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U-PLAN profiled in new report by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Click on the report at right to read

November/

December 2007

Architecture Minnesota

The Magazine of AIA Minnesota

By Heather Beal

Building Blocks

AIA Saint Paul orgainizes a series of block-specific design workshops to help Central Corridor property owners prepare for LRT.

Click here to read more.

Novemeber 15 2007

MinnPost

Community Voices

By Brian McMahon

www.minnpost.com/community_

voices/2007/11/15/102/mcluhan_

40_years_community_

efforts_prove_he_was_right

McLuhan + 40 years: Community efforts prove he was right

Last year over winter break, our two college-age children were catching up on news and gossip with their two younger siblings. All four were sprawled around the coffee table with open laptops exchanging music, articles, streaming videos and the like.

They were communicating through their computers, which have become a virtual extension of their bodies — a phenomenon predicted by media and technology guru Marshall McLuhan 40 years ago. "As much as the wheel is an extension of the foot, the computer is an extension of our nervous system, which exists by virtue of feedback or circuitry," he said at the time. McLuhan also said that "electronic information systems are live environments in the full organic sense. They alter our feelings and sensibilities."

As a communications major in the late '60s, I was familiar with McLuhan, who coined the terms "global village" and "the medium is the message." I saw the first presidential TV debate between Kennedy and Nixon and understood why those who saw the debate on the "cool medium" of TV gave Kennedy a considerable edge, compared with listeners of the "hot medium" of radio who gave Nixon the edge.

I experienced the awe and anxiety of Sputnik, an event that McLuhan said showed how technology figuratively and literally altered our natural environment. I saw how the nightly TV broadcasts of the Vietnam War changed the nation. Technology had brought about a new age — a transformation as significant, he said, as that brought about by Gutenberg's printing press. Humans were changed in the way they think, learn and communicate.

McLuhan déjà vu

I hadn't thought much about McLuhan since then, until a recent conversation with a young media artist, who described how activists were planning to cover the upcoming Republican convention by using citizen journalists to provide wall-to-wall video coverage that would be uploaded to the World Wide Web. It immediately brought back memories of the 1969 movie "Medium Cool," inspired by McLuhan, in which a theatrical story line filmed with "cinema verite" technique was woven through live coverage of the chaotic Democratic National Party Convention in Chicago. This brilliant movie effectively blurred the line between fact and fiction and between Hollywood and documentary.

We are in the midst of a new media/ technology revolution that has "flattened" the world, as Tom Friedman regularly reports. I work in the field of community development along University Avenue and have come to recognize the importance of capitalizing on technological innovations.

A year ago, we created U-PLAN, a community-based planning and design studio in St. Paul that uses such state-of-the-art techniques as GIS mapping, Google maps, "mash-ups" and SketchUp architectural graphics. We recently created a citizen-based global research effort to learn about light rail using the technique of "crowd-sourcing." Dozens of questions from our community on light rail are being sent out to tens of thousands of residents around the nation who live in cities with light rail. With the help of citizen sleuths from around the globe, we are "flattening" communications and lessening our dependence upon the filtered message of expert consultants.

If indeed the "medium is the message," what are the best ways to deliver and receive "the message"?

I recently heard that during his early campaigns, Paul Wellstone made audio cassettes in the Hmong language that were circulated from household to household. For an immigrant community that was historically grounded in the oral tradition, this made sense.

New tech tools help spread our message

At U-PLAN, we are now preparing to introduce video-conferencing technology that would enable the small Asian businesses along University Avenue to communicate directly with their counterparts in Seattle, which is completing construction of a light rail line. Peer-to-peer communications may work better than lengthy consultant reports.

We also are looking into the possibility of recording public meetings and broadcasting them into a micro-network tailored to the diverse communities along University Avenue. We need to reach out to people who cannot find the time to attend public meetings, and we need to figure out a way to engage the community in the process. The medium will vary depending upon the audience.

I had never seen a YouTube video until a few months back when I asked my daughter to show me how it worked. We had an incredible few hours together on a musical tour of the late Sixties — me with my memories and my daughter with her new technology exploring a whole new/old world.

This is the "total field" way of learning and communicating that McLuhan anticipated. I am enjoying discovering how the new technologies enhance so many things in my life, even as I confess I probably didn't understand or believe the predictions 40 years ago.

