Civic Design Center Annual report
July 1, 2021 - December 31, 2022
July 1, 2021 - December 31, 2022
During the 2021-2022 fiscal year, the Civic Design Center celebrated our 20th Anniversary. Reflecting on our past and adapting for the future have been two important themes during this special year. Our team spent months researching our history, gathering stories, and interviewing our founders to put together a mini-documentary about our origin story. Through that retrospective, it became clear that the Civic Design Center’s role today is just as important as it was the day we were founded.
The last few years have presented great challenges for the Design Center and the greater Nashville community, however, the team’s commitment has remained unwavering. In conjunction with our Origin Story, we launched our new Guiding Principles for Civic Design during our Annual Luncheon in 2021. The Principles were adapted from the 10 Principles of The Plan of Nashville, but now
2 CIVIC DESIGN CENTER ANNUAL REPORT 2021-2022
The Civic Design Center’s mission is to advocate for civic design visions and actionable change in communities to improve quality of life for all.
include 2 additional principles reflecting newer issues of housing and sustainability. Our bedrock in grassroots organizing, community engagement, and visioning has guided us to evolve. Each Principle was updated to reflect socially-conscious design and have goals rooted in equity. These community-driven planning and design ideals set an example for community development in Tennessee and beyond.
Something special that comes from both our Origin Story as well as our newly adapted Guiding Principles are the incredible discussions and partnerships that took place. Having worked with the Civic Design Center for 20 years and spoken to numerous cities that have wanted to replicate the successes we have here in Nashville, it is clear that we have a truly special partnership with our city’s government, from the Mayor’s Office and Metro Council Members to departments like Planning, the new Department of Transportation, and so many others. I believe that is a critical element of our success.
I’d like to outline some examples of this from the past year. Alongside Council Member Nancy Van Reece, we collected ideas from community members to help shape the future park at Madison Station Blvd. Our Nashville Youth
Design Team helped convince the Tennessee Department of Transportation to install an experimental crosswalk intervention at 2021’s deadliest intersection in Nashville. We hosted the first public launch of the Metro Planning’s Imagine East Bank Draft Vision Plan and released our ideas for how this vision could take shape informing a switch to include bike lanes on the main envisioned thoroughfare.
These examples don’t even begin to cover the advocacy work we have done and the visions we have created alongside community partners this year. Nashville’s growth has momentum, which means we must continue to be rooted in our Guiding Principles in order to live out the mission created over 20 years ago: to improve quality of
The Civic Design Center was founded by a collaborative effort of Nashville advocates working in design, journalism, and historic preservation. Mayor Bill Purcell committed to supporting the distinctly non-governmental concept of the Design Center.
20 years of grassroots visions and advocacy led us here.
Watch the Origin Story at civicdesigncenter.org/our-purpose/history
People
For Annual Luncheon 2021, we celebrated our 20th Anniversary. We hosted a virtual panel conversation with Christine Kreyling, Kim Hawkins, and Mayor Bill Purcell—who were each critical to our organization’s founding— and we launched our Origin Story Video. At the recpetion, we launched our Guiding Principles for Civic Design alongside our sponsors.
don’t know what to advocate for if they don’t know what’s possible and so we needed to help people understand what was possible.
—Kim Hawkins, Founder
1. 7.21 Clarksville Downtown Commons Park Tour
2. 8/21 Church Street Park Open House
3. 9/21 PARK(ing) Day Series: Small Business Parklet Activation
4. 11/21 20th Anniversity
Luncheon
5. 12/21 Activating Waterways
6. 1/22 Representation in Civic Design
7. 2/22 Foundation in Civic Design
8. 3/22 Preservation in Civic Design
9. 3/22 Book Club with Majora
10. 4/22 Expansion in Civic Design 9
11. 5/22 Spring Spectacular
12. 6/22 PechaKucha 41: A House of My Own
13. 8/22 East Bank: A
Vision for Nashville Neighborhoods
14. 9/22 PARK(ing) Day Series: Housing as a Public Right
15. 10/22 PechaKucha 42: Play Your Part
12
During the Spring Spectacular, local artists live-painted their interpretation of our Guiding Principles Pillars while attendees took the Community Insights survey, which asked them to share their Principle priorities.
