room in the city center. Students took identifying imagery that included windmills and sunshine and transformed them into alternative energy statements about Deming.
The students suggested enhancing downtown pedestrian experiences by providing vegetation, widening sidewalks, providing shade structures and adding benches.
Gallegos said, “The students were keenly aware that the meetings weren’t reflective of Deming.” Few Hispanics attended the session. Martinez and Romero, took a different approach to gather information about Deming.
“We took cultural context into account and used storytelling to elicit people’s sense of place in Deming,” Martinez said, adding that they held writing workshops with adults and youth. The students are doing the same thing in compiling and categorizing themes to see what emerges, he said.
Martinez and Romero’s work will enhance the charrette process, Gallegos said.
“The charrette is just a start at revealing what the real community story is. We believe in the power of the story’s ability to reflect complexity of place,” Martinez said.
Lovington...
The Lovington group had the benefit of a presentation of a downtown market analysis presented by Jeff Mitchell from UNM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research.
Through community meetings, students heard that Main Street is used as a gathering place for events. They saw the downtown’s defining beige brick buildings. “Many buildings sit vacant. In other buildings prime retail space is used for storage while other spaces are used for service industries – accounting or insurance offices – instead of for retail or commercial use,” Borbas said.
Residents reported a need for greater vitality downtown, replete with streetscapes, shopping, restaurants and cafes.
A visit to the local high school revealed a need for more youth-oriented places. Currently teens travel to Hobbs to bowl, skate and such.
As was suggested for Deming, the Lovington group proposed mixed use for the town’s historic buildings. Students explained that the upstairs can be used as living space while the ground floor can be used commercially. The students also saw development potential in vacant land off Main Street. Ideas about a gateway for the town were also floated.
Grants...
The Grants group is hustling to get their ideas off the ground. Grants received a $100,000 special appropriations grant from the governor’s office that must be spent by June 20.
The pavilion the UNM Design and Build team looks to design four shelters and have them built by late June. “We are essentially moving backwards in Grants. They already have the money and specific recommendations for building types. We’ll then work to develop a master plan,” Gallegos said.
New Mexico MainStreet urban design specialist Charlie Deans said, “The success of the Lovington charrette illustrates how effective the partnership between NM MainStreet and the UNM DPAC studio can be for our rural town centers. The synergy created between the 25-year success of the MainStreet four-point approach to downtown revitalization in NM, and the energy and talent of the DPAC studio students and faculty, really raised the awareness and aspirations of the Lovington community about the potential of their downtown, both as a great place to be, and as an economic engine for the town and region. Everyone came away with a higher level of expectation and hope for the future, and the students received a great experience in the importance of community involvement in creating their ideas and designs.”
Next Steps...
Lovington and Deming leaders and interested community members will come to Albuquerque, to the School of Architecture and Planning on April 10 to see further refinement and development of ideas. Ultimately, they will seek funding to make the ideas reality.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Posted by kwentworth at March 25, 2009 04:46 PM