Community Design Center News                                                         September 2020

Wednesday, September 30 | Noon EDT | Zoom
"A Heart-centered Approach for Our Urban Future"
with Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman, THINK.urban


What is the city of the future in the face of a global pandemic and looming climate crisis? Can we co-create a vision for an ideal urban habitat? What role should womxn and BIPOC individuals play in crafting the equitable city? This talk will bring an anthropological and feminist lens to the discussion on the future city and advocates for one that is heart-centered, anti-racist, and revives a way of looking at our cities as habitats and ecosystems, rather than products or economic engines. Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman is a lecturer, researcher, and advocate for heart-centered cities through her firm THINK.urban.
Intern Reflection from Emily Ebersol

"After spending the last four months with the CDCR team as a Community Design + Planning Intern, I will be returning Ann Arbor to finish up the last year of my Master of Architecture at the University of Michigan. This summer, I had the pleasure of working alongside Monika, Mariam, and Maria on a wide variety of projects - most notably, the Charlotte Vision Plan. I came into this internship hoping to gain knowledge and experience in community-engaged design. The internship, especially through the Charlotte project, gave me the opportunity to sit in on community meetings, meet members of the neighborhood, and imagine new possibilities with the community instead of for them. This was an invaluable experience that has helped shape me into a more empathetic and intentional designer. Thank you CDCR for an amazing summer!"
Check this out:

Yale Mental Health Symposium Focuses on the Built Environment
Through September 24th | Virtual | Free

Already in progress, this year's J. Irwin Miller Symposium at the Yale School of Architecture is titled "Beyond the Visible: Space, Place, and Power in Mental Health." Throughout the month of September, the symposium has been virtually drawing together designers and practitioners with the goal of building collective capacity in improving access to mental health services and destigmatizing perceptions of mental health embedded in the built environment.

"Beyond the Visible" is exploring issues of mental health at three scales (the hospital, the home, and the city), gathering interdisciplinary experts to create a shared understanding of how we can intentionally design our built environments for better mental health outcomes.


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Photo Credit: Arian Horbovetz, The Urban Phoenix
The American Automobile and Racial Exclusivity

Arian Horbovetz writes, "How do you disenfranchise an entire group of people? Simple. Tell them they can only live in one place (which we as a country did), then incentivize everyone else (and thus American jobs) to move away from that place...and for the final touch, make it too expensive for the disenfranchised population to access good jobs, public resources, and any hope of upward mobility. The perfect purposeful recipe for racial, cultural, economic, and social isolation." Read the full blog post here.

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Photo Credit: NeedPix
A greenway is more than just a pretty park - it's a catalyst for change

"City greenways aren't just spaces of beauty in a sea of cement. These imaginative design projects are popping up in cities across the U.S. to drive economic growth, empower local businesses and connect communities, as municipal leaders rethink urban development." Read more of Todd Antoine's article here.
See what our friends are doing:
August 31-October 4 | Online

Design has the power to solve some of the biggest issues facing cities today. This year's AIA Film Challenge asks for submissions that tell a story about architects partnering with communities and civic leaders to design a healthy, sustainable, just world that improves peoples' lives. Read the official prompt, watch submissions, and cast your vote here.
Here's a video that spoke to us:


September 25 | 6:30PM | Online

AIA Rochester's Annual Design Excellence Awards will be broadcast online this year, free and accessible to everyone. The awards program recognizes the best of recent projects created by our local architects, and honors those projects that embody the utmost excellence in design. New this year is a People's Choice Award, currently open for voting ($1/vote with all proceeds going to Foodlink).
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Thurs. September 24 | 4:30PM-6:30PM Pick-up | Anywhere you choose!

Grab a bag of delicious picnic fare and head to a local nature preserve/park, the Genesee River, your backyard/porch, or even your living room! Your pre-ordered Roots Catering meal will feature produce grown on Genesee Land Trust protected farms. Place an order for a four-course picnic dinner for two by September 20, pick it up on September 24, and set-up your personal picnic wherever you'd like! Special gift to the first 125 orders and add-ons available. Learn more and place your order here.

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September 18-27 |Various times & locations

The cycling season in Rochester continues with Bike Week 2020, spanning two consecutive weekends and offering cycling events for all ages and all levels of expertise. The purpose is to celebrate biking in Rochester and expand the use of bikes as practical, daily transportation. Bike Week is put together by Reconnect Rochester and its cycling arm, the Rochester Cycling Alliance, but is truly a grassroots effort in that each event is organized individually. Click here for the full event description and list of happenings.