WCU Studio
Open House, 1-5pm

Click here for
complete schedules

COWEE COMMUNITY, North Macon County, NC, May 18, 2008 – On Saturday, design and planning specialists from the Lawrence Group concluded three-day collaborations with residents of mountain communities in Macon and Jackson Counties. Now the teams return to the main studio at Western Carolina University to refine work for the final presentation Tuesday night. (Get the schedule and directions.)

Below is a video report on the Cowee community charrette:

[ STORY CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO > ]

The Cowee study is one of four model projects getting close looks by the consulting team. When the Mountain Landscapes Initiative “Toolbox” is produced, these case studies will be used to illustrate the application of some of the tools for responsible planning and development. In tomorrow’s post, we’ll feature the wrap-up of the Cashiers charrette.

In each of the case studies, assigned team members are measuring their approaches against citizen goals established during an extensive outreach process that began in November of 2007. During that process, citizen hopes and concerns were turned into 10 Top Questions that set the agenda for the main “Toolbox” charrette at Western, the two satellite charrettes, and the other case studies.

All of the projects will be integrated into Tuesday night’s concluding presentation, with final reports and the “Toolbox” itself available in both printed and online versions by the end of the summer.

You can follow the charrette process through each day by clicking on the dates on the toolbar above. And you can get detailed introductions to the broader Mountain Landscapes Initiative project and the pilot “Toolbox” effort by going to the “Overview” section in the up right-hand navigation links.