TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION OF URBAN PLANNERS

CLIENT / FUNDED BY: HABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF GREATER LOS ANGELES and

THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

Can anyone be their own urban planner and designer? We think yes. Over the course of five months, James Rojas of Place It! and John Kamp of Prairieform engaged the residents of the Washington Neighborhood of Long Beach in hands-on model-building, sensory-based neighborhood explorations, video-making, and advocacy training so that they could become their own planners and designers of their neighorhood. In the process, the residents mined and built their favorite childhood memories, honed their core values, and built models of the kinds of spaces and places the would like to see, spend time in, and inhabit within their neighborhood. They then learned how to become effective planning advocates for their ideas and visions. Finally, we all tested those ideas out in real time and space at Cedar and 14th Streets, where we prototyped a plaza with life-size objects. The residents are now equipped with the vision, design, and advocacy skills to make their dreams a reality. Watch the project video HERE.