August 29 2007

Pioneer Press

Editorial

Information, imagination

Just how noisy will the proverbial squeaky wheel prove to be when it comes to a Central Corridor light-rail transit line?

That's just one of dozens of questions a St. Paul community planning center wants to help answer as planning gears up for light rail along University Avenue.

The people at the nine-month-old U-Plan center hope to gather useful information from U.S. cities with similar experiences on such seemingly mundane concerns as the level of noise produced when a light-rail train rounds a curve, as well as such bigger issues as safety features and station designs.

That is only one of the tasks undertaken by U-Plan, which bills itself as a community planning and design studio. We're impressed with what we've seen emanating from the modest University Avenue storefront. U-Plan offers the public a wide array of urban planning resources meant to level the playing field between ordinary citizens and professional planners.

The studio represents a partnership of community groups, led by the University United coalition, and the University of Minnesota and the St. Paul Design Center. Its focus is development policy along University Avenue and the impact of the Central Corridor light-rail line. And its operating notion is straightforward: Planning efforts should be done with the community, not for the community.

U-Plan, headed by Adam Maleitzke, argues that average citizens are at a disadvantage in fully participating because the community planning process is fragmented among many government jurisdictions, geographic areas and consultants.

"On one side are consultants and technical experts with years of research and experience, armed with authoritative reports," the center says in a proposal to establish a national information network. "On the other side are ordinary citizens who have never built a light-rail line - and probably never even ridden one."

The challenge, U-Plan says, is "to bring more balance to the process, which can best be achieved by empowering the community with its own planning and presentation expertise."

That's what the center has been doing one person or group at a time, holding several design sessions and community discussions. The efforts have produced several "a-ha moments," according to Maleitzke and Brian McMahon, head of University United.

Maleitzke, for example, has been impressed with the openness of the business community to the planning efforts and its willingness to explore options. He also quickly came to the realization "of how much we don't know" about key questions affecting light rail and the avenue's redevelopment. That, in turn, led to the push for more information from around the nation. The center hopes to use "crowd-sourcing" techniques to collect data from many residents in 20 cities that already have experience with light rail.

McMahon's "a-ha moment," he says, came in "not sufficiently imagining how much a facility like this would be used" by the community.

But in recent months, he's seen neighborhood groups, individual property owners, students and the general public stream in to talk with staff, brainstorm ideas and try out some of the high-tech urban design programs, such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping, AutoCad and SketchUp architectural graphics programs, Google Earth images and PhotoShop.

The center helps the public do its own research, which then lets people raise good questions at public input sessions, McMahon says.

Maleitzke notes that "it's amazing what can happen when you give people a place to talk ... We provide the technical tools, and they've led to some transformative moments. Even some individuals who were originally opposed to light rail have come around when they saw firsthand some of the possibilities." Land owners, too, got new perspectives on what the future could hold for the avenue, he says.

We like the idea that the center's planning efforts are consistent with letting the marketplace work.

We've seen firsthand some of the computer marvels the U-Plan design system can generate, and they can't help but build public enthusiasm and engage the public with all sorts of mind-stretching scenarios. The challenge, of course, will be making wise choices that support the neighborhood while letting the marketplace work.

The center offers information that feeds not only that decision-making but also the imagination. It is unequivocally useful.

For more information on the U-Plan community planning studio and its programs, visit www.u-plan.org or call 651-641-0293.

April 5 2007

Special to Finance

and Commerce

By Todd Messelt

AIA sesquicentennial is a volunteer affair

Local chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) will celebrate the group’s 150th year with a series of activities designed to improve Twin Cities neighborhoods.

The pro bono work will be carried out by hundreds of volunteer architects representing AIA chapters from Minneapolis, St. Paul and greater Minnesota.

Their work will be made available to governmental planning departments and community groups. A major focus of the effort will be AIA’s “10 Principles for Livable Communities,” which promotes healthy neighborhoods and thriving urban environments through design.

“The primary thing that all of these charettes will include is a community workshop,” said AIA member Vicki Hooper, who is an architect at Hammel, Green and Abrahamson Inc. in Minneapolis.

“The purpose is to educate communities on the 10 Principles for Livable Communities and to give them the tools to help them envision their own community and help them move forward [with redevelopment initiatives].”

