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New Hope for Cities in Decline Lush outdoor landscapes brimming with foliage and green grass are not usually the images that come to mind when describing the neighborhoods surrounding Youngstown, Ohio. The city, once characterized by busy steel mills and billowing smokestacks, is now faced with the challenges of a decreased resident population, dilapidated homes and parcels of unused land. Youngstown’s decline didn’t occur overnight. Decades of factory downsizing and business relocation altered its landscape and the quality of life of its residents, much like what happened in numerous other U.S. cities suffering severe urban shrinkage since the 1950s. Unlike many cities with declining populations, however, Youngstown is unique in how its leaders have decided to address the problems. Their community-based planning initiative, Youngstown 2010, acknowledges that the area is unlikely to return to its peak population — down from 166,000 residents in 1960 to 82,000 today — and offers the opportunity to develop a new identity as a sustainable mid-sized city. That type of challenge fell right in line with the aims of the Shrinking Cities Institute launched in fall 2005 by the Urban Design Center (UDC) of Northeast Ohio, a program of Kent State’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design. The center was invited to propose a fresh outlook for a typical urban neighborhood, the Oak Hill area adjacent to downtown Youngstown. Oak Hill was chosen because 60 percent of the parcels of land in the area are vacant, a common problem for cities facing urban decline. Part of a consortium supported by the Ohio Board of Regents’ Urban University Program, the Urban Design Center offers architectural and urban design expertise in the service of urban communities, design professionals and the planning and public policy work of state universities in Akron, Cleveland and Youngstown. With support from the Cleveland Foundation and the George Gund Foundation, the Urban Design Center works to encourage ecological integrity, protect cultural resources and promote sustainable economic prosperity and well-designed, livable communities. In October 2005, students from the Urban Design Center visited the Oak Hill area to conduct a “charrette,” a three-day intense design exercise that engages neighborhood residents in discussions to generate ideas and develop consensus around a vision for the area. “I read about the Urban Design Center’s Shrinking Cities Institute in a planning publication, and we were at the ending point of our 2010 planning,” says Anthony Kobak, chief planner for Youngstown. “I thought a charrette would be a great opportunity to continue with it (the planning) in a more concentrated area. We could then merge the UDC’s Oak Hill vision with our own 2010 plan.” Oak Hill’s problems quickly became apparent to the Kent State students: Dispersed, open-land vacancies between homes that had no likely demand for development, with residents moving into homes only briefly and then leaving. The region also suffers from tax foreclosures and property abatements. In fact, some students found it difficult to comprehend why anyone would want to stay in the area, says Todd Hutchinson, ’83, B.S. in architecture ’05, March. ’06, who was a graduate student in the urban design program at that time. “But the residents were definitely committed not only to staying, but also to working to solve the problems. They really felt that with a little help from the government, city and county, they could make it better,” Hutchinson says. “They were not looking for a handout, only to be realistic in terms of how much they wanted for the vacant land.” “Oak Hill was an ideal location for the shrinking cities charrette,” says Terry Schwarz, senior planner at the Urban Design Center. “We knew that we had to create new nodes of activity in the neighborhood.” With guidance from Urban Design Center faculty and staff, as well as College of Architecture faculty, the 16 graduate students divided into four teams to meet with Oak Hill residents and develop designs that would make the most of the area’s existing conditions — from drainage and road conditions, to proximity to Mill Creek Park, natural topography and the stunning architecture of the older homes that offered wonderful views of downtown Youngstown — and, at the same time, convert it into region of greater sustainability. “The conversations ranged from innovative and ambitious ideas to very practical suggestions,” Schwarz says. “The residents presented a wealth of ideas, and their presence really helped. Having the community working directly with us made the process more fun; the experience was liberating for the students.” The community’s participation in the charettes gave the students valuable information about the history of the neighborhood, as well as a sense of its present problems and needs, says Marjiana Saljanoska, a second- year graduate student at the center. “Some of their suggestions for improving the quality of life in their community were really thoughtful and realistic, and many of them were taken into consideration during the design process,” she says. Community interaction helps the students gain “real-world grounding,” Schwarz explains. “In a classroom setting this would seem artificial, but in this case, students have to respond to issues that were out of their control, which helps them to create well-designed plans that also function well.” Hutchinson agrees that the experience allows students to understand better the actual communities in which they will be working at some point. “It’s one thing to design in the vacuum of an academic studio, but something far different in the real world,” he says. “This was an excellent way to compress an incredible amount of design and collaboration into an extremely short period of time.” After hours of lengthy discussions and planning, the students unveiled possible solutions and visions for the area. Ideas included demolishing deteriorated buildings and excess vegetation to make way for a community center, creating small parks for residents to enjoy the outdoors and installing wind turbines on select pieces of vacant property to help generate electricity and reduce energy costs for the residents. “The drawings the students presented were good looking and well thought-out. The ideas were realistic, yet innovative,” Kobak says. “The visions excited the community and restored hope in the future. It helped them to understand that things can be better than they are now.” A new, lush landscape in a thriving urban neighborhood may not be so hard to imagine in Youngstown after all. For more information about the center, visit the Urban Design Center Web site. Visit the center's Charette Web site to learn more about the project and view maps, drawings and photographs from the charette initiative. | ||||||||
