City College Architectural Center

The City College Architectural Center

Introduction

The City College Architectural Center (CCAC) is a community design center, or clinic affiliated with the School of Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture at The City College of New York/CUNY. CCAC offers technical assistance and advocacy in planning and design to not-for-profit, community organizations concerned with the physical and economic development of their neighborhoods. The Center augments this work with research on planning issues affecting urban communities, such as housing, commercial revitalization, the environment, open-space and transportation. Through these activities, CCAC provides a forum for the interaction between design, development, public policy, education and architectural practice.

Background, History and Mission

The architecture faculty established the Center twenty years ago in response to requests from Harlem residents and organizations for affordable planning and design services. CCAC has worked with entities such as civic organizations, arts groups, community development corporations, churches, social service providers and individual property owners. Projects range from existing conditions surveys and feasibility studies for individual buildings, to urban design and land-use studies for commercial corridors or entire neighborhoods.

The City College, a senior college of The City University of New York, is located within the neighborhood known as West Harlem or Hamilton Heights in New York City. Established in 1847 as the Free Academy, CCNY was the first municipal college in the United States, and it maintains its historic commitment to providing excellence in education to students at virtually all levels of income. The focus of the Architectural Center aligns with this unique mission and with the college’s many outreach programs that serve low-income communities. The neighborhoods where CCAC works have predominantly low-income, minority populations, and many of the Center’s projects fall within New York City’s federal Empowerment Zone.

How CCAC Works

CCAC employs the resources of the School of Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture to help local organizations improve their communities. With supervision by faculty and professional staff, graduate and upper-level students can gain work experience through the Center. Students are accountable to real clients, while learning about issues that affect low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. This unique work experience fosters an interest in community design that they carry forward into their professional careers.

CCAC evaluates requests for technical assistance based on the strengths of the project, the potential benefit to the community, and the capacity of the neighborhood group to carry the plans forward. In addition to these criteria, CCAC evaluates the potential match between the needs of the organization and the resources of the Center. Resources include the availability of students and staff to work on a project within the timeframe requested; faculty with expertise and areas of interest related to the project; affiliations with outside consultants and faculty from other departments within CUNY to assist with projects of an interdisciplinary scope.

The operating budget of the Architectural Center derives from project fees, grants and institutional support. CCAC negotiates fees charged to client organizations on a case-by-case basis. Often potential clients incorporate the Center’s fee proposals into their requests to funders, indicating a concrete objective they hope to achieve with technical assistance from CCAC.

Current Directions

Recent projects reflect the diversity of scale and contexts that CCAC engages in working with local organizations. During the past year the Architectural Center has also assisted many local groups with project development and outreach to funders, government agencies and elected officials. Through this type of advocacy and in the technical assistance it provides, CCAC helps expand the capacity of local organizations to effect positive change in their communities. Another recent objective of the Architectural Center is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration both within CUNY and with other academic institutions. These partnerships amplify the resources that CCAC can bring to community-based projects. Moreover, given its track record of direct assistance, the Center can be a conduit for matching local groups with the technical expertise of the university.

For information contact:

Ethan Cohen, Director

City College Architectural Center

Shepard Hall Room 350

Convent Ave. and 138^th Street

New York, NY 10031

Tel. (212) 650-6751 Fax (212) 650-8770

Email us at: ccac@ccny.cuny.edu

Recent Accomplishments and Current Initiatives

Some of the projects from the past two years illustrate the diverse range of issues that CCAC engages in its work with community organizations:

· For the City of Yonkers’ Office of Economic Development CCAC completed a study of the potential for redeveloping under-utilized “brownfields” sites in the Nepperhan Valley industrial area. This study recommends restoration of a riparian corridor, mixed-use zoning and infrastructure improvements as tools to spur private investment.

· CCAC collaborated with residents, merchants and the Office of the Bronx Borough President on a vision plan for the transportation and commercial “Hub” at Third Avenue and East 149^th Street. Expanding on themes developed for the 1993 Bronx Center Plan, proposals for the Hub support the concept of a greater, Downtown-Bronx district, offering a strong visual identity, encouraging a mix of uses, and strengthening connections to adjacent areas.

· In West Harlem CCAC developed planting plans and hardscape improvements for the Broadway Malls between 140^th and 150^th Streets. Working with the West Harlem Art Fund, this project conceptualizes the open-space of the malls as a resource for public art, education and commercial revitalization.

· In the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, a project for the Cherry Tree Association offers visionary plans for redeveloping a City-owned tenement as Casa del Sol/Future City, a community cultural center integrating cutting-edge environmental or “green building” technologies within a holistic approach to building systems and design.

· CCAC is supporting efforts of the West Harlem Art Fund (WHAF) to implement a New York State Heritage Area encompassing parts of West Harlem and Washington Heights in Northern Manhattan. CCAC obtained funding from the National Endowment for the Arts to help coordinate planning and design for the project. Working with WHAF and local arts and community development organizations, CCAC will produce a set of maps inventorying existing conditions and cultural resources, urban design proposals for selected sites, an exhibition and a web-site.

· CCAC will begin work shortly on a streetscape revitalization plan for the East 138^th Street commercial corridor in the South Bronx. Facilitated by SOBRO, a prominent local development corporation, the first phase will emphasize building consensus among area stakeholders and creating a coherent image for the area as a vehicle for attracting further resources and investment.

As mentioned above, CCAC pursues opportunities for collaboration both within CUNY and with other academic institutions, in order to bring greater resources to bear on projects and to broaden the educational experience. As an example, the Cherry Tree project was conducted with the New York Institute of Technology School of Architecture and Design, enabling students from central Long Island to explore community design issues in the South Bronx. The Architectural Center is working to develop projects jointly with the CUNY Institute for Urban Systems and the University Transportation Research Center based at City College. CCAC is also participating in efforts by the SUNY Network and the New York State Department of State to help cities and towns revitalize their downtown districts, as part of Governor Pataki’s Quality Communities initiative.