In Minneapolis, volunteer architects, developers, urban designers and landscape architects will work with residents and community groups this spring and summer in “visioning workshops” for five areas of Minneapolis: Nicollet Avenue and 18th Street; 46th Street South and 46th Avenue East; 40th Street and Lyndale Avenue South; Central Avenue Northeast and Lowry Avenue Northeast; and Penn Avenue North and Lowry Avenue North.

Another five neighborhoods will be selected for more workshops later this year.

In downtown Minneapolis, volunteer architects have already begun working with the mayor’s office and community groups on ways to revitalize the Washington Avenue corridor, focusing on public transit, mixed-use development, green spaces and walkable neighborhoods.

“There’s a lot of money being poured into this corridor with the new Guthrie Theater, Gold Medal Park, the new MacPhail Center for the Arts, the Central Library and now the connection with the new Twins stadium,” said the project’s leader, architect David Graham of ESG Architects Inc. “Not to mention that housing starts are just bubbling over with new residents that want to live in the city. And it’s a shame that Washington Avenue looks like it does in some areas.”

“The plan is to roll something out this spring,” Graham continued. “The mayor will present the larger vision to a group during an unveiling at the Central Library. But the real challenge will be the call to action — looking at funding sources and implementation.”

In St. Paul, AIA volunteers are planning block-by-block design workshops targeting the Central Corridor light-rail project along University Avenue.

Michael Huber, an AIA St. Paul member who is leading the Central Corridor workshops, said the work will refine a master plan commissioned by the city of St. Paul.

Architects will work with property and business owners on the challenges and opportunities of light-rail transit (LRT) on University Avenue, he said.

“The hope is that this will encourage a renaissance of University Avenue,” Huber said.

AIA St. Paul President Diane Trout-Oertel said, “We see our initiative as an opportunity to enlist support for LRT. There are property owners along University Avenue that are not too happy about the coming of LRT, so we intend to try and address that problem. We want to encourage property owners to not only to embrace LRT but make decisions that are consistent with supporting its success while benefiting the whole community.”

Beverly Hauschild-Baron, AIA Minnesota executive vice president, said all of the pro bono work is expected to continue beyond the group’s anniversary year.

“We’ll probably have hundreds if not thousands of volunteer hours into all of these efforts over the years,” Haushchild-Baron said. “When you think about the impact that has on the community and the professional time that will be spent, you can see we’re serious about giving back to the community as we celebrate our 150th year.”

February 6 2007

Midway Como

Monitor

By Jan Willms

U-Plan: 'New kid on the block' a community-based resource

There’s a new kid on the block at 1956 University Avenue.

About 20 years in the thinking stages, U-Plan Community Planning Studio opened its doors Dec. 6. The brainchild of Brian McMahon, executive director of University UNITED, the agency is designed to be a community based resource that facilitates planning and design efforts at the grassroots level.

“University UNITED is our umbrella organization, and Brian got grants specifically for this project,” said Julie Burman, one of the staffers at U-Plan.

She has a background in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping, and Betsy Jacobson, the other staff member, has a background in architecture.

“Mainly people come in and ask for specific information,” Burman said. “For example, the Lexington-Hamline District Council has merged from three into one. They wanted maps to help them identify the strengths and weaknesses of that proposal.”

She said the maps she did for them showed traffic counts, land use, estimated market values and median home income.

“It gives them an idea of what turning three neighborhoods into one entails,” she said.“Presenting visually on a map is much easier to understand than if you just give people numbers.”

Jacobson said another project that U-Plan has been working on involves the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

“In celebration of the group’s 150th anniversary, they offered grants to communities that would do a service learning project involving architecture,” she said. “Saint Paul was granted one for the University Corridor.”

She said the group is doing a block-by-block charrette. A charrette involves getting architects, students and architectural interns together for a day. They volunteer their time and meet with property owners. The owners present issues, and the architects try to come up with alternatives and make property more transit-oriented.

“We have done three charrettes so far,” Jacobson said. “We did a couple as trial runs this summer, and we have done one since we opened.”

She said some of the property owners have looked at alternatives for parking or facade improvement. They have also considered higher buildings that would increase land value and density, and bring more residents to University Avenue.

Burman said they had some early press before they opened, but business has primarily been word of mouth. The studio has computer work stations fully equipped with GIS mapping, AutoCAD and SketchUp architectural graphics. Google Earth, PhotoShop and other state-of-the-art visioning and design tools are available.

