JOPLIN, Mo. —
Stephanie Shadwick, of Springfield, wanted to help the people of Joplin repair the mile-wide scar left by the EF-5 tornado on May 22, but she was not sure how.
An intern architect at Butler, Rosenbury & Partners in Springfield, Shadwick is participating in a design charrette to put ideas on paper so that Joplin residents can visualize what the city could look like. It is her way of reaching out.
“As an architect, we have a responsibility to help communities we live in, and with Springfield so close, we really felt like it was within our community reach,” Shadwick said.
She is one of about 50 people from the American Institute of Architects’ Central States Region who came to Joplin to work with the Citizens Advisory Recovery Team to put ideas on paper. The sessions started Thursday and will conclude today.
The recovery team is made up of representatives of the business community, officials from the cities of Joplin and Duquesne, personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and others who have been invited to offer input into how Joplin should be redeveloped. The team will present the ideas to the Joplin City Council and city administration.
Brandon Dake, with Dake/Wells Architecture in Springfield, organized the AIA effort. He said a number of professionals including landscape architects, engineers, interior designers and urban planners from the central states chapter, which takes in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa, are participating.
Students of the professions have joined the effort, too. Nine from the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s department of architecture are participating, said Gunnar Hand, their instructor. He said the opportunity to help plan the recovery from such a large-scale disaster is a natural fit for his students.
Dake said the group is hashing out ideas in the recovery team’s four categories of goals for redevelopment.
“We’re trying to flesh them out and turn them into graphics,” he said, with the intent of getting feedback today from the public on what ideas residents think would work. It’s an exercise that was used to help rebuild Greensburg, Kan., after a devastating tornado raked most of that town away in 2007.
The four categories of redevelopment the team has explored and sought public input on are infrastructure and environment, housing and neighborhoods, schools and community facilities, and economic development.
A charrette is defined as a collaborative effort to gather input and ideas in a problem-solving way, bringing residents, stakeholders and government officials together to explore possibilities. Participants were encouraged to think big and creatively.
“I’ve never built a house, and now we’re building a community,” said Kim Cox, a member of the recovery team. She said the architects are donating their time, talent and equipment to give Joplin ideas on how to re-create the third of the city that was destroyed by the tornado.
Dake said the value of the services that go into the collaboration plus the costs that AIA and its members are paying to come to Joplin amounts to about $375,000.
“It’s kind of overwhelming and humbling,” Cox said of the effort. She said the group members started Thursday with a tour of Joplin. They took in the damage, scoped out the terrain, and viewed the variety and types of buildings and structures that already exist.
“They’ve managed to pick up on our feeling of hometown, and they’re incorporating that,” Cox said.
The public is invited today to see the drawings that result from the charrette and to give input or critique the suggestions.
“We’re not proposing what Joplin will look like, but we’re proposing what Joplin could look like,” Dake said.
Public input
THE SESSION WILL CONTINUE, starting at 8 a.m. today, in the basement of Forest Park Baptist Church, Seventh Street and Range Line Road. The drawings will be on display from 4 to 6 p.m.
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