Charrettes

Plan NH announces Design Charrette communities for 2010-2011

Plan New Hampshire is pleased to announce that six Granite State communities have been selected for a Plan NH Design Charrette: Belmont, Colebrook, Exeter, Groveton, Jaffrey, and Pittsfield.

A design charrette is a brainstorming session in which professionals from different disciplines within the building industry come together to address a design challenge – for Plan NH's charrette communities, usually around a town center or significant neighborhood. There might be a traffic issue, or a need for gathering space. Sometimes a town has an historic building it wants to tie in with the surroundings. Sometimes a town just needs a fresh look from neutral parties to figure out how to make the area more appealing, or more of a town center.

It is also an opportunity for the citizens of these communities to become engaged with other citizens, their town officials, and industry leaders and participate in the creation of a vision for their own town.

“Each of the 2010-2011 towns has a compelling story,” said Michael Castagna of Castagna Consulting Group and Chair of the Charrette program at Plan NH. “Each has a really good project that Plan can address in the limited time period that we have. Each has significant Smart Growth components, and opportunities for sustainable planning, design and development as well as room for citizen input and participation. For each, we will deliver a 35000-foot view that can be a roadmap for the town to use to make the vision a reality. And we will check in from time to time to see how they are doing.”

What is a design charrette?

A design charrette is a graphic equivalent of a brainstorming session in which professionals from different disciplines within the building industry come together to address a design challenge – for Plan NH's charrette communities, usually around a town center or significant neighborhood. There might be a traffic issue, or a need for gathering space. Sometimes a town has an historic building it wants to tie in with the surroundings. Sometimes a town just needs a fresh look from neutral parties to figure out how to make the area more appealing, or more of a town center.

It is also an opportunity for the citizens of these communities to become engaged with other citizens, their town officials, and industry leaders and participate in the creation of a vision for their own town.

The charrettes are conducted by volunteers from Plan NH membership and others appropriate to the project – architects, traffic engineers, landscape architects, real estate professionals, planners, contractors, and so forth. Listening sessions are held on a Friday afternoon and evening, and Saturday morning to early afternoon is spent brainstorming and making verbal ideas visual. A presentation to the town is held mid-afternoon, and eight to ten weeks later, a formal book is given for town use.

Plan NH has conducted over 40 design charrettes since the first one in 1996 in Belmont. These have included evaluating the re-use potential for a commercial building in Franklin, as well as preparation of plans to revitalize the villages and downtown centers of Bradford, Farmington, Weare, Ossipee, Hampton, Winchester, Franconia, Lee, and other small towns. See list at right for charrette towns.

This is Plan NH's signature program to carry out the mission of promoting “excellence in sustainable planning, design and development of the built environment”, while incorporating Smart Growth principles and Social Responsibility. Each year, invitations to submit an application are sent to each NH municipality, and towns are selected based on a variety of criteria – including, but not limited to, scope of project, preparedness/readiness of town, and level of commitment of town government and citizens alike

Why does PLAN NH do this?

PLAN NH believes that the quality of our built environment and the social capital people are willing to invest in helping to design that built environment contribute in a significant way to the quality of life in New Hampshire. Our goal is to assist communities with worthy projects that would not get started if there were significant expenses associated with deciding what to do, as well as to assist communities that have funding but require a clear and effective plan to begin the process. An important beginning point is to tap into a community's resources – people willing to become involved in helping to decide how to proceed with improving their community.

Selection criteria

Two key criteria are that the selected projects will benefit the public at large (as opposed to only an individual, private landowner), and that the projects are of a scale that the design team can make some useful contribution to in a weekend visit.

Examples of projects that would be considered:

• A redevelopment plan for a small downtown center,
• A plan for mixed-use development in a rural village,
• Development of a cohesive town village,
• Adaptive re-use potential (not architectural or physical) of a publicly-owned building in relation to its environment (ie neighborhood)

Or another design issue that a community is struggling to resolve.

Examples of projects that likely would not be considered:

• A complete master plan
• A redevelopment plan for a large urban downtown area A recreation plan for an entire community

Please note that each applicant is required
to have recommendations from
town or city government officials or boards
to ensure that the project is a serious one
that the entire town is behind.

How does PLAN NH select projects?

PLAN NH members evaluate each proposal on the degree to which it demonstrates that:

• The project is important to the community
• The project presents interesting design considerations
• The project is of an appropriate scale to be completed in weekend
• And most importantly, that the host community has a real interest in moving forward with resulting suggestions.

Costs involved

Plan NH members donate two days of professional design time to a community that has been awarded a Plan NH Design Charrette, and assist it by collaboratively working through potential solutions to a defined design project. The time commitments for each charrette equates to an average of 16 hours per person, for a team of 10-12 professionals. That's approximately $25,000-$30,000 (or more) of donated design time provided by PLAN NH to each community.

Plan NH requests a minimum contribution of $5000 to sustain the organization and to cover out of pocket expenses such as supplies for the design team and layout and printing of the final report. If a project is larger or more complicated and is made by a community with resources available to initiate the design effort, a larger contribution will be requested. PLAN NH will provide suggestions to the local community on finding sponsors so that this money does not have to come entirely out of the municipal general fund.

The only other municipal responsibilities relate to organization and support of the design effort. A large assembly area would be needed to do the work and to hold the public listening sessions. Some communities have found that a Friday night pot luck supper is a good way to stimulate public interest in the project. Lastly, the community has to appoint a steering committee or contact person to coordinate promotion and participation at the local level.

Do you think your town could benefit from this program?

Have you been looking at an area in your town – your downtown perhaps, or a particular intersection or neighborhood – and thinking that you'd really like to “do something with it” – make it more attractive, friendly to citizens and/or visitors, a place to be proud of? A place where people would love to live, work and play; a place that invites all to gather and connect with each other; a place that reflects the uniqueness of who you are as a community.

But you are thinking that you really don't know where to start, and you really don't have the funding to undertake the project.

First, take a look at the 2010 application form. It will give you more of an idea of what we are looking for and what we need from you.

And then please give us a call. We have found that some towns don't need a full charrette, but we can still give guidance. And while the big push for applications is in spring, we recognize that sometimes unexpected opportunities pop up. So do call us. That's what we are here for. We would be happy to meet with you to talk further.

info@plannh.org OR 603-452-PLAN (7526)