There is also a plotter, or wide-format color printer that will print maps as large as 42”x150’. “We encourage people to use Google Earth,” Burman said.“They can use it at home or their
offices, and then come back and ask us more questions.”

Jacobson said U-Plan is set up to do primarily three different
things.

“We are a mapping resource; we help form a sense of place, hosting charrettes and gathering background information; and we work with the AIA,” she said.

Jacobson said that U-Plan has contacted and worked with district councils in St. Paul and the Powderhorn neighborhood
in Minneapolis.

“We work with all the colleges in the area,” added Burman.“We work with organizations, businesses and individuals as well.” She said independent property owners can come in and learn more about the area before they buy property, or learn about improving the property they already have.

Burman said the studio’s meeting space is open for groups to use.

“We are planning on doing open houses a couple times a month for people to come in and see what we can do,” she said. She said that a funder had been in from the National Organization
of Funders and was quite impressed with the operation.

“We are headed in the right direction,” she added.

McMahon said he does see the U-Plan as a way for community
organizations to provide input in a meaningful way.“It is just a wonderful opportunity for me to be part of a group of very talented people,” he said.

McMahon cited Tim Griffith, who works with Saint Paul on the Mississippi Design Center, as one individual who has been very helpful in getting the U-Plan underway.

“His agency is a hybrid of public entities and nonprofits,” McMahon said. “He has played a proactive role in shaping development in downtown Saint Paul, and I have gotten him to spend some time on University Avenue the past few years. He has been an extraordinary resource and especially helpful in setting up the U-Plan.”

Burman said the operation is funded through foundation grants.

“We don’t turn down donations, but we haven’t seen many of those yet,” she said. She said the services of U-Plan are free of charge.

“We hope we can keep it that way for a long time.” Being the first of its kind, the U-Plan Community Planning Studio is setting standards for others.

Burman said Minneapolis is considering opening one, and they have heard from other places around the country about starting such an agency.

Jacobson said U-Plan was generated out of need.“There was no place for community organizations to come and get access,” she said.

“It gives district councils and their groups equal standing at the
table,” Burman said. “It gives them an education piece, and levels the playing field.”

The office has a metal wall, with maps and papers attached with magnets. In the back, a bright green wall provides a sense of brightness and energy. The wide format printer and computers dot the landscape.

Anyone interested in finding out more about U-Plan can call 651-641-0293 or visit the website at www.u-plan.org.

December 13 2006 January 9 2007

Villager

Volume 54, Number 20

By Frank Jossi

U-Plan gives the little guy a leg up in redeveloping University

University Avenue has been a hotbed of redevelopment in recent years, and in project after project, local residents and small-business people have found themselves in opposition to developers with elaborate plans to transform the landscape for well-heeled clients.

CVS Pharmacy, Aldi Market, TCF Bank, Target Corporation—from the perspective of those on either side of controversial developments, the list serves as a chronology of battles and a reminder of casualties sustained on both sides.

And with the Central Corridor light-rail transit line on the horizon, University Avenue and the neighborhoods north and south of it are likely to see more than their share of redevelopment

in the years ahead. Enter the U-Plan Community Planning Studio. With a $125,000 grant from the Minneapolis Foundation, the do-it-yourself development planning center opened on December 6 at 1956 University Ave. Sponsored by University United, U-Plan intends to give the little guys along the avenue the wherewithal to re imagine the landscape and examine various options for redeveloping it.

“District councils are often in a reactive mode when a developer says, ‘We want to build this at this site,’” said Linda Winsor, community organizer for the Hamline-Midway Coalition. What she likes about the UPlan studio is that it gives local residents and small-business people the kind of data once reserved for government officials and largescale developers. U-Plan offers access to the same mapping and architectural software the professionals use, including Photoshop, AutoCAD, GoogleEarth and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. The studio boasts three work stations, a staff of two and large-format printers capable of churning out regional, neighborhood and block maps. By overlaying neighborhood demographics, traffic patterns and other data on maps, neighborhood groups can gain a greater understanding of what can be done to improve a block or redesign an intersection, according to Winsor. “Now we’ll have plans and expertise for the same site at our fingertips,” she said. U-Plan is “a more positive way for us to improve the level of design and planning on University,” said Brian McMahon, executive director of University United. “The studio will empower the community, showing them how planning can be done at a sophisticated level and giving them the technical skills to do it themselves.” By encouraging local groups and property owners to imagine a denser, more pedestrian-oriented University Avenue, University United hopes to circumvent the controversies that could crop up as planning for the Central Corridor and any spinoff developments continues.

