The Knight Program at The University of Miami

MEMPHIS’S WINCHESTER PARK/INTOWN AREA FOCUS OF
KNIGHT PROGRAM’S 2006 CHARRETTE

MAY 24, 2006 -- The Knight Program in Community Building at the University of Miami School of Architecture has chosen Memphis as its charrette city for 2006. The charrette team—Knight Program Fellows, UM School of Architecture faculty, and graduate students in the Suburb and Town Design Program—will travel to Memphis July 16-22, 2006 to conduct the charrette.

The charrette, an intensive public design workshop, will focus on several aspects related to revitalization in the mile-square area historically known as the Winchester Park section and more recently known as Intown.

The UrbanArt Commission is the local host of the charrette and is responsible for bringing the charrette to Memphis based on the organization’s charrette proposal for Intown. This long overlooked neighborhood serves as a critical link between St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Le Bonheur Medical Center, and is strategically located to serve the residential and commercial needs of the growing Memphis Medical Center. The UrbanArt Commission solicited the support of the Memphis Medical Center to lobby for the charrette to occur in Memphis and to identify local sponsors.

“The civic and business organizations in Memphis have already shown strong support for the charrette,” says Charles C. Bohl, director of the Knight Program. “The Winchester Park area was once filled with proud, safe, and vibrant neighborhoods and I think local leaders and citizens all sense that the time is right for reversing the area’s decline. The charrette will build on the success of downtown redevelopment in other parts of the city, the city’s ongoing neighborhood planning initiatives, the strong civic and medical institutions and industry in the area, and the Dixie Homes HOPE VI project that will redefine the center of the study area. Our goal is to provide tools and expertise that will help local leaders and citizens address the urban revitalization challenges facing the neighborhood.”

During the charrette, the Knight Program team will study the neighborhood, solicit the input of citizens and stakeholders, and after gathering information will flesh out specific urban design strategies. The charrette will focus on a series of projects and urban design guidelines that can be implemented through a steady, incremental process of revitalization.

Additional local sponsors for the charrette are the Memphis Medical Center, St. Jude Children’s Research Hosptial Hospital, Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center, and the Memphis Community Development Partnership.

About Charrettes
A charrette is a community-wide design process in which members of the public are invited to meet with urban designers, planners, and other specialists and are encouraged to participate in workshop sessions and share their opinions and ideas for the future development and refinement of their community—it is essentially a combination of an urban design studio and a town meeting in which the full spectrum of community problems, opportunities, and future alternatives are studied and debated. The goal is to create a plan that is practical and achieves consensus.

During the charrette, the 30-member charrette team will work with business professionals, local officials, city staff, local organizations, clubs, groups, churches, and residents in a series of sessions that are open to the public. Ideas and drawings for new development and improving the existing neighborhood will be presented during the charrette for citizens to review and critique, refining a community-driven vision for the neighborhood.

About the Knight Program and the Charrette Team

The charrette will be led by this year’s Knight Program Fellows—an interdisciplinary group of 12 community development professionals from around the country who bring a range of expertise including community development, planning, housing, real estate development, arts management, transportation, architecture, and historic preservation. The design team will be comprised of graduate students enrolled in the Suburb and Town Design Program at the UM School of Architecture. Memphis-based Knight Fellow Rusty Bloodworth, of Boyle Investment Company, will play a major role in coordinating the event and serving as community liaison. The overall effort will be headed by Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture and principal in the firm Duany Plater-Zyberk, which has created plans for more than 200 communities worldwide. Plater-Zyberk is one of the founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, a reform movement based on the principles of traditional urbanism that advocates the planning and design of great urban neighborhoods that are walkable, diverse, and economically sustainable, with shopping, civic institutions, parks, and jobs within easy access of residents.

The Memphis charrette will be the fifth charrette conducted by the Knight Program in Community Building; previous charrettes were held in Duluth, MN, Macon, GA, San Jose, CA, and Coatesville, PA. For more information about the Knight Program in Community Building, go to www.arc.miami.edu/knight. The Knight Program is funded by a grant from the John L. and James S. Knight Foundation. The Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities.

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