overview | recipients

2002 Accent on Architecture Grant Recipients

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Allegheny Ridge Corporation, “Historic District Impact”

A series of forums designed to engage the public in dialogue concerning the future of newly designated National Register Districts, in which the forum participants reside and conduct business. The project will involve three major outreach initiatives:

Publication of a manual for each district describing the boundaries, contributing structures, Secretary of the Interior standards, and financial incentives for certified rehabilitations;
Community workshops to distribute the publications and highlight various aspects of special interest to the audience;
Community visioning sessions to engage public in establishing preservation planning goals for their neighborhoods.

AIA Memphis, “Integrating Design Education into K-12 Critical Thinking Learning Experience.”

Building on an existing initiative, AIA Memphis will conduct a meeting for teachers and architects to introduce them to design education. That workshop will be followed by a two-day workshop that models the program students will experience in their classrooms. The program will focus on how design education can be used as a tool for empowering students, for teaching them how to look at what exists, imagine practical ideas for making it different, and communicate their visions to others.

Chicago Architecture Foundation, “Architecture for Educators.”

A collection of over 90 lessons written for kindergarten through eighth grade teachers directly linking Chicago’s amazing architecture to classrooms throughout Chicagoland. As part of the launch, CAF will host workshops for teachers that will enable them to experience first-hand how to use the lessons to support and enhance their established lesson plans.

Community Design Center of Pittsburgh, “Renovation Information Network.”

This grant will take a successful program that provides homeowners planning renovations with resources – education materials, practical information and one-on-one consults with design professionals – that encourage high quality improvements and make it available to communities across the country.

Council of Community Services (Roanoke, VA), “Developing Urban Neighborhoods: Integrating Design and Sustainable Neighborhoods.”

A series of four meetings will encourage design professionals, city officials, citizens, and social and community service professionals to discuss the impact of design on sustainable neighborhoods. These meetings are intended to lessen public opposition to affordable housing developments by including all neighborhood constituencies in the design and decision-making process. The goal is to attract more attention to inner-city living and improve the ability to raise the quality of life in Roanoke’s urban neighborhoods.

Town of Fletcher, North Carolina, “Design of Fletcher Town Hall: By the People, For the People.”

Fletcher was incorporated in 1989 to preserve its sense of community in the face of sprawling urban areas. In 1998, Fletcher initiated a community-based visioning and strategic planning process to counter rapid growth. The result of that work is the creation of a traditional downtown and Town Hall that will integrate urban and rural space, respect the environment, and meet the needs of the people and businesses it serves. The Accent grant will assist with a design charrette.

Heritage Preservation, “Inside Outdoor Sculpture: Resource Guide and Teacher Workshops.”

Funding supports printing of 200 activity guides to accompany the hands-on teaching kit, Inside Outdoor Sculpture, and to offer four teacher/leader workshops nationwide in conjunction with the traveling exhibition, Preserving Memory: Americans and their Monuments.

Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation (Los Angeles), “Preserving Ethnic Historic Sites.”

A public seminar series by and for design professionals, government employees, and academics will precede the opening of a permanent interpretive center in the Little Tokyo Historic District. The goal is to study the questions involved in the preservation of architecture in historic ethnic neighborhoods including:

How to help the public understand the value of architecture in historical ethnic neighborhoods when it is not necessarily “ethnic”-looking and when its significance may not conform to canonical models;
The political and economic pressures threatening this architecture;
How professionals should conceptualize the ethnicity of architecture.

Town of Mooresville, North Carolina, “Cascade Community Design Workshop: A Reinvestment in a Neighborhood.”

The workshop will solicit community input on the design and development of affordable in-fill housing on six acres of property and result in a master plan.

Shaw EcoVillage Project (Washington, DC), “Safe Routes for Shaw.”

The goal is to develop and implement a series of bicycle safety and transportation planning proposals and educational workshops for the Shaw neighborhood in DC. EcoDesign Corps members will work with transportation planners, designers and the staff of the Washington Area Bicyclists Association. The results will be:

Increased awareness and understanding of youth about the role of safe transportation routes for pedestrians and bicyclists in the life of their neighborhood;
Improved bicycle and pedestrian mobility within the Shaw neighborhood through improved access services and design.

South Florida Chapter/Associated General Contractors of America, “Build Up! For Miami-Dade Fifth Graders.”

This program will take contractors and architects into fifth grade classrooms across the Miami-Dade County School System for a multi-week activity-based teaching tool. While providing activities in English, science and mathematics it also engages students in the world of architecture, design and construction.

Urban Design Center of Northeast Ohio (Cleveland), “Design Review Board Training Program.”

A series of short courses in urban design, historic preservation, site planning and building renovation for citizen members of the Design Review Boards that are responsible for reviewing development proposals in Business Redevelopment Districts and Historic Landmark Districts in the neighborhoods of Cleveland. The ultimate product is the increased capacity of Design Review Board members to make effective design judgments and to work with project sponsors to achieve higher quality design in neighborhood development. A Training Manual will also be developed that may serve as a model for other communities.

University of Wyoming, Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, “Fostering Community through Design of Public Space.”

A one-day workshop and follow-up comment field via an interactive website to examine options for the site selection and design of a community recreation center to be built in Laramie. The goal is to foster a sense of community through a streamlined, inexpensive, impartial and widely accessible process for community participation in the design of public spaces.

Youngstown State University, Public Service Institute, Center of Urban Studies, “The Power of our Downtowns 2002.”

This continuation of a project that has received Accent on Architecture funding will produce a brochure and website for upper elementary and middle school students in Mahoning and Trumbull Counties. These products will be used to educate students about architecture, historic preservation, urban sprawl and land use using examples from downtown Youngstown, Warren, Lowellville, Struthers, Girard, Niles, Leavittsburg, and Newton Falls.

CNA Insurance Companies and Victor O. Schinnerer & Company, Inc., sponsored the 2002 grants program. The CNA and Schinnerer professional liability insurance programs are commended by The American Institute of Architects and sponsored by the AIA Trust.