Design09 – The Heart of Roanoke

Since 1979, the City of Roanoke has not experienced a more effective effort to shape the future of Downtown Roanoke than the Design'79 Urban Design & Planning exercise conducted by legendary architects Charles Moore & Chad Floyd. The secret to their success was the utilization of local TV productions to capture and engage Roanoke citizens in the process. It also was a well designed process that recruited the active participation of local private architectural and engineering firms.

Today, we find ourselves on Facebook, Twitter and a multitude of other social media sites communicating more than we did when we were growing up in 1960's thru 1990's suburban homes not even knowing our neighbor's names. A ”virtual world” site called SecondLife by Linden Labs is being utilized governments and universities around the world to establish virtual conferences , exhibits, meetings and online classrooms. http://www.secondlife.com/

I am a home-grown local architect, who has practiced throughout VA, and in MD, DE, MI, MN, NC, and TX. I created a group page on FB that seeks to actively engage all current residents, with private and business interests, as well as the bountiful resource of Downtown Roanoke's users, merchants, and clientele, in an urban design experience. It is my belief that this experience will evolve into a dynamic continuing urban design process that will assure greater fiscal efficiency through sustainable improvements.

Urban design is a part of much more encompassing plan called a Comprehensive Plan in most communities. An interesting article and discussion of the subject is on Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_design the following was excerpted from that article:


Urban design considers:
Urban structure – How a place is put together and how its parts relate to each other
Urban typology, density and sustainability - spatial types and morphologies related to intensity of use, consumption of resources and production and maintenance of viable communities
Accessibility – Providing for ease, safety and choice when moving to and through places
Legibility and wayfinding – Helping people to find their way around and understand how a place works
Animation – Designing places to stimulate public activity
Function and fit – Shaping places to support their varied intended uses
Complementary mixed uses – Locating activities to allow constructive interaction between them
Character and meaning – Recognizing and valuing the differences between one place and another
Order and incident – Balancing consistency and variety in the urban environment in the interests of appreciating both
Continuity and change – Locating people in time and place, including respect for heritage and support for contemporary culture
Civil society – Making places where people are free to encounter each other as civic equals, an important component in building social capital


Through the use of currently common technology, I have created 3D models of “The Heart of Roanoke” to use in the study of the growth, influences and role changes in the history of the area.
After a cautious beginning four months ago, the Group now has attracted 325 members including many prominent residents of the city. The Facebook Roanoke Network currently has over 102,000 members registered. The city’s current total population is approx. 94,000!
Members of the Group are encouraged to submit photos of the downtown area to convey observations of the things we would like to protect and those things we would like to see changed. Other members comment on the photos, as well, providing opportunity for discussion and ideas.
Link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=77917629910
My professional experience has brought me to a place where I can provide a strong sense of connection to the specific area and community of interest and a long history of field study and education in design, planning, architecture and related public governance. In addition to utilizing “new-media” in this project, I am trying to engage the community deeply into the process that I, as an architect and an urban designer pursue on a day to day basis, including cataloguing and recording the activities.