Multimedia Reporting (Bradford-Utsler)

Jane Huesemann, Vice President of Gould Evans Architecture Firm in downtown Lawrence, loves her community. Like many Lawrence residents, she would love for the town’s issues, like the south Lawrence traffic way, the argument concerning residential vs. industrial areas, and the questions about westward expansion, to all be solved in a timely manner.

In fact, Huesemann thought it would be great if somebody would put together a team of experts that could come to Lawrence, assess our situation, and give us a plan for solving our problems. So when Huesemann and former mayor, Boog Highberger, heard that the American Institute of Architects was assembling just such teams, and sending them to eight communities around the country, they knew that this was Lawrence’s chance.

This summer, Lawrence, along with Syracuse, NY, Longview, Wash, Guemes Island, Wash, Hagerstown, MD, Northeast Mich, Northern Nevada and New Orleans, will begin receiving visits from one of the AIA’s Sustainable Design Assessment Teams, or SDAT. The team of volunteers contains architects, urban designers, hydrologists, economists, planners, attorneys and more, who will work with a local steering committee. Over the next year, the two groups will design a plan for Lawrence that will, according to the AIA, visualize the town’s future, help us understand our structure, and explore interactions between ecological, sociological, economic and physical systems.

“We could really use this outside source,” Huesemann said. “Outside experts lend credibility simply because they have fresh opinions.”

The SDAT’s fresh opinions aren’t free, but are only costing the community $5000, which is combined with a $15000 grant from the AIA. However, getting the AIA to send an SDAT to Lawrence took much more than shelling out the bucks.

Each town vying for the AIA’s help must go through a process that includes submitting a very lengthy application. In drafting Lawrence’s application, Mayor Highberger and Huesemann enlisted the help of Kira Gould of Gould Evans Architecture Firm in Boston, who was a member on the selection committee for last year’s SDAT applicants.

“We were looking for communities that are concerned about issues in a really broad way and that are defining their problems using a variety of lenses to bridge social, economic and environmental issues,” Gould said. “That’s exactly what Lawrence is doing, and I declined being on the selection committee this year because I wanted to help Lawrence get in.”

Gould feels that the SDAT visits could lead to some great new ideas as far as public thinking. “Lawrence is rich in ideas and engaged citizens,” she said. “If they have the opportunity to engage an outside perspective…I mean, why not?”

But how badly does our town need an outside perspective? What real effect will the opinions of non-residents have on Lawrence in a year, or two or ten? Nibley City, in Utah’s lush Cache Valley, was one of last year’s SDAT recipients. Nibley was visited by its SDAT team in June, five months before its new mayor, Gerald Knight, was elected to office. When asked about the effects of SDAT’s visit, Knight didn’t even know what SDAT or the AIA were. After some further explanation, he said, “I’ve seen some documentation on it, but I don’t really know if anything happened.”

Cache County Executive and author of Cache Valley’s SDAT application, Lynn Lemon, said that it’s not about instant results or miraculous fixes to local problems. “It’s raised awareness of some of the issues we’re facing,” he said. “It’s brought our county’s communities together and gave us some excellent long-term plans.

Gould said that the same long-term planning and raised awareness will be possible for Lawrence if the city keeps thinking about the larger issues and avoids focusing on the little things, like specific zoning issues and transportation problems. “It’s important for Lawrence to stay broad,” she said. “The SDAT board will relate the detailed things.”