Charrette & Capstone: Santaquin, UT

Capstone studios and charrettes are features of our program intended to accomplish two broad objectives. First and foremost, the Capstone acts as a bridge to practice, providing seniors with self-initiated leadership opportunities to lead and manage a large planning and design project connected with a sponsor/client. The second objective is to connect the entire department, all classes, and faculty in a week-long collaborative charrette effort. This builds studio culture and opens relationships among the studio body.

This year, the charrette experience looked a little different due to COVID-19 restrictions as students interacted with stakeholders virtually rather than in-person. Students met instudio but were confined to interacting with their group only. Coordinating times to virtually discuss ideas with different groups was integral in keeping with the goal to build studio culture during this time.

The area of focus for the 2021 Charrette and Senior Studio was Santaquin, Utah, with Professors Todd Johnson, David Anderson, and Jake Powell leading the effort. Two years ago, City Manager Ben Reeves and Community Development Director Jason Bond, reached out to the department seeking insight on how to enhance the “idea of agritourism in [their] community.” He said, “We’ve been looking for ways to preserve our agricultural industry and make it more economically viable.”

Seniors 3D printed a model to help illustrate their plans

With those marching orders, LAEP students set to work evaluating what steps Santaquin can take to protect its agriculture industry and promote itself as an agritourism hub while residential development continues to increase in the area. Seniors engaged with stakeholders through frequent check-ins as they worked in seven groups to create a comprehensive visioning document.

During the final presentation to stakeholders and Santaquin residents, the seniors explained their suggestions to bring life to downtown, create agritourism hubs, develop gateways to bring a sense of place to residents and travelers, and how to connect these concepts to external resources such as surrounding agriculture and the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.