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Come celebrate the vitality of University Hill through presentations and discussion about the future of the Hill with CU students, children, youth, and others from the neighborhood. The event is sponsored by the Colorado MetroLab Design Workshop, a collaboration between the city and university, including CEDaR and Growing Up Boulder, that brings student research and creative work into conversations about local design and development.

Contact: benjamin.harden@colorado.edu

Project Goals 

This project has four goals: (1) support students in multiple classes, both undergraduate and graduate, to participate in community engagement and design training linked to the Hill revitalization effort; (2) identify opportunities and priorities for revitalization of the Hill based on interviews and interactions with residents, other stakeholders and users of the area, and city staff; (3) develop design and policy solutions to selected problems emerging through these discussions; (4) engage residents and users of the area in a dialogue about ideas for revitalization of the Hill through interactive presentations and performances of student work.

_{Photo via https://bouldercolorado.gov/commercial-districts/university-hill}

Colorado Metrolab 

This project is part of the Colorado Metrolab initiative, a partnership of the University with the cities of Denver and Boulder to research, develop and deploy new tools addressing current challenges in US cities. Boulder City Manager Jane Brautigan, and University of Colorado Provost Russ Moore, are signators to the collaboration. The University and City of Boulder agreed to develop the CU-City Workshop as a multiple-class, multiple-instructor interdisciplinary initiative focusing University effort on priority design, infrastructure and community needs of the city of Boulder. A major purpose of the CU-City Workshop is to create synergies and efficiencies for all partners by coordinating project conception, execution and presentation. The University Hill Workshop is the project designated for fall 2017 and responds to priorities identified by the city. This project builds on the experience of the Alpine-Balsam Metrolab Workshop conducted during 2016-2017. 

Faculty/Staff Involvement 

Eight faculty members and two staff are involved in implementation of this project. Brian Muller, Associate Professor of Environmental Design (ENVD) and Director of CEDaR, is coordinator of this project and instructor for the GIS and Capstone classes.

Beth Osnes is an Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance, and teaches a dance-related class proposed for the project collaboration. Shawhin Roudbari, Assistant Professor in ENVD, teaches the Planning Methods class. Jota Samper, Assistant Professor in ENVD, teaches the Planning History class. Mara Mintzer and Cathy Hill, staff of the Growing Up Boulder (GUB) program, will development related curricula and coordinate youth participation. Other faculty and student groups will likely join the project as it evolves. Jennifer Shelby, doctoral student, will help coordinate project activities. 

Participating classes/activities include the following: 

ENVD 3144. Instructor: Samper. 100 students

• survey and interview (100 students)
• history of a designated portion of the study area
• proposed design relevant to a creative district

MENV 5346. Instructors: Muller. 25 students

• major papers addressing a technical topic, e.g., design of business improvement plans, neighborhood conservation plan model
• preparation of background material on the neighborhood

ENVD 3100. Instructors: Muller, Heris, Glasgow. 10 students

• background maps for a neighborhood conservation plan
• spatial analysis