Watermark: Restoring the Presence of Giddings Brook in Cleveland’s Hough Neighborhood
Hundreds of reflective utility flags marked the path of Giddings Brook in the Hough neighborhood. The brook has been buried in a culvert for over 100 years.
The CUDC, with partners Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, artist Mimi Kato, and archaeologist Dr. Roy Larik, organized a series of community events as part of the Watermark project. The project evoked the memory of the Giddings Brook, a waterway buried and culverted in the early 20th century.
Marking the path of the Giddings Brook with landscape paint.
Discovering and learning about Giddings Brook.
Watermark extended across vacant lots along the path of Giddings Brook.
At one Watermark event, Dee Jay Doc and Fresh Camp provided hip-hop entertainment, improvising lyrics about the history of the Giddings Brook, problems concerning lead in their neighborhoods, and other stories. Food, a rain barrel give-away, and an installation of the Watermark beach and pool also brought people out to the site.
Splash pool brings water back to the neighborhood on a hot summer day.
Giddings Brook is one of several waterways buried as the city developed in the early 20th century. The Brook holds history as a recreation, entertainment, and restorative place of gathering. Luna Park, a theme park, a Fresh Air Camp, and multiple healthcare facilities were located along the path of Giddings Brook before its ultimate burial. Watermark seeks to ask how else we might consider the use of existing waterways today, as well as those now buried in so many neighborhoods throughout the city. Watermark was made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Ben Herring Lecture | September 22
Lecture: "Source Material: Identities in Architecture"Ben HerringFriday, September 22nd12(noon) - 1pmCUDC, 1309 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200Free and open to the publicRSVP on the Facebook event page.Join us at the CUDC this Friday, September 22nd for a talk by Ben Herring, project manager at redhouse studio architecture. His interactive presentation will explore meaning through materiality in architecture. The applications of architectures are no longer simple, nor simply for providing shelter. The uses of architecture include identities as concrete as defining the face of business (Facebook Headquarters, Gehry Partners), as personal as defining home (Incremental Housing Complex Quinta Monroy, Elemental), and as controversial as redefining our memory (Vietnam Memorial, Maya Lin). These projects are young. However, architecture is prehistoric. In turn, many well established views on the state of the art of architecture have been declared and deconstructed throughout architectural history.The aim of this presentation will be to review an abbreviated collection of these influences on architectural history. This survey of trademark architectural definitions, agendas, and identities will then be used to provide a groundwork for discourse on how we approach architecture today.
Clifford Benjamin Herring is a designer specializing in new materials and architectures for public good. Ben was administered various honors at Ball State University where he received degrees in Architecture and Economics. He has previously served as a board member for PBS and NPR member stations in Southern Indiana and is currently seated as the executive board treasurer for the Refresh Collective (the organization responsible for the Fresh Camp). Ben is a project manager at redhouse studio architecture where his work includes new material developments and various non-for-profit and commercial architectures. As a workshop director for the CUDC's Making Our Own Space (MOOS) program, Ben works with youth throughout Cleveland, Ohio to influence their neighborhoods through design and construction.Let us know you're coming. RSVP on the Facebook event page and please spread the word!View the CUDC's full 2017 Fall Lecture Series.
Jacinda Walker Lecture | September 15
Lecture: "Design Journeys: Strategies for Increasing Diversity in Design Disciplines"Jacinda WalkerFriday, September 15th12(noon)-1pmCUDC, 1309 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200Free and open to the publicJoin us at the CUDC this Friday at lunch for a talk by Jacinda Walker, the second event in our 2017 Fall Lecture Series. Jacinda Walker will discuss the objectives of her research work, “Design Journeys: Strategies for Increasing Diversity in Design Disciplines.” This solutions-based thesis presents fifteen strategic ideas to expose African-American and Latino youth to design-related careers. The interactive talk will reveal her research approach, illustrate the problems, share the design principles needed to close the diversity gap, and include the first groundbreaking updates on the Design Diversity Index project. Attendees will leave with a clear definition of this complex problem and a deeper appreciation of what is required from educators, parents, organizations, and designers of all disciplines to diversify our profession.
