News from the CUDC
(CUDC Quarterly 4:2 - Summer 2005)

New Degree Approved
At its April meeting, the Ohio Board of Regents Advisory Committee on Graduate Studies approved the establishment of a Master of Urban Design degree at Kent State University. This post-professional degree is a one-year program for students with a professional qualification in Architecture or another related discipline. The degree will also be available to students wishing to undertake the program on a part-time basis.

The MUD will be an important supplement to the existing Master of Architecture degree and the Certificate in Urban Design. Various schools around the country have established specific graduate programs in Urban Design, though they’re not always named MUD, but no such program exists elsewhere in Ohio.

The new degree broadens the scope of study and expertise of existing program offerings to the urban scale, focusing on the design of the public realm, values essential to the creation of quality in the built environment, the orchestration of policies and operational techniques, and the means of implementing solutions. It will allow a greater concentration in depth and promote advanced studies in urban design, particularly for mid-career professionals who want to add to their skill set.

The overall aim of the degree is to produce good urban designers able to meet complex and changing problems relating to the built environment.

Gifts Support Academic and Service Missions of the CUDC
Over the last few months we have received a number of significant gifts in support of the operation of the CUDC, the activities of Kent State’s academic program in urban design, and the public service and research activities of the Urban Design Center.

In December, the mail brought a welcome holiday bonus in the form of an unsolicited grant from the Raymond John Wean Foundation. This is the second year in a row that the Wean Foundation has included us on their list of year-end donation.

Soon after the Wean grant, we learned that the FirstEnergy Foundation had accepted Kent State’s application for a grant to support our operations. Their grant of $30,250 comes on top of the major support we received from FirstEnergy beginning in 1999 to move our programs to Cleveland and start expanding their scope and impact.

While we’re on the subject of gifts, we need to correct an error in the last issue of the Quarterly. We mistakenly listed the $25,000 gift in support of our charrette course as coming from Kent State alumnus Robert Mastriana alone. In fact, our acknowledgement should have identified both Mr. Mastriana and his brother Paul, as well as their firm, the 4M Company. Our apologies for the error.

Graduate Student Wins Major Competition in China
Dong Jia, who recently completed the combined M.Arch. and Certificate in Urban Design program at the CUDC, has won the competition for the new Nanshan Art Museum in Shenzen, China. Designed in collaboration with X-urban Consultants, Ltd., the project takes inspiration from the traditional Weilongwu, a building type in which a simple solid form encloses a sophisticated interior space.

The combination of traditional and modern forms in the building also allowed for a novel approach to the urban setting. The building’s circulation space is treated as a three-dimensional street that extends the city’s public space sequence.

Continued Support for the Northeast Ohio Planning History Project
The UDC is also pleased to acknowledge two recent grants that will support the ongoing work of the Northeast Ohio Planning History Project. Directed by UDC Senior Fellow Hunter Morrison with the assistance of professional librarian and editor Kate Reed, this project is dedicated to preserving and cataloguing historical planning and urban design documents from the region. A particular focus is a trove of large scale plans and maps – covering the entire history of the Cleveland Planning Commission – that were stored in Cleveland’s City Hall. The first of these plans have been conserved and have now entered the map collection of the Cleveland Public Library, where they will be permanently available to scholars and the public.

The Mather Foundation has given $5,000 to support this ongoing project, which was started with support from the George Gund and Cleveland foundations. The Planning History Project also recently received renewed support from the Northeast Ohio Research Consortium, an organization that seeks and disburses research funds on behalf of the region’s public universities.

Look for more on the Planning History Project and its achievements to date in the next issue of the Quarterly.

UDC is Ohio Planning Conference's New Executive Director
As of the beginning of February, the UDC began a new contract to provide administrative services to the Ohio Planning Conference, with senior planner Terry Schwarz serving as the organization’ executive director. Working with the OPC’s officers, trustees and committee members, the UDC now manages the OPC web site and produces its bi-monthly newsletter.

The UDC also provides database and fiscal management services and support for state and regional conferences. Terry is assisted in these tasks by Steve Rugare and Jeanne Martie.

The OPC is the nation’s oldest statewide organization of professional planners and citizens with an interest in planning and is a chapter of the American Planning Association. The UDC’s contract with OPC is the result of a decision by the OPC Board to take a different approach in selecting a new executive director by placing emphasis on finding an individual or organization with an understanding of community planning. This new relationship should create significant opportunities for more effective collaboration between OPC and the UDC. In particular we look forward to helping the Cleveland Section of OPC in hosting the 2005 Statewide Planning Conference, to be held Sept. 28-30 at the Cleveland Convention Center.

Alum Branches Out into the Non-Profit Sector
CUDC alum Jason Bing (‘02) is currently working for community based nonprofit Recycle Ann Arbor in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He serves as program coordinator for two of the organization’s programs: the Environmental House and the Washtenaw Green Building Coalition.

The Environmental House Energy and Green Building Resource Center is a comprehensive resource and demonstration facility dedicated to furthering the causes of green building, energy efficiency and renewable energy. The Environmental House is located inside the ReUse Center, a 20,000 square feet retail operation that accepts donations of reusable household goods, office supplies, building materials, etc. and resells to the general public at affordable prices - removing them from the wastestream. The Environmental House has been serving the community inside the ReUse Center since 1998.

The Washtenaw Green Building Coalition (WGBC) is an organization of local stakeholders committed to designing, financing, building, renovating and maintaining green buildings in the Washtenaw community. Its members include, but are not limited to: builders, contractors, architects, designers, engineers, home inspectors, energy specialists, environmental groups, housing groups, municipalities, trade organizations, educators, businesses, and residents. For more information, visit www.environmentalhouse.org and www.washtenawgbc.org.

The CUDC’s German Connection Grows
Our ongoing collaboration with Dresden University of Technology continued this past semester, as we hosted Birgit Wolter, an architect from Berlin and an instructor in the Institute for Spatial Design at Dresden. While in Cleveland, Birgit gave lectures on her research and on recent urban interventions in Berlin. She also found time to do some writing for the Cleveland web magazine Hotel Bruce. Her main activity for the semester, however, was co-teaching the first year graduate studio in urban design. She and Professor Maurizio Sabini supervised student work focusing on the underdeveloped space between Cleveland’s Warehouse District and Public Square.

We’ll feature Birgit’s reflections on her stay, in our next issue. By then we may also have a firmer idea of future collaborations, particularly around issues related to landscape urbanism.

After Finals Week, Steve Rugare of the UDC travelled to Dresden to speak on "Shrinking Cities and Landscape Urbanism" and begin arranging new exchanges of faculty and students.

Cleveland State Master Plan Wins ASLA Award
The UDC and our collaborating landscape architects at the Columbus-based firm MSI were recognized in April by the Ohio Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects for the master plan for Cleveland State University (featured in the Winter 2003 issue of the Quarterly). Bryan Evans of the UDC staff went to Columbus to accept the award, along with Rick Espe and others from MSI.