CIVIC DESIGN CENTER ANNUAL REPORT
2021-2022
For the first time ever, it rained on PARK(ing) Day 2021! The community still showed up for public space on Anne Dallas Dudley Boulevard and 2nd Ave North, with MTSU taking the Best Overall Parklet Golden Cone.
Our team always enjoys hosting UT Knoxville’s Architecture design reviews. City leaders, local architects, and our own staff mentor the students on how to better incorporate civic design into their projects.
This year, we hosted 2 cohorts of Socially Conscious Design 101 in partnership with HASTINGS and AIA Middle Tennessee. Speakers included Joni Priest, Fabian Bedne, and Kelsey Oesmann.
PARK(ing) Day traditionally empowers participants to get creative about the use of public space in our streets, taking over metered parking spaces to highlight the sheer amount of land we set aside for cars over humans. This year, we decided to theme our participation in the global event, “Housing as a Public Right.” The story begins in November of 2021, when we unveiled our new Guiding Principles for Civic Design. The Principles have two new priorities: housing and sustainability.
It’s simple to understand—Nashville has a housing shortage, especially housing that is attainable and affordable for all.
We started planning the event by recruiting housing and homelessness experts to create prompts to inspire parklet builders. During the Skyline Social event that happens in July, potential parklet builders met with experts to choose their prompts that would guide their PARK(ing) Day installations.
21 Parklets
4,793 attendees
Board President, Tifinie Capehart, and Deputy Mayor Haywood tour the parklets, enjoying Dryden + JE Dunn’s parklet (right). Community members interact with the prompts at ASD|SKY and Smith Gee Studio’s parklets (below). ASD|SKY asked participants, “do you think houseless individuals below in our public spaces?”
“These are some of the most important conversations to be having in this century and I’d love to see more people treating the houseless community with love and respect; they are humans and deserve everything housed individuals deserve. Furthermore, when a person has nowhere to turn, they should at least feel welcomed and able to enjoy public spaces.”
—Suzanne Merlino, ASD|SKYOn September 16th, some parklet builders created full scale models of transitional housing structures, while others took an educational route, asking attendees to consider their own life experiences compared to data. From seesawing with strangers to playing games with shocking statistics, the activities brought lighthearted fun to a very serious topic.
EOA Architects partnered up with Moody Nolan and MCR Group to build a transitional housing structure that can be deployed in rain or shine.
The parklet won the Most Innovative Golden Cone Award and it was donated to Open Table Nashville to be used by houseless individuals.
Design Center has been a proud partner with Mars Petcare in the BETTER CITIES FOR PETS™ program since its inception in 2017. With the marked increase in pet ownership and findings supporting the power of pets to positively impact human physical and mental health, our efforts in making pets more considered and welcomed – in both public and private spaces – has become even more critical in a post-pandemic world.
As a primary impact partner in the Better Cities for Pets program, we help to anticipate and address planning, design and programming needs that support pets, pet owners and non-pet owners alike. Key annual efforts include thought, toolkit and activation leadership, assessment and
grants design and administration. In 2021-22 our work involved new learnings and initiatives that consider how pets become further integrated into homes/ housing, businesses, travel, hotels, workplaces, and public spaces.
Nationally, Civic Design Center led and administered the Better Cities for Pets Grants Program, a mini-grant program for cats, and a new Better Cities for Pets Airport Assessment and Certification. We were proud to help award Nashville International Airport with the first Better Cities for Pets Airport
Certification (image left) as well as five other cities by year’s end. Civic Design Center continued its work, engagement and support of over one hundred Better Cities for Pets certified cities and twentyone grant recipients. We provided design guidance and toolkit contributions to six areas of program work and led or supported ten local and national program activations—including public input initiatives.
As we look to 2023, we’re excited to further expand our work in Mars Petcare’s Better Cities for Pets program in helping to support cities and their two and four-legged community members locally, regionally, nationally and beyond.
After 2 decades of leading students visionary work, 2022 was the first Nashville Urban Design Studio without former Civic Design Center Design Director and UTK Professor T.K. Davis at the helm. A new partnership with Openworks designers, Will Rosenthal and Clay Adkisson was a big success hosted at the Civic Design Center office. Students analyzed 3 major pikes around Nashville: Gallatin Pike, Charlotte Pike, and Murfreesboro Pike. They evaluated circulation, nearby amenties and walkability of their sites.
