University-Community Design Partnerships

Book excerpt: A survey of community design centers highlighting ten national programs, such as the Rural Studio and Studio 804 at Kansas State. Includes recommendations for strengthening these initiatives. The work demonstrates that exemplary design is a significant component of effective community development. Since the late 1990s, the National Endowment for the Arts, under the direction of Mark Robbins, has been promoting design excellence through an ambitious series of symposia, best-case design studies, and prototype projects. The results of these programs are now documented in a new series of publications, each focusing on design in the public realm and the potential for innovative architecture, landscape architecture, and planning.