collaboration | access | virtuality | sustainability

Historic Renovation / Community
Planning and Design Center Project
CDAC Application #203 - Lowfence, Virginia June 1999

White Paper #1 -
Author: william george paul

NetMeeting White Board Screen:
Kick-off of the Lowfence Electronic Charrette!



Lowfence, Virginia is a small (population 8,045) coastal town with many run-down historic buildings and a small but future looking city planning department. After detailing a project and budgetary resources, Lowfence submitted their CDAC Online Application in June of 1999 and received acceptance from the Advisory Board in September. Because CDAC is able to service clients through their web site and electronic community building and design processes, much of the preliminary community organizing, data collection and Q&A were facilitated through e-mail exchanges and asynchronous updates of the Lowfence Project Web Site (LPWS), which was sited on the LAR server at Virginia Tech:

http:www.lar.arch.vt.edu/ program/LPWS/welcome.html

It is important to note that the client had direct access to the VT server for web site updates and that the local library served as an access site for the townspeople who where not yet online.

The Project Background and Scope
The Historical Renovation / Community Planning and Design Center Project was selected by the Advisory Committee on the basis that it offered students and faculty work experience in both Information Technology and historic preservation and community building; because of the highly design or conceptual nature of the process; and because it fit closely with the distance learning mandate from the original CDAC Online charter (developed as a companion strategy with the original CDAC process after the ASPIRES grant was awarded to the Center in January 1998). After successes with the Culpeper County Bike Ways Charrette in 1998 and the Jefferson City Mall Laboratory Project in February 1999, the CDAC Online staff had made the necessary campus connections to accomplish online workshops, dynamic web sites and electronic charrettes. Partnerships were forged with technologists and labs in the Education, Distance Learning and VT Media Production departments.

The three main components of the Lowfence proposal included:

1. Analysis, selection, and renovation of a downtown building to house the new Design Center.

2. Analysis, design and installation of a high tech, community design facility that would include new PC's, a server and other hardware and software items.

3. A final report that would serve as an information technology master plan for the town.

NetMeeting Chat Screen with City Map

The CDAC Online Project Process in Lowfence
For simplification, the game plan for meeting the three goals of the Lowfence project are listed in chronological order:

September 1999:
Project leaders meet for the first (of two total) face-to-face meetings at the Distance Learning Lab in McBryde Hall. Data is delivered by the town for the first stage of the LPWS, as are building plans, site plans, planning ordinances, preference survey and graphics. A complete review of the online tools and processes were covered and the Lowfence group taped the session for use as a training tool back home.

The first version of the LPWS went online with the following features and tools: return e-mail addresses, web site links, project scope and data from the earlier meeting. All online workshop schedules and deadlines were set-up as "tentative" pending confirmation from both CDAC Online staffers and project participants.

November 1999:
Online Workshop #1 - CDAC Online and Project Coordinators Only. Project leaders finalized project goals, deadlines and meeting schedules. Preparation for the electronic charrette included targeting all CAD images, photographs, text and resources. Task assignments made. A committee was formed to write the first draft of the IT master plan.

December 1999:
The Electronic Charrette -
Historical Renovation / Community Planning and Design Center Project
Lowfence Community Members & City Hall Staff, CDAC Online Project Members and Invited Experts

The electronic charrette (EC) brought together all of the above participants in a give and take (1-1/2) hour session that discussed electronic imagery of the final building sites, floor plans, hardware and software specifications and the draft IT master plan. All participants made comments and added graphical changes to the shared photographs and plan elements. Participating experts were Robert Springtree, a noted architect and preservationist from Salisbury, England, and Alice Humphrey-Rice, an educational technology and Internet consultant from Washington, D.C. Recommendations, charrette scripts and final ec images from the event were added to the LPWS the next day in preparation for the pending solution set from CDAC.


NetMeeting White Board with Building Floor Plan

January 2000:
Presentation to the Community - Lowfence City Hall. Together with their clients, press and community leaders, CDAC Online staff presented their solutions to the Lowfence community on January 21st. Because sustainability was stressed throughout the process, the solutions reflected a long term cost / benefit strategy that included:

1. A complete building renovation was recommended for a 1912 storefront-- from the brick exterior to the telephone jacks in each room. Space was included for a classroom, a small office and large work / computer area. A rear deck was also included for an alternative meeting space.

2. Center computers and software were initially donated from area schools and then supplemented with new machines with a grant from a local private supplier. The LPWS continued to be a source of project assistance and communication with the outside.

3. The Lowfence IT master plan was later adopted by the City Council and is being implemented. Partnerships with the private sector continue to be a key strategy for the town's technology scheme.

Conclusion Points

- Involvement and Access: Through their schools and home machines, a 67% online total participation rate was achieved by the CDAC Online process!

- Web Site Archive: As a continuing place for debate, archiving and communication, the LPWS continues to be a part of the town's planning and design plan.

- Cost Savings: Because face-to-face meetings were cut (at least) in half, funds were utilized for more publicity, software and expert time.

- Experts: Outside assistance can be deployed at no travel cost and with great specificity.

- Collaborative Research: VT research and international efforts can be combined in this process.

- CAD images (i.e.- electronic image formats): ease of updates, file sharing via the Internet.

- Web Site is constructed in stages, each updated as the project progresses and culminates in a case study.

- Both synchronous and asynchronous communication is possible.

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