Mark Your Calendars! The 8th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference will be held January 22-24, 2009 at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Check the conference web site at http://www.NewPartners.org in the coming months to get more details on this important event!

The NCI Panel on ”Charrettes on a Budget” at KnowlwdgePlex.org  went very well last month.   Presentations and discussion by David Brain, Karen Minkel and Marcella Camblor were innovative and informative.  If you missed it, you can view it now. The link is in the Chat Archive section toward the bottom of the page (Charrettes on a Budget, July 17, 2008).
 

Portland, OR, October 25th
NCI is excited to announce a special event, following our October charrette trainings in Portland.  Long-time colleague, Seth Harry, AIA will teach a 1-day class on Drawing for Design and Communication.  Seth has many years of charrette experience and in addition to being an architect and urban designer, he is skilled at a range of drawing techniques and applications.
Drawing is an important tool for both design and communication.  This class looks at drawing in a charrette environment, as an integral part of the iterative “feedback loop process,” which is the defining attribute of any public-participatory charrette process.  Visit our website to see a full class description, see examples of Seth’s work, and to register.
 
We expect this unique class to fill up quickly.

New NCI Charrette System™ Certificate Training

• Olds, Alberta, September 24-26
• Chicago, IL, October 6-8
• Portland, OR, October 20-22

New NCI Charrette Management and Facilitation™ Certificate Training

• Portland, OR, October 23-24

For more information and to register.
 

We are excited to announce the new NCI Charrette System™ Certificate Training and NCI Charrette Management and Facilitation™ Certificate Training, now including:

• video footage that places you into key charrette moments
• new case studies illustrating applications ranging from sustainable planning to comprehensive and transportation planning
• new hands-on small group exercises that teach real world applications

NCI Charrette System™ Certificate Training
This new 3-day training is a fresh, new course that illustrates the capabilities of the NCI Charrette System for all aspects of community planning. Participants learn the practical Charrette System skills, tools, and techniques through new interactive, hands-on exercises, practiced on four case study types:

• sustainable community planning
• regional/comprehensive planning
• transportation/infrastructure planning
• transit oriented development planning

 
This training combines our previous “Introduction to Dynamic Planning” and “Continuing Dynamic Planning” trainings.
 
NCI Charrette Management and Facilitation™ Certificate Training
This new 1.5-day advanced training will equip charrette managers with the essential tools and techniques required to handle unique, fast paced, and constantly changing, multiple-day charrettes. Participants learn:

• the essentials of detailed, day-to-day charrette management
• the indispensable skills of public meeting planning and facilitation

 
Both trainings include new interactive, hands-on exercises based on recent charrette case studies. They are ideal for planners and designers specializing in sustainable development, transportation, public works, and transit as well as citizen advocacy.

NCI recently received this inquiry by email. We thought the answer would be useful for others visiting this website.

The answer depends on the scope of the charrette, however, budgets should always be considered early on. A major goal of the charrette and NCI Dynamic Planning is to reduce rework. This usually means that budgets are discussed at some level throughout the project. The question we always ask in regard to when to include any data, analysis, design and people, is do you risk substantial rework when they come too late? If so, then include them early and often.

The 8th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference will be held January 22-24, 2009 at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This conference has grown significantly since it began several years ago and is now considered to be the “premier” smart growth conference held each year. Check the conference website in the coming months to get more details on this important event!

In response to shrinking project budgets, more and more planning agencies are developing the in-house capacity to conduct charrettes. Director of Fayetteville Long Range Planning, Karen Minkel, has assembled a staff of planners and designers who possess the diverse talents from both planning and design disciplines necessary to run a community charrette. Last year, Karen participated in the NCI Charrette Planner® certificate trainings by using the Fayetteville Walker Park Neighborhood Master Plan project as a case study. At the training, Karen’s group analyzed the project and charted a NCI Dynamic Planning Roadmap for the project that included a charrette as the main public planning event. In September of last year, Karen’s staff conducted a weeklong charrette that involved over 200 neighborhood residents and business owners. The city council unanimously adopted the master plan in February. See the plan and vision document here. You can hear Karen tell the Walker Park charrette story by listening to the archive of the NCI KnowledgePlex Expert Chat on strategies for doing charrettes on tight budgets.

Vacation in the beautiful Northwest while earning your NCI Charrette Planner® and Complete Charrette Manager™ certificates. Take both courses July 14-18 then head for the beach or the mountains while the days are long and warm. Join the NCI group for a streetcar ride to the Portland Eco-Trust Building tour.

Please note that all public NCI trainings in the United States will qualify for AICP credit hours. To view currently approved activities, see the APA Calendar.

Portland, OR - July 14 -18 “Introduction to NCI Dynamic Planning,” “Continuing NCI Dynamic Planning” and “NCI Charrette Management”
NCI Charrette Planner® certificate program
NCI Complete Charrette Manager™ certificate program
For more information and to register, visit our registration page.

NCI offers a 10% discount on all public trainings in Portland to current members of the Congress for the New Urbanism and Oregon/Washington APA Chapters. Students, faculty and non-profit employees can attend “Introduction to NCI Dynamic Planning” at a reduced rate of $45 at trainings in Portland.

For more information on NCI’s certificate trainings, please visit our website.

The Town of Simsbury invites consultants to respond to an RFQ for a charrette process that will inform the development of a Form-Based Code to preserve the well-defined form, function and character of this community, established in 1670.

The RFQ states, “There is an emerging consensus within the community that a Dynamic Planning process — Research/Education/Preparation, the Charrette, and Implementation - offers Simsbury the best option to achieve its planning objectives.” Thus the Town of Simsbury is especially interested in receiving qualifications from consultants trained by NCI or familiar with NCI’s charrette process.

Visit this link to download a full PDF version of the RFQ.