The Design Journey Map, created by Jacinda Walker, is a tool to guide progress towards increasing diversity in the design fields.Jacinda Walker is the founder of designExplorr, an organization that celebrates design learning by creating opportunities that expose African American and Latino youth to design. She also serves as Chair of AIGA’s Diversity & Inclusion Task Force. Walker has over 20 years of industry experience as a designer, entrepreneur, and instructor. Jacinda earned her BFA in graphic design from the University of Akron and an MFA in Design Research & Development with a minor in Nonprofit Studies from The Ohio State University. Her future goals include working with organizations to establish design education initiatives and to develop design programs for underrepresented youth.For more information about the upcoming talk, please contact the CUDC at (216) 357-3434 or cudc[at]kent.edu
Kent's CAED receives four applicants from ACE Mentor Program
For almost three years, the CUDC’s Kristen Zeiber has participated in the local Cleveland chapter of the ACE Mentor Program, representing Kent State University as a Board Member and member of the Scholarship Committee.ACE stands for Architecture, Construction, and Engineering. High school students at eight Cleveland-area schools (7 in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District plus one in Warrensville Heights School District) participate in this after-school program every two weeks with industry professionals, learning about the design and construction of the built environment around them. These industry mentors introduce students to the many career paths in the ACE industries and take them through a design project of their own to demystify the process.ACE chapters exist all over the country, but Cleveland’s chapter is one of the largest and is notable for its close relationship with CMSD and for providing significant scholarships for ACE students to go on to higher education. High school seniors in ACE apply for scholarships through a series of essays and letters of recommendations, and local companies and institutions (including Kent State, plus the Cleveland AIA chapter) support their continuing education through donations.
At the end of each school year, ACE holds a banquet to award scholarships and allow each team to present the year’s projects. On April 26, 2017, nine ACE teams presented their responses to the RFP, which called for new ideas for making healthy places. Each team had to come up with a design, figure out some preliminary materials and construction techniques, and even sketch out an overall budget, and then present to a panel of local practitioners.This year, ACE distributed a four-year total of over $118,000 in scholarships to 21 graduating seniors. Most excitingly for Kent State, though, was that the College of Architecture and Environmental Design had FOUR applicants from this year’s ACE class. We’ve had two CAED students from ACE for each of the past two years, but four is our highest number so far. This year’s recipients are:
- Anais Harris – Architectural Studies
- Michael Mascella – Architecture
- Cesar Sandate – Construction Management
- Isidro Villa – Architecture
Kent State has an agreement with ACE to match any scholarships for up to four incoming Architecture, Interior Design, and Construction Management students up to $1,500 / year each. In addition, Michael Mascella and Isidro Villa split the prestigious Cleveland Foundation Ward Scholarship, for students from the Cleveland area intending to study architecture. We’re looking forward to adding these energetic young students to our college and hopefully continuing to grow our involvement with ACE further in the future.Congratulations to our four CAED ACE students, and all the ACE scholarship recipients!For more information on the ACE Mentor Program, check out the national website or the Cleveland chapter Facebook page.
CUDC Wins 2017 EDRA Great Places Award for Making Our Own Space (MOOS)
Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative is honored to receive the 2017 Great Places Award in the Planning category from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA).The EDRA Great Places Awards recognize professional and scholarly excellence in environmental design and pay special attention to the relationship between physical form of the built environment and human activity or experience. The Great Places Planning Award specifically recognizes the CUDC’s Making Our Own Space (MOOS) initiative, a youth program focused on engaging and empowering middle and high school students with the skills to transform their neighborhood public spaces.
MOOS is led by CUDC staff in close partnership with a team of local and nationally-renowned designers. Focused on outdoor spaces owned by Cleveland Neighborhood Progress (CNP) and the City of Shaker Heights, Ohio, this initiative uses hands-on, on-site workshops to build physical and social infrastructure in collaboration with the surrounding community. Outdoor workshops organized by students addressed issues related to shared spaces, inclusive decision-making and helping to bring diversity to the design fields by involving youth from underrepresented groups. In response to the project, the City of Shaker Heights created a committee of staff, residents and councilpersons to increase leadership opportunities for middle and high school youth. The Shaker School District is exploring how to incorporate the MOOS placemaking workshop into its curriculum. The EDRA Award jury stated, “This is a great example of planning that involves youth in place making and community building.”
Started in 2015 by Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC), the program supports the CUDC's Design Diversity initiative by raising awareness in African American and Latino communities about the range of design careers available to youth. MOOS workshops expose students to design thinking and making, employing interdisciplinary approaches from architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, planning, and graphic design.Making Our Own Space is made possible through the generous support of the Saint Luke’s Foundation, The City of Shaker Heights, and the Cleveland Foundation's Minority Arts & Education Fund.Follow us at: wearemoos.orgInstagram: @wearemoos
Mapping the Design Journey
by Jacinda WalkerFounder, designExplorr.com
Design Journeys: Strategies for Increasing Diversity in Design Disciplines from Jacinda Walker on Vimeo.