Our Design Your Neighborhood youth education program for middle school students launched a BIG new project this year called the Sustainable Transportation Paint Challenge.
Supported by 3M and AllianceBernstein, students at Jere Baxter, J.T. Moore, Rose Park Magnet Middle, and Madison Middle Schools learned strategies to promote walking, biking, and taking the bus to campus safely. They finished the project by painting placemaking and tra c calming interventions on campus!
4 schools installed placemaking and traffic calming ground murals designed by youth
Continued partnership with WeGo Transit to put student artwork under the theme of “neighborhood identity” on 20 bus stop benches
Vanderbilt University released data that shows Design Your Neighborhood’s significant impact on youth
The Nashville Youth Design Team, our high school internship program, met in-person for their Summer Intensive at Belmont University in 2021 and 2022. Returning interns taught new interns about the connection between wellness and the built environment.
The interns split into committees to learn more about di erent issues, from transportation to a ordable housing. In 2021, the Community Resources Committee's project proposal for a Glow in the Dark Crosswalk on Dickerson Pike was chosen. It inspired a Tennessee Department of Transportation Complete Streets project for a 2-mile stretch on the pike to improve pedestrian safety. In 2022, a group focused on Youth-Oriented Spaces proposed a temporary mini soccer pitch in Antioch Park, which came to life as a major 1-day tournament for youth and teens!
Youth Wellness Map is completed with data from 193 youth respondents
For a full year, beginning in 2020, our staff evaluated each of the 10 Principles of The Plan of Nashville against the new Civic Design Center brand identity and our Socially Conscious Design Principles: promotes inclusivity, amplifies voices, identifies overlooked problems, increases awareness, builds support, creates equity, and raises quality of life for all. The Guiding Principles were then thoughtfully evaluated by a committee of Board Members and community stakeholders.
Instead of adapting each individual Principle from the 10 Principles to reflect the new brand, we worked to deepen the meaning of all the Principles and expand the audience. This showcases that while Nashville is where we make the most impact, the Civic Design Center is poised to be an inspiration for communities throughout the country.
In an ideal world, there are 4 pillars of community design—Representation, Foundation, Preservation, and Expansion—in that order. One pillar cannot exist without considering the others. In order for community design to reflect its residents, those members must be included in the process.
See the next page to learn more about the Guiding Principles and their pillars, or visit www.civicdesigncenter.org/guiding-principles
We finally launched the Guiding Principles during our Annual Luncheon in November 2021. From January through April of 2022, we hosted a Guiding Principle event series (photo above) that paired leaders from various industries to discuss the importance of each
Guiding Principle pillar within an ecosystem of design and planning ideals for which we should strive as a community.
The Guiding Principles for Civic Design are a representation that the Civic Design Center exists as a major collaborator with community members, a breadth of advocacy organizations, and municipalities.
Follow planning, design and development processes that are grounded in community involvement.
Tennessee is spearheading an initiative to create a community center that creates a welcoming and safe environment for LGBTQIA+ community members to belong and thrive. This includes connecting community members, aligning and creating relevant programming, addressing the existing gaps, and building resiliency among current LGBTQIA+ serving organizations.
The Civic Design Center was hired by Inclusion Tennessee to conduct further community engagement and data collection to inform the future community center’s design features. We hosted an engagement booth at Nashville PRIDE, design charrette at Thistle Farms as well as a virtual community feedback session. We collected community feedback on geographic locations for where people would like to see LGBTQIA+ resources in Middle Tennessee
What
and the results spanned 22 counties! This demonstrated that community centers are greatly needed in rural areas.
Feedback for priority community center design elements as well as desired resources and programming features. The top 3 components that community members want to see in the future Center are a health clinic, a nonprogrammed cafe or community area to make organic connections, and having a controlled access space so community members can truly feel safe inside the Center. Stay tuned as the project progresses into more design visioning as Inclusion Tennessee seeks funding to build the Center.
A solid, foundational place to foster the sharing of resources, acessing safe living, and building community growth and progress.
Integrate diverse expressions of public art into buildings and community spaces.
