Dudley's Young Architects and Planners Program
This second installment of the Studio G Architects Origin Story features the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) and Dudley’s Young Architects and Planners Program, which Gail helped lead.
DSNI was founded in 1984 “by Dudley residents seeking to reclaim a neighborhood that had been ravaged by disinvestment, arson fires and dumping,” according to its website. “When many had given up, DSNI organized neighbors to create a comprehensive plan and shared a vision for a new, vibrant urban village. To secure development without displacement, DSNI gained eminent domain authority, purchased vacant land, and protected affordability.”
Gus Newport, former Mayor of Berkeley, CA who had participated in “Our Lives Have Changed …” charrette, had become the Executive Director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI).
Gail had been following DSNI’s efforts to protect their neighborhood and redevelop it for the benefit of community members and prevent gentrification and displacement. Eminent domain in the hands of a community group was “an extraordinary, radical approach agreed to by the state and the City of Boston,” Gail said.
When Gail offered to volunteer half-time, Gus asked her to help lead a project to engage young people in planning a new neighborhood community center, inspired by his time as Mayor when he invited young people to design the new Berkeley City Hall.
The Dudley’s Young Architects and Planners Program attracted 75 youth ages 8 to 18 years old. Gail and DSNI staff member Andrea Nagle co-led the program for which Gail recruited other volunteer architects and planners. They separated the kids into three teams by age, each co-led by an architect and a planner. Gail and Andrea led the youngest team of 10 to 12 year olds.
For the three-month program, Gail repurposed the curriculum for an undergraduate introduction to architecture class at MIT for which she had been a teaching assistant while working toward her master’s degree in architecture.
“It was surprisingly easy to take a design curriculum meant for freshmen and sophomores at MIT and turn it into a curriculum I could use for 10- to 18-year-olds,” Gail said, “though the math skills were considerably less.”
Each team was tasked with planning and designing the West Cottage Street Community Center. In the process they interviewed parents, grandparents, and younger siblings and developed a space program for the community center. “We did an entire space programming exercise with these kids,” Gail said.
The youth did a variety of other exercises such as measuring and drawing each other’s bodies to understand human dimensions, then measuring space on the proposed site to understand dimensions of spaces. Some brought in floor plans and elevations of their vision of a community center. Others came with proposed rules like “no fighting” and “no gum-chewing” to protect youth and the building.
“Then we focused on helping each team build models,” Gail said, “because three-dimensional models are easier to think about space and people. Some built as a whole group, others in pairs.”
They presented their visions and ideas, first to their own team, then to DSNI adult committees, and to wrap up the project, at a major community meeting.
“The youth learned design problem-solving, consensus-building, and presentation skills. Perhaps most importantly, they learned the remarkable impact they can make on their neighborhood and the city,” Gail said. “This project was unique. At the time, we couldn’t find any comparable project in the US.”
The work done by the youth demonstrated that the community center desired by Dudley neighbors would not fit on either of the two proposed sites. While it took many more years, the visions articulated by Dudley’s Young Architects and Planners helped shape the Salvation Army Kroc Community Center on Dudley Street. The project influenced others to engage youth in design and was documented in a book which Gail and Andrea wrote and DSNI published. It was featured in a documentary by Leah Mahan and Mark Lipman called Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street.
Stay tuned for Part 3 of the origin story, where we will talk about Studio G Architects’ early projects and designing for the youngest and oldest community members.