The journey to a career can be met with great success or great struggle. When a traveler is prepared for the journey, they typically cover more distance and the experiences they encounter become quick stops along the way— moments of pause that, with rest and refueling, allow them to begin again. However, for a traveler who is less prepared to face the bumps, twists, and turns of the road, minor challenges become major roadblocks. Those minor challenges become permanent barricades that ultimately inhibit travel and one’s likelihood to continue on the path of success. Unfortunately, the latter path described here is all too common among young African American and Latino youth who seek a design-related career.This line of inquiry led me to visualize what the journey to becoming a designer looks like and analyze what tools are needed to obtain a design-related career. My research work entitled, Design Journeys: Strategies for Increasing Diversity in Design Disciplines (2016) explores diversity in design disciplines and presents fifteen strategic ideas to expose African American and Latino youth to design-related careers. This solutions-based thesis introduces a map charting a design career from grade school to a seasoned professional. The “Design Journey Map” contains four color-coded passages: foundations, proficiency, workforce, and influence. The passages overlap with career competency components to cultivate soft skills together with the hard skills youth learn along the journey to a design career.Figure 1: The Design Journey Map in fullThe Design Journey Map is a simple navigational tool that can be used as a framework to better inform students, parents, professionals and organizations which strategic ideas are needed and where to place them along the career path to increase diversity in design disciplines.This framework is important because it shows the journey to become a designer and provides four principles of a strategic solution for closing the diversity gap in the design industry. The principles address the complex problem of a lack of diversity in design by identifying characteristics of a strategic solution needed for helping to close the diversity gap in design. They are labeled as comprehensive, collaborative, local, and scholastic. These Design Principles help to ensure long-term success for programs and initiatives whose intent is to expose African American and Latino youth to design-related careers.
Figure 2: The four Design Principles for a strategic solutionThe process of closing the gap in design is especially complex due to underlying problems at both ends of the career path. Problems on one end of the career path relate to access and exposure, which impacts course offerings and instruction for African American and Latino youth in their local community schools. The problems on the other end relate to the opportunities provided to professionals of color, which are limited due to systemic prejudices, especially among those who monitor the distribution and application of funding for education. 
Figure 3: The Multiple Problems in DesignIn Designing for Diversity: Implications for Architectural Education in the Twenty-First Century (2002), Dr. Kathryn H. Anthony, Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, suggests that in order to guarantee long-lasting and continuous improvement, schools and organizations need to work strategically by developing more diversity-building initiatives. Developing diversity-building initiatives will improve industry experiences for novice African American and Latino designers, ensuring that they meet greater career success and create more opportunities along the pipeline. One such diversity-building initiative in northeast Ohio is Design Diversity.
Figure 4: Design Diversity logoDesign Diversity is an initiative launched in late 2013 by the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) and led in partnership with a multidisciplinary advisory committee. Through self-initiated projects and in collaboration with existing organizations, their goal is to foster learning, influence growth, and promote people of color in the design professions in Northeast Ohio. As a researcher, I am pleased to partner with the advisory committee by working in tandem to help bring their latest project to fruition.The Design Diversity Index is a tool for measuring progress toward achieving diversity goals. The index will collect, maintain and aggregate data on the number of African Americans and Latinos from design schools, programs, and professional organizations and integrate a range of disciplines that include architecture, landscape architecture, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, and urban design. The Design Index benefits students, parents, and organizations by providing access to aggregated state-based data from regional educational institutions and creates opportunities for reminding other stakeholders about the necessity to increase diversity in design disciplines.Addressing the lack of diversity in design is not a simple problem. The issue is that many are trying to solve a single problem when there are actually multiple problems on both ends of the journey. The challenge many African American and Latino youth face in the beginning of the journey is they simply do not know what to look for. In addition, parents of these creative youth also do not have adequate information to make informed decisions. Lastly, organizations can benefit by having such information centralized. This challenge continues to be recognized as a complex problem, but it still exists because there is a lack of access to the information available to solve it. Tools such as the Design Journey Map in conjunction with the Design Diversity Index are sorely needed to help stabilize the multiple problems along the journey. This initiative seeks to provide aggregated data to give students, parents, and organizations more information to make better decisions about design-related careers. To learn more about Design Diversity, future events and to receive the latest news on the Design Diversity Index log onto designdiversity.org.
About Jacinda WalkerJacinda Walker is the founder of designExplorr, an organization that celebrates design learning by creating opportunities to introduce youth to design and partners with professionals, parents, and teachers who are passionate about bringing diversity to the industry in a powerful way. With over 20 years as a designer, entrepreneur, and instructor, her work ranges from designing corporate communications to developing educational programs and event management. She earned both her A.A.B. and B.F.A. in graphic design from the University of Akron and a M.F.A in Design Research and Development with a minor in Nonprofit Studies from The Ohio State University. Her research explores diversity in design disciplines and presents strategies to expose underrepresented youth to design-related careers. Her future goals include working with organizations to establish design education initiatives and developing design programs for underrepresented youth.
