Urban Collage will facilitate an “eco-charrette” for the Wilson (NC) Housing Authority on February 5 and 6. The public process will explore contemporary green building ideas and products and plan for a $7 million grant WHA recently received for work at its Forrest Homes community.
Wilson Goes Green
by Stanford Harvey on February 3rd, 2010UC Client honored with an award from the U.S. Green Building Council
by Stanford Harvey on January 25th, 2010The Columbia (SC) Housing Authority was recently awarded the 2009 Affordable Housing Developer of the Year from the U.S. Green Building Council for their work at Rosewood Hills. Urban Collage assisted CHA in preparing the community-based master development plan, HOPE VI application and design guidelines for this environmentally-conscious development near the University of South Carolina.
More information can be found here
Red Mile Receives Rezoning Approval
by Stanford Harvey on January 15th, 2010After an intensive effort led by Urban Collage over the past year, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council approved rezoning of 68 acres at the Red Mile harness racetrack on January 14, 2010. The rezoning to Mixed Use Entertainment was the result of a community-based process instigated by the property owners and the LFUCG Division of Planning that included the creation of a refined mixed use zoning classification for the city.
UC Client Awarded Federal NSP Funds
by John Skach on January 15th, 2010The Little Rock Housing Authority and the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock were recently awarded $15M in federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds to address inner-city housing foreclosures and other blighting factors related to the economic crisis. As part of the grant application team, Urban Collage surveyed and analyzed existing housing in eleven census tracts containing over 800 housing units. The work included identification of priority areas and recommendations on institutional partnerships and public investments to support the stabilization, particularly in the neighborhoods surrounding Little Rock’s civil rights landmarks like Central High School and the Daisy Bates House.
Cooperation: A Tool for Design
by Louis Johnson on March 2nd, 2010Urban Collage believes that a multitude of perspectives, professional or otherwise and built from personal experience, is what it takes to create successful plans and designs. This was never more obvious than in a recent studio in Shanghai, China that included 15 Georgia Tech students (one Collager) and 14 students from Shanghai’s Tongji University. It would seem at first glance that design backgrounds, both professional and educational, could vary widely between the Chinese students and Americans, let alone that one group’s first language is Mandarin, a far cry from understandable to 14 of the 15 American students.
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