Design:SD Heads to Deuel County this Week

The folks in Deuel County can expect a little extra excitement this week. A group of 18 architects, landscape architects, engineers, planners, and community development professionals will spend three days in Deuel at the end of this week (March 26-28) for Design: South Dakota.

Design: South Dakota, now in its third year, is a is a new way to help rural communities across South Dakota create a better future by design, where architects, engineers, planners and community developers volunteer to help South Dakota’s small towns gather and illustrate ideas for their future.

The 3-plus day design:SD event, called a “charrette,” is described by project leaders as a “mixing bowl” of local knowledge, ideas and visions for the future, with the expertise and experience of professionals from outside the community.

The Deuel County community has been preparing for the event since the fall of 2008, when they were selected as the next Design: SD community. Recently, Deuel Area Development (a local non-profit development corporation) has hosted a series of roundtable discussions leading up the charrette. The topics have included: agriculture, main street business, healthcare, recreation, young families, and uses for the former school for the blind property. The information harvested from these conversations was sent to Design team members to help them prepare and understand the community a bit before the three day event.

“The design charrette is the shortest portion of the process, when you consider the work that must be done before and after the event,” said Joe Bartmann, co-leader of the d:SD, Project Deuel County. “The ideas that are illustrated have, in many ways, been long in the making for a community—and when the design team leaves it is up to the community to follow-through and make the ideas a reality.”

If you’re a Deuel County resident, or simply interested in learning more about Design:SD, you’re invited to several community events during the charrette. Events, times, and locations are listed below.

• Thursday, March 26th, 2:00 pm–Meet and Greet the Design Team–Alibi in Gary, SD
• Thursday, March 26th, 6:00 pm–Community Visioning Dinner–Clear Lake Community Center
• Friday, March 27th, 2:00 pm–Public Feedback Session–Clear Lake Community Center
• Saturday, March 28th, 10:00 am–Community Presentation–Clear Lake Community Center

Deueling

The site of d:SD community 3 is official: design:SD will be heading to Deuel County, SD next. We’ll plan a community design charrette in Fall 2008 or Spring 2009 (we’ll figure out the date soon).It will be tricky–our first crack at a regional approach (at least three communities at once: Gary, Clear Lake and Lake Cochran).

We had our annual summer barbecue for the d:SD team in the Beddow’s backyard on July 24 (and managed to somehow pull it off without Mrs. Beddow!) and then a meeting with a local group from Deuel County earlier this week. We’ve officially accepted the invitation from Deuel County. Now comes the hard work for both of us! We’ll keep you posted!

our agenda from the bbq--part work and part party!

Much Ado About Midstates

A handful of design:SD team members headed a little south yesterday to present at the Midstates Conference 2008 in South Sioux City, Nebraska. We shared with folks from communities in Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska how we put together the design:SD project and launched it in Corsica last spring. We co-presented with the Iowa Architectural Foundation’s Community Design Program.

Here are some shots of Joe and Eric presenting, along with our new Iowan friend Dale. Others from d:SD who attended were Sandy Dickenson, Tom Reasoner, Lindsey Karlson and Alan Weiskamp. Rey Gonzalez is one of the event organizers.

Here’s the powerpoint we showed yesterday. Thanks to Midstates organizers for letting us play!

Learning Studio

We’re here! The team arrived in Corsica last night for a welcome social (see the pictures below–these are “pre-bar” pics). Thanks to Corsica for a great welcome!

  

We’re well into the “Learning Studio” today. This morning we heard from a dozen or so local and regional organizations, a panel of local merchants, and a high school student. We’re just finishing up the “Rountable” discussions on six different topics, and are about to jump on the bus for a tour of hte community and region.

  

We’ll finish off the Learning Studio tonight with a Community Potluck, where we’ll gather the many dreams and visions for the Corsica region’s future.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Entering Phase 2: The Charrette

The design:SD process has three equally important stages:

1. Research, Education and Preparation
2. The Charrette Event
3. Implementation

Today we’re taking a deep dive into part 2 in Corsica. Tonight the team (now 13 people strong!) will gather at the Corsica Legion Hall with host families and local volunteers for some get-to-know-each-other time and an orientation to what lies ahead for them during this three-day journey. Tomorrow morning, the intensity level gets kicked up a few notches as we begin the “Learning Studio,” followed by the “Design Studio” on Friday and the Community Presentation on Saturday morning (click here to see the schedule).

The Charrette (today through Saturday)  is what we’ve been fussing about and anticipating for months, but it’s really just one part. Organizers and volunteers have poured big effort and countless time into getting Project Corsica ready to roll. We’ll also spend a lot of time on Stage 3 after the Design Team leaves on Saturday.

Updated Schedule

We’ve made a few minor adjustments to the Corsica charrette schedule for May 16-19. All of the changes are in the details of our Learning Studio on Thursday (Local Presentations, Community Stakeholder Roundtables and the Regional Tour). Check out the schedule by clicking the image below. We’ll also post more details on the Schedule page as they are nailed down.

Corsica Schedule

The design:SD planning team has tied up the loose ends on the schedule for May 16-19 in Corsica. You can see a color-coded schedule by clicking the picture below. Don’t forget the Official Kickoff event on April 24!

design South Dakota Corsica Schedule

design:SD Booth at Customer Appreciation Days

The Design South Dakota team introduced the project to many Corsica area residents at the Corsica Commercial Club’s Customer Appreciation Days last Saturday. The Commercial Club served pancakes and sausages for free to hundreds of Corsica locals, while Jim Beddow, Ward Whitwam and I talked design and charrette with the locals.

Big thanks go to our friends at the Willmar Design Center in Willmar, MN (especially Bev Daugherty) for allowing us to borrow their charrette boards to use in our display. Also thanks to TSP Architects in Sioux Falls for lending us the display background, to Bobbi Gaukel at one8ty creative for designing the logo and handouts on super short notice, and to Nathan Hinker and the Corsica Commercial Club for inviting us to participate (and giving us the idea for the booth)!

Ward Whitwam, AIA and a member of the design:SD planning team, ran into an old friend (or maybe adversary?) at the pancake feed. Ward designed the Corsica Elementary School 39 years ago. At that time, Sid Hoekstra, who still lives in Corsica, was the School Board Chair. Sid and Ward recalled the arguments they had almost 40 years ago over the price of the project.

Ward also visited with the folks in the Douglas County Hospital booth. He learned they will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of building the hospital later this year. As it turns out, Ward also designed that building half a century ago!

Thanks to the Corsica community for the warm welcome!

Joe Bartmann, The Rural Learning Center