Our Design Studio worked with 2 schools to implement placemaking art projects on their campuses. These projects were both focused on representing community identity.
One of the schools, Robert Churchwell Magnet Middle School is located in the historically Black neighborhood of North Nashville. Project Manager, Angel Adams, and local Muralist, Woke3, partnered with us on the project to engage with the students, creating a vision for a placemaking mural that would represent their identities. Woke3 had a special connection to this project having attended Robert Churchwell in his youth.
The final mural incorporates a mountain of books with children’s names on them and young Black kids reading so the students might see themselves in the art. The main feature is a lighthouse, which is an homage to the phrase “education is a lighthouse.” Thanks to 3M for funding the youth engagement, traffic calming, and the final mural.
The other school was Aventura Community School, which is a public K-8 school in Southeast Nashville. It is the first duallanguage charter school, where most students are native Spanish speakers, and the youngest students spend 80% of their day speaking Spanish. They approached the Civic Design Center to create a more designated play area for group activities in the parking lot. Feedback from students and families was in both Spanish and English, and the final design included Mexican and Latin American symbolism including butterflies in the crosswalk.
The students helped plant colorful flowers in the planter boxes that would surround the play area, so they could watch them grow during the school year.
Celebrate streets as places that address neighborhood needs and facilitate community interactions.
In 2020, between E Trinity Lane and the I-65 entrance ramp on Dickerson Pike, there were 5 pedestrian deaths, and in 2021, that same area took the lives of another 2 pedestrians, totaling 7 people in just 2 years. While 1 death is too many, it may be an accident. When there are 7 deaths on the same 2 mile stretch of road, this is a design problem, and the problem is that Dickerson Pike is designed for fast moving cars.
To propose solutions to this design problem, the Design Studio partnered with Walk Bike Nashville to study pedestrian safety along Dickerson Pike between Trinity Lane and Ewing Drive. Made possible with a grant from the Tennessee Department of Health, we began with a community engagement process to understand where those who live and work along this segment of Dickerson Pike need to go, where they need to cross the street, and what barriers they currently face to feeling safe.
After hearing from Walk Bike Nashville’s Communications + Advocacy Director, Lindsey Ganson, the
Nashville Youth Design Team felt strongly that they wanted to get involved in this project. The Team designed a Glow in the Dark Crosswalk intervention at Dickerson Pike and Hart Lane.
While the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan is still being completed, the Nashville Youth Design Team’s intervention got a lot of press. Their crosswalk installation with painted pedestrian bulb-outs was the first and only time the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) has ever allowed a tactical urbanism installation on a state road, highlighting the youth’s ability to inspire them into action. TDOT also cited this intervention as the reason Dickerson Pike will now be receiving a $30 million dollar Complete Streets implementation on the same 2-mile stretch of study area.
Expand park and greenway systems to be comprehensive and interconnected.
Madison is a suburb within Metro Nashville that encompasses about 40,000 residents in a number of neighborhoods. The area is highly residential with a major road running through its center. A neighborhood center that is taking shape in the surrounding area of the Nashville Public Library Madison Branch, the Fifty Forward Community Center, and the up and coming Roots Barn. These are all spaces that gather people together, but the missing resource is a well-designed, activated park.
A number of visionary publications and proposals reference the possibility of a successful public space in this area, but the Design Studio officially kicked off community engagement alongside Metro Parks and Council Member Nancy Van Reece in August of 2021. In 4 public events and additional public tabling throughout the community, we reached 376 community members to help us
envision the future park that would further center the neighborhood around Madison Station Blvd.
77% of respondents prioritized public art that establishes the park’s identity. Safe access to the park, fitness opportunities for all ages, and
native plantings were also top priorities for the park’s future design. Programming ideas included pop-up events, basketball courts, dog amenities, splash pads and more.
In February of 2022, HDLA revealed conceptual designs of the future park based on the community ideas and our initial visions. The designs are meant to help advocate for funding the park to finally fill a park deficit for this growing suburban center.
