(Photo above: (L-R) UO President Michael Schill, Redmond Councilor Anne Graham and Nico Larco, Associate Professor of Architecture | by David Clewett)
Redmond’s partnership with the University of Oregon’s Sustainable City Year Program (SCYP) is well under way for the fall with students working alongside city leaders to help with improvement planning as a part of classroom projects. The annual program will plan city projects for sustainability and livability in Redmond neighborhoods, parks, trails and the Redmond Municipal Airport.
SCYP was created in 2009 at the university and allows students to apply their professional-level training and need for practical work to help implement innovative sustainability projects through an interdisciplinary partnership. Redmond became the first Central Oregon city selected for this 2015-16 academic school year.
“Every city is unique in what their focus is. In terms of Redmond they are really focused on innovation. It is a smaller city but doing amazing things that far exceed the size of their community,” said SCYP Manager Megan Banks.
Throughout the fall term students will work with the city for a Redmond Neighborhood Revitalization Plan, South US 97 Corridor Improvement Project, improved Neighborhood Walkability and Business EID and RAPRD Tax Valuation. In addition to classroom preparation the students will work alongside Redmond city officials.
Over 400 students are involved in the program through 10-12 academic disciplines including architecture, law, business, journalism, geography, public policy and management, economics, product design, digital arts and historic preservation.
“We have eight classes working on six projects during the fall term. Then we will have a similar amount of projects for the winter term and for the spring term,” said Heather Richards, Redmond’s director of community development.
Students have been making periodic site visits to Redmond for midterm presentations on the South US 97 landscape architecture and the neighborhood revitalization projects.
”On these visits the students walk around Redmond taking in different aspects of what they are learning in class while working closely with city staff to make sure what they are working on is what Redmond is looking for,” Banks said.
Redmond representatives have also visited the university. City Manager Keith Witcosky presented to the strategic public relations communications class. Wastewater Division Manager, Chris Miccolis presented to the same class on the city utility branding project.
“There is great back and forth between the students and Redmond leaders,” Banks said. “It is a great interaction between city council, city manager and public works sharing how local government works with students who bring new energy and ideas.This is civic engagement in so many ways.”
One of the featured projects for the winter term will be several airport improvements.
“We will approach the Redmond airport from different departments including landscape architecture, journalism and business classes to determine how we can market and build expansions at the airport. Each term builds off a project so this will continue into the spring,” Banks said.
“It is shaping up to be an exciting year and the larger partnership year to year has been really extraordinary. This partnership model is now spreading to many other universities across the U.S. This is really exciting and interesting work,” said Marc Schlossberg, co-director of the Sustainable Cities Initiative.
