FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (JULY 14, 2003)

KNIGHT PROGRAM 2003 CHARRETTE WILL FOCUS ON
CITY OF COATESVILLE, PA ON OCTOBER 21-27, 2003

Mid-career Fellows associated with University of Miami’s Knight Program in Community Building and UM School of Architecture faculty and graduate students in the Suburb and Town Design Program will travel to Coatesville, Pennsylvania on October 21-27, 2003 to conduct a charrette—an intensive public exercise in community design.

The charrette will focus on several aspects related to revitalization in Coatesville, a city of approximately 8,000 people located 40 minutes outside Philadelphia that was a booming steel industry city in the 1950s and 1960s but has experienced three decades of economic decline and urban decay due to events including dislocation of steel industry jobs and construction of a regional mall in a neighboring town. The goal of the charrette will be to suggest ways to revitalize some 80 acres of the core city while maintaining and reinforcing Coatesville’s unique character.

Coatesville is a city of contrasts: it is the poorest city in the Commonwealth but is located in the wealthiest county. In recent years, a new city administration has made substantial strides in tackling major problems driving people away from the city, including reducing high property tax rates and carrying out a successful “weed and seed” program to root out crime and establish a framework for reinvestment.

“Coatesville is a classic rust belt case of a small city almost wholly dependent on one heavy industry that has now contracted to less than one-tenth its former size, exerting a negative impact on virtually every dimension we speak of in creating and sustaining livable cities,” says Charles C. Bohl, director of the Knight Program. “There are many communities facing similar challengers and Coatesville can be a prism for cities in the region and around the country to envision a range of possibilities for rebuilding.”

Bohl notes that the Knight Program chose Coatesville as the charrette site for a variety of reasons. “We’re going to Coatesville because it’s ready to take the next step in rebuilding the community in a post-industrial age—although industry will still be part of Coatesville’s future. In fact, we think the legacy of the steel industry is not something to turn away from, but something to build on, perhaps more in terms of local heritage and culture.”

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 from the city and surrounding area. The Coatesville community will be invited to share opinions and ideas for the future development of the city.  Neighborhood residents, property owners, and other stakeholders will be invited to specific sessions, and all of the discussions will be open to the public. Ideas for new development and for improving existing neighborhoods will be drawn by the Knight Program team so participants can review and critique them, refining a community-driven vision for their neighborhoods.

Coatesville was selected as the charrette site through a competitive process. According to City Council President Stephon Hines, “This is great news! We have put forth a lot of effort to bring economic stability and focus on a new and revitalized downtown. Being selected by such a prestigious organization substantiates all the effort put forth.”

The charrette will be led by this year’s Knight Program Fellows—an interdisciplinary group of 13 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, environmental planning, and journalism. The design team will be comprised of graduate students enrolled in the Suburb and Town Design Program at the UM School of Architecture, including three Knight Program scholars, led by Jaime Correa, the program’s director. 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 Coatesville charrette will be the third charrette conducted by the Knight Program in Community Building; previous charrettes were held in Macon, Georgia and San Jose, California. For more information about Coatesville’s involvement in the charrette, contact E. Jean Krack at (610) 384-0300 x 3132. 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.