AIA Middle Tennessee
Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC
CA South
DISTRICT Nashville
FABL
Greater Nashville Realtors
Greater Nashvilel Regional Council
Historic Germantown Neighborhood
I. C. Thomasson Associates, Inc.
Manuel Zeitlin Architects
Metro Parks Department
Metro Planning Department
Metro Water Services
Nashville Chamber of Commerce
Nashville Post
Nashville Department of Transportation
Nelson Mullins
NOMA Nashville
Pinnacle Financial Partners
Ragan Smith
Turner Construction
Walk Bike Nashville
WeGo Public Transit
Alliance Bernstein
American Constructors, Inc.
Anderson Design Studio
Bacon & Caviar Gourmet Catering
Barge Design Solutions, Inc.
Bell & Associates Construction
Catalyst Design Group
Chazen, A LaBella Company
Compass Development Marketing Group
Compass Partners LLC
Craig Philip & Marian Ott
Crain Construction
CSDG
Cyril Stewart LLC
DPR Construction
EOA Architects
Frothy Monkey
GHP Environmental + Architecture
H.G Hill Realty Company LLC
Hardaway Construction
Hoar Construction
Lee Company
MarketStreet Equities Co.
NES Power
Newbern Consulting Services, LLC
Pfeffer Torode Architecture
Pillars Development
Ross Bryan Associates, Inc.
Smith Gee Studio
Smith Seckman Reid, Inc.
Southeast Venture Design
Studio 8 Design :: Matt Taylor, Architect
Tifinie Capehart Consulting
Tuck-Hinton Architecture & Design
Van Pong Architect PLLC
July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023
Alliance Bernstein Design Your Neighborhood
Amazon Design Your Neighborhood
Brown Family Foundation Operations
The DISTRICT Nashville Project-based Funding
Greater Nashville Regional Council Transportation Projects Grant
Hastings Architecture
Socially Conscious Design 101
HCA Foundation Design Your Neighborhood
Historic Capitol Corridor Foundation
Project-based Funding
MARS Petcare Program-based Funding
Nashville Parks Foundation Project-based Grant
Tennessee Architectural Foundation Design Your Neighborhood
Tennessee Dept of Health via Walk Bike Nashville Project-based Funding
University of Tennessee Knoxville Project-based Funding
Vanderbilt University Project-based Funding
3M Project-based Funding
Jefferson Ockerman
Larry Papel ++
Tara Armistead
Linda Beall
Kelly Bonadies
Tifinie Capehart
Jennifer Carlat
Richard Courtney
Keith Covington
Rebecca Delaney
Mark + Sherry Deutschmann
Meg Epstein ++
Landon Ferrett
Tracey Ford
Gary Gaston
John Gee
Hunter Gee +
Hemalatha Gokhale +++
Nick Green
Kim Hawkins +++
Clay Haynes
Edward Henley III +
Michael Kenner
Eric Kopstain +++
Jody Lentz
Christian + Shandi Paro
Mandy Pellegrin
Craig Philip
David Powell ++
Christopher Rowe
Kim Shinn
Cyril Stewart +
Dana Terebessy
Alan Thompson
Manuel Zeitlin++
George Anderson
David Bailey
Menié Bell
Teresa Blackburn
Chris Bowe
Timothy Boyls
Justin Cotton
Laurel Creech
Chris M. Davis
Brent Elrod
Catherine Epstein
Loretta Foster
Kara Gee
Scott Gibson
Kaila Gilbert
Erin Hafkenschiel
Tanisha Hall
Valentina Harper
Trip Hereford
Rita Hoke
L.J. Hoke
David Johnston
Mercedes Jones
Neil Krugman
Ethan Landes
Koby Langner
Clifford Lippard
Gregory Littell
Josh Martin
Mia Mathews
Ben Metz
Kate Monaghan
Judson Newbern
Brian Nock
Clay Petrey
Kayla Rodd
William Rosenthal
Eric Schultenover
Philip Shepard
Michelle Steele
Daniel Swope
Irwin Venick
Ron Yearwood
Jim Yockey
Kris Ahrend
David Allard
Asia Allen
Burkley Allen
