Civicplan Wins Two Urban Design and Architecture Awards
Civicplan won two Urban Design and Architecture Awards for work in Participatory Planning, Public Engagement & Neighbourhood Design.
PlanLocal: Beautiful Streets & Spaces won the Award of Excellence for Visions and Plans and The Durand Neighbourhood Character Project won the Award of Merit for Civic Achievements.
PlanLocal: Beautiful Streets & Spaces
Project description
How do you engage residents and business owners to prioritize spending on public realm improvements in one of the most complex wards in the city of Hamilton? This was the challenge presented to Civicplan by the Ward 2 community and Councillor. PlanLocal: Beautiful Streets and Spaces was the answer. PlanLocal is an example of Participatory Planning, which involves communities in the strategy and management of urban planning processes. The project required innovative community engagement as the target area, Ward 2, contains six neighbourhoods, multiple BIAs, the downtown core, historic districts, community housing and various educational institutions. Civicplan designed a process that combined in-person events coordinated by community champions with an interactive online platform seeking ideas from residents. The process resulted in concrete public realm improvements, strengthened local networks and increased community knowledge of critical municipal planning processes.
Jury comments
The community gathering data to improve their own neighbourhood and make it safer is commendable. The jury suggests that small actions in particular places can help build energy toward a systematic transformation; data is valuable in making change.
The Durand Neighbourhood Character Project
Project description
How can conversations concerning neighbourhood character lead to more productive dialogue about how new development and intensification can be compatible with existing urban fabric? This was the goal of the Durand Neighbourhood Character Project. Durand is a historic downtown neighbourhood that has faced significant loss of urban fabric through previous periods of under-regulated development. Currently, Hamilton is experiencing a renewed period of growth, which challenges the neighbourhood to balance new development and intensification within the established community. The Durand Neighbourhood Association (DNA) partnered with Civicplan to design and facilitate a participatory planning process that built on the residents’ desire for proactive, hands-on planning. The Project explored innovative, community driven approaches to help constructively shape new development in the neighbourhood. The result was a greater understanding of neighbourhood characteristics and attitudes toward character, as well as concrete information to use in a tool to assess future development in the neighbourhood.
Jury comments
Community-based planning with a different lens on how to impact change. This document provides an accurate overview of the area; it does not ignore the less romantic buildings but accepts the diversity of the neighbourhood’s built form as a whole in order to guide new forms of development through thoughtful guidelines.