The U-Plan studio attracted several clients even before it opened. Among them was a University Avenue business owner and a group that was interested in creating a more attractive streetscape on Snelling and University avenues.

Prospective clients need to apply for U-Plan’s services. Initially, at least, preference will be given to those who are interested in the stretch of University between the State Capitol and the University of Minnesota.

A key component of U-Plan is the support of volunteers from the St. Paul chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Tim Griffin, president of the St. Paul chapter and head of the Design Center at the St. Paul Riverfront Corporation, has enlisted more than 50 AIA architects to help in planning between 10 and 20 blocks along University that have been identified by U-Plan organizers as having great potential. AIA teams, with the assistance of University of Minnesota architecture students, will begin working with U-Plan clients in March.

“We’re excited about it,” Griffin said. “We’re looking forward to working with community groups and property owners along the corridor.”

The volunteer effort has attracted many older and more experienced architects who are enthused about the potential of light- rail transit to “transform St. Paul and make it more urban,” Griffin said. The architects, he said, will provide business clients with a range of options, from what improvements to their buildings might entail to what a complete redevelopment might look like. They will suggest collaborations with

nearby property owners and offer suggestions for financing the construction.

“Architects typically don’t get involved this early in the process,” Griffin said. “And it’s good for businesses to start thinking about light rail and asking, ‘How do I take care of my investment with all the change that’s going to be happening?’”

Griffin is part of a five-person U-Plan management team that includes McMahon, Winsor, Jeff Matson of the university’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs and Nieeta Presley of the Aurora St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation.

According to Winsor, the U-Plan studio will allow district-planning councils to brush

up their neighborhood plans. It could also serve to inform developers of the parameters

of those plans and help them build neighborhood support for their projects, she said.

December 12 2006

Pioneer Press

By Laura Yuen

Land-use planning for the masses -- Design center allows public to try hard at shaping key corridor

On St. Paul's University Avenue, you can order Cambodian noodles, buy a secondhand mannequin and replace the muffler on your old Buick. And starting today, you can create your own streetscape.

A do-it-yourself urban design center offering equipment, software and technical expertise to the public will open today at 1956 W. University Ave.

The storefront office, called U-Plan Community Planning Studio, is a land-use wonk's dream, but it is already generating some grass-roots interest.

With big-box retailers sniffing around and a light-rail line on the horizon for University Avenue, supporters say it gives the little guy a new weapon in the ongoing battle to reshape the Central Corridor.

In the center's sparse storefront office, interested groups can equip themselves with GIS mapping software, design tools and mega-size printers designed to help them create their own development blueprints along the avenue.

For a district council or neighborhood group engaged in a development issue, those resources usually aren't easy to come by, said Kristen Kidder, executive director of the Thomas-Dale/District 7 Planning Council.

"At the neighborhood level, we're to some degree playing catch-up," said Kidder, who also is a member of the new center's management team. "We're not on the cutting edge. This provides us the ability to be a little closer to that cutting edge."

The scramble for every developable inch on University Avenue already has begun. Community activists and design enthusiasts already have lost key battles over recent bricks-and-mortar projects, including a CVS, Aldi discount grocery and Wal-Mart.

Opponents of those developments contend they discourage pedestrians and transit riders and have no place on the future home of light rail. Another big fight, at Interstate 94 and Snelling Avenue, could soon erupt over a proposed Home Depot and Best Buy.

To get the design center going, community planning group University United received $125,000 from the Minneapolis Foundation, which University United says will go toward its goal of operating the U-Plan studio for at least four days a week over the next two years. All services are free, at least in the initial stages.

Participants will be able to use the mapping software while analyzing area demographics, traffic counts, property values and other characteristics along the Central Corridor, said staffer Julia Burman, who has applied some of those tools through her work at the Northeast Community Development Corp. in Minneapolis. Seeing that kind of data plotted on a map allows folks to better grasp the bigger picture of their communities, Burman said.

District councils that use the center also might find it easier to visualize the kind of development they want to see, with the use of software that can create images of buildings of various heights and sizes in relation to the existing streetscape.

Some of the community councils have expressed interest in using the center as they rethink uses for the Unidale Mall site as well as an upcoming redevelopment project on North Snelling Avenue. Two private property owners also have signed up to use the studio, said University United's Brian McMahon.

