Nashville Civic Design Center

Programs: Through the ncdc citizenship in action (cia) initiative, a program that seeks to invest the next generation of informed citizens in how the world is built around them. Community design 101 is a curriculum that includes activities for classrooms of grades 5-12. The activities engage youth with the world around them through a lens of the core question: how does the shape that we give to our city, in turn, shape us? Nearly 500 students participated in the first year of our grant program. Fifteen teachers signed up for the cia july 2017 workshop where they will develop their civic design content knowledge, and prepare to teach the cia curriculum during the 2017-2018 school year. These teachers represent nine high schools and one middle school in davidson county, nine of which are public mnps schools. The maximum capacity of 16 students are currently participating in our cia summer internship. The ncdc shaping the healthy community (shc) initiative has expanded to scott county and through collaborations with stand, 4-h, and scott outdoor recreation, more than 60 students and their parents have engaged in physical activities such as hiking on local trials and 5k run. Using cia curricula helps students understand how infrastructure elements such as sidewalks, bike lanes, and trail networks contribute to health and well-being. The shc initiative also expanded to madison county where university of memphis-lambuth students inventoried community assets and opportunities- such as existing bus stops and vacant storefronts- and suggested ways to improve and utilize them to promote physical activity in the area. Ncdc has established a project outline with soar to support their programming needs; shc now includes working with the mars petcare division in making better cities for pets in nashville and beyond. Through the ncdc reclaiming public spaces (rps) initiative; the nashville soundbox kaboom was created. Kaboom repurposes a 20-foot shipping container and outfits the outside with whisper dish, large chimes, talking tubes, and a cyclophone that will be traveling to multiple locations in davidson county; the rps action arm, turbo, tactical urbanism organizers, is a group that uses tactical urbanism methods, which are small and often temporary changes to the built environment that will ideally turn into permanent change across the city. Tactical urbanism is started by regular citizens and goes straight to action in order to avoid slow and inhibiting bureacracy. With cooperation of neighborhood and metro planning dept, ncdc thru turbo established a temporary circle at the corner of jefferson street and 21st intersections, providing the reduction of an unsafe speeding problem and leading an approved permanent circle installation. The plan of nashville (tpon) initiative includes a variety of community based projects and programs: pecha kucha night is a continuing bi-monthly program that brings art to the community, allowing nashville to grow its reputation as a lab for creativity. A time when visonary thinkers and doers whose energy is likely to inspire and hasten the artistic transformation of the city come together. This past year we've held 4 events with 341 participants. ; tpon continutes to sponsor parking day with record participation and attendence expected in 2017; the nashville urban design forum was founded in 1995, and meets monthly to discuss the role design plays in the city and around the world. Urban design forums promote cross-disciplinary understanding of urban design amongst urban professionals; raise awareness of the benefits of urban design; provide a forum for discussion of design-based approaches that are relevant to the development and management of nashville's neighborhoods and the city as a whole. This past year we've held 5 events with 772 participants. ; citythink is a monthly lunch program discussing current urban design topics throughout nashville. These programs are open to the public and take place in ncdc's office. Citythinks are used to get feedback about development throughout nashville, and to help envision how to make a more beautiful city. This past year we've held 5 events with 195 participants. ; ncdc sponsors the young urbanist group which is geared towards young people (artists, designers, students, architects, landscape architects, planners, real estate agents, contractors, developers, engineers, concerned citizens, etc. ) that have a passion and curiousity about urban design and civic spaces.