Anna Altic
Jessica Ancker
Christian Archer
Meagan Backes
Clay Bailey
Sarah Barnet
Judy Bayer Steele
Ashley Bergeron
Mark + Stephanie Bixler
Kevin Bolger
David Bordenkircher
Kathryn Branch
Edward Branding
Shanese Brown
Theresa Buffo
Michael Burriss
Ann Butterworth
Heidi Campbell
Heather Cass
Benjamin Chandler
Kelly Chieng
John Chase Cole
Jane-Coleman Cottone
Michaila Crislip
Amy Crownover
Brittany Curry
Ryan Darrow
Kaitlin Dastugue
Jessica Dauphin
Marleen Davis
Marge Davis
Brittany Earlie
Rebecca Elder
Lorraine Ensley
George Ewing
Mary Ann Forness
Veronica Foster
Tipton Fowlkes
Jeffrey Gaston
Matt Genova
Michael Gibson
Melody Gibson
Donna Glassford
Cara Greene
Karen Grubbs
Fuller Hanan
Kristin Harney
Penny Harrington
Jim Hawk
Kem Hinton
Brittany Hodge
Eric Hoke
Brent Hunter
Lynn Jolley
Charmaine Krupka
John Lavender
Charles Layne
Sara Lee Burd
Tessa Lemos
Curtis Lesh
Justin Lowe
Tammy Lynch
Lynn D Maddox
Eric Malo
Joseph Mayes
Rachel Mays
Laura McCoy
Stephanie McCullough
Daniel McDonell
Ann McGauran
Jason Miller
Meredith Montgomery
Darrell Moore
Melanie Moran
Dustin Murphy
Tara Myers
Pauline Nelson
Mick Nelson
Kelsey Oesmann
Louis Ortiz
Cornelia Overton
David Paine
Michael Payne
David Proffitt
Bill Purcell
Sylvia Rapoport
Danielle Rice
Ann Roberts
Duane Roggendorff
Richard Ruach
Tim Rucker
Phil Ryan
Megan Sargent
Diane Scher
Ty Scheske
Sam Schneider
Margaret Scott
Brooke Seraphine
Jonathan Sexton
Jules Shainberg
Fathiyah Shepard-Suso
Brad Slayden
John Wesley Smith
Jacqualyn Smith
Daniel Spann
Susan Steffenhagen
Gabrielle Storey
Danny Streit
Hannah Swanson
Matt Taylor
Harry Tenenbaum
Mike Thompson
Nancy VanReece
Mary Vavra
John Vick
Erin Vineyard
Catron Wallace
Kaitlin Ward
Pete Westerholm
John Whalen
Mustapha Williams
Megan Williamson
Kathryn Withers
Nora Yoo
Mike Young
Seth Zanoni
CIVIC DESIGN CENTER ANNUAL REPORT 2021-2022
Tifinie Capehart PRESIDENT
Land Use Consultant / Urban Studies
Adjunct, TSU
Jennifer Carlat Secretary
Metropolitan Policy, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce
Irwin Venick Treasurer
Dobbins Venick, Kuhn & Byassee, PLLC
Andrew Beaird
Immediate Past PRESIDENT Core Development Services
Asia Dixon Allen
Board Member
Gresham Smith
Laurel Creech
Board Member
Civic Leader
Chris Davis
Board Member
Hastings Architecture
Rebecca Delaney
Board Member
Rivian
Meg Epstein
Board Member
California South Development
July 2021 - June 2022
Valarie Franklin
Board Member
Moody Nolan / NOMAnash
Nick Green
Board Member
Design Public Group
Hemalatha (Latha) Gokhale
Board Member
Community Member
Tanisha Hall
Board Member
Fairpointe Planning, LLC
Edward Henley III
Board Member
Pillars Development
Michael Kenner
Board Member
MiKen Development
Neil Krugman
Board Member
Waller, Lansden, Dortch & Davis
Ben Metz
Board Member
ESa Architects
Lee O Molette II
Board Member
Frank Stanton Developers, LLC
Melanie Moran
Board Member
Vanderbilt University
Judson Newbern
Board Member
Newburn Consulting Services
Dee Patel
Board Member
The Hermitage Hotel
Philip Shepard
Board Member
HOAR Construction
Michelle Steele
Board Member
Lipscomb University
Jam Stewart
Board Member
Mars Petcare
TK Davis
Ex-Officio
University of Tennessee College of Architecture and Design
Josh Martin
Board Intern
Ankura, Young Leaders Council
Mandy Pellegrin
Board Intern
Sycamore Institute, Young Leaders Council
2021-2022