McMahon has enlisted GIS support from students at Macalester College, the University of Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas.

Starting next spring, architects with the American Institute of Architects-Minnesota will share their expertise at the studio at workshops designed to envision new development along the avenue by individual blocks. Tim Griffin, of the St. Paul on the Mississippi Design Center, will oversee the program.

November 9 2006

Finance & Commerce

Feature Writer

By Bill Clements

Eye on Design

When it comes to transit-oriented development along University Avenue in St. Paul, Linda Winsor points to two projects that she considers objectionable — the SuperTarget at Hamline Avenue and the Aldi development at Lexington Parkway.

But neither project is the worst offender along the future route of the Central Corridor light-rail line, according to Winsor, a community organizer for the Hamline Midway Coalition.

She saves that criticism for the CVS Pharmacy on the northwest corner of Snelling and University avenues.

“If we had had more tools and more of an ability to get some plans together, we might have been able to do something better there,” Winsor said.

“It would have been good to be able to show [CVS] that having the standard one-story, suburban CVS format there would not only not serve our needs, but also wouldn’t serve the needs of CVS, either.”

Hamline Midway and other groups in the area have reason to hope that they can put up a better fight next time.

That’s because they will have the resources and expertise of a yet-unnamed community planning and design center that will open at 1956 University Ave. within the next few weeks.

The result of years of frustration and months of planning, the new center will focus on making sure the community’s voice gets heard in land-use and development discussions during planning for the $930 million light-rail line.

“[The design center] will help us with seeing the possibilities,” Winsor said. “So the next time we have some project breathing down our necks, we will have the tools to offer alternatives and changes to make [the project] fit better in the neighborhood.”

Winsor is one of five members of a “management team” that will oversee operations of the new architectural-based design and planning group, as well as select the projects it will take on.

Free services

The services the new group will offer — from GIS mapping to architectural design — will be free, according to Brian McMahon, executive director of University United and another member of the design center management team.

Among the first projects that the center will take on is a planned development on the 9.5-acre Metro Transit bus barn site at Snelling and Interstate 94.

St. Paul-based developer RK Midway, which operates the adjacent Midway Shopping Center, has been trying for years to develop a retail center at the location.

Right now, the center would be anchored by a Lowe’s and a Best Buy, though preliminary plans call for single-story, suburban-style stores fronted by surface parking that does not fit the transit-oriented development needs of the area, McMahon said.

“We will just not accept a single-story, suburban structure,” McMahon said.

“This is the line in the sand,” McMahon added. “We’ve lost a lot of these battles, and this one we don’t intend to lose.”

McMahon puts the annual operating budget for the design center at $125,000. The center received a grant of $125,000 over two years from the Minneapolis Foundation. And McMahon is hoping others come soon, including from national sources.

So far, it has cost $30,000 to outfit the storefront office with computer equipment and software. The management team has hired two people, both part-time right now: Julia Burman, an expert in GIS mapping, and Betsy Jacobson, an architectural graphics designer.

More staff and equipment will follow as the workload dictates, according to McMahon.

The University Avenue design center is patterned after the Saint Paul Riverfront Corp. and its design center, headed by architect Timothy Griffin, who is 2006 president of the St. Paul chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

“You need a good design plan, one that’s economically viable, and you need to be able to bring the engineering and city resources together,” Griffin said.

“The University Avenue design center is a technical resource that will take ideas and incrementally implement them by pulling the right people together.”

But that’s not all.

Beginning in March, the new design center will sponsor 10 to 20 workshops with individual blocks along the corridor that want to ensure proper development, Griffin said.

This “block-by-block” design effort is part of the AIA’s “Blueprint for America” program celebrating the organization’s 150th anniversary in 2007.

Each local affiliate of the AIA has to come up with a public service program for its community, Griffin said. The St. Paul chapter received a $15,000 grant from the AIA to put on the workshops.

“Next spring we’ll have volunteer architects come out and help the folks along the corridor figure out what LRT will do to their businesses or homes or neighborhoods,” Griffin said.

“Should I remodel my home or business when the street is torn up? Or is my property more valuable, making it the right time to sell? Most of the time, businesses or people don’t consult with architects to help answer questions like these.”

An open house from noon to 7 p.m. on Dec. 6 will celebrate the official opening of the design center, which should get a name in the next week.

Last Updated: 4.1.2008