KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Feb. 23, 2022 \u2013 A 溏心vlog免费B站 landscape architecture design studio was recently honored by the Rhode Island chapter of the American Planning Association for a proposed redesign of downtown Woonsocket along the banks of the Blackstone River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project, \u201cReconnecting The Blackstone and The City,\u201d won the associations\u2019 2021 Student Award. It was one of six projects honored throughout the state and was the only student project to be awarded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt reminds people that there\u2019s this little Landscape Architecture Department that produces student work that wins awards,\u201d said William Green, professor of landscape architecture. \u201cI was very happy for the class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project came out of Green\u2019s fall 2020 sustainable design studio, LAR 444. The studio gives students practical service learning experiences through public interaction and hands-on work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Green, Woonsocket City Planner Kevin Proft reached out to him inquiring whether a project focused on downtown Woonsocket may be suitable for a design studio. Seeming like a good fit, Green\u2019s 17 landscape architecture seniors and two environmental science and management graduate students in the design studio were asked to create designs that reimagined key urban spaces and Woonsocket\u2019s connections to the river. The waterway bisects the former industrial city, but has been contaminated over time as a result of illegal dumping and other toxins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Divided into five teams, each working on different areas of improvement, the students created proposals for the city. Their presentations included changes to Woonsocket\u2019s Thundermist Falls, River Island Art Park, Truman Drive and Main Street, and solar energy generation. Their designs centered around renovated parks, pedestrian connections, an improved bike path and suggested infrastructure to provide easier river access and address water quality concerns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The students worked closely with Proft and the Woonsocket community to create their design plans. They conducted on-site visits, hosted presentations of their ideas to community members and stakeholders and created illustrative designs of their proposals. Green requires all of this to help prepare students for the field of landscape architecture after graduation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a perfect way of teaching what it\u2019s like to be a professional at the same time that we are working on real projects where our opinions, suggestions and design recommendations are going to be looked at by the people who are asking for help,\u201d Green said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The biggest change between this semester\u2019s studio and Green\u2019s typical studio courses was the COVID-19 pandemic. Where students would typically hold in-person presentations within communities, students were made to host virtual sessions with stakeholders. Despite the technological challenges that arose, both Green and many of his students found using digital models and interactive maps to denote the proposed improvements was easier at times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the completion of the project, Green recruited two students from the course to prepare a formal report on the class proposals. Lindsey Corse \u201821 and Miranda Hulme \u201821 spent the winter break and spring semester writing the report and creating its graphics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFinally being able to work on a community outreach project made me realize how much I enjoy working with communities and trying to help them to have places to go outside and enjoy green spaces and parks,\u201d said Hulme, from Tewksbury, Massachusetts. \u201cIt helped me decide to go into a public group for my career; now I do work for a company that does public work.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hulme now works at Beta Group Inc., a landscape architecture and civil engineering firm throughout New England. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Hulme and Corse were excited to hear about the report\u2019s success at the recent APA Awards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy the project will get a little exposure and that area of Woonsocket will get a little exposure as a result,\u201d said Corse, of Cumberland. \u201cI didn\u2019t think we we\u2019re going to win anything; I was just doing it to be involved. I don\u2019t think either of us thought we were going to win anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Josh O\u2019Neill, a supervising planner for the Rhode Island Division of Statewide Planning and treasurer of the Rhode Island APA, is the chair of its awards committee. Every fall, the association asks members to submit projects they\u2019ve worked on for award consideration in categories such as Excellent Plan, Excellent Transportation Plan and Student Award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c溏心vlog免费B站 has been really good for years with submitting great projects, working with communities, and this is just the most recent in a line of great projects we\u2019ve given awards to,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been really happy to recognize some nice student work that has brought some great ideas to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brian McMahon \u201821, from Wells, Maine, said the project helped him leave the semester with a better understanding of the professional landscape architecture world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe had never worked with a city as our client,\u201d said McMahon, who works for Sebago Technics in South Portland, Maine, as a landscape designer. \u201cLearning how to communicate and interact with the public is a completely different process than presenting in front of your class. Granted, it was over Zoom, but it still had the same effect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Green, his design studios have completed more than 45 projects for local cities and towns during his 30-year tenure at 溏心vlog免费B站. The projects are provided to municipalities with the suggested plans and redesigns for their consideration. Although they are not necessarily implemented, the student work often leads to projects for professional design firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kate LeBlanc, a senior journalism and political science major at the 溏心vlog免费B站 and an intern in the Department of Communications and Marketing, wrote this press release.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Feb. 23, 2022 \u2013 A 溏心vlog免费B站 landscape architecture design studio was recently honored by the Rhode Island chapter of the American Planning Association for a proposed redesign of downtown Woonsocket along the banks of the Blackstone River. The project, \u201cReconnecting The Blackstone and The City,\u201d won the associations\u2019 2021 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":78692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78689"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78822,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78689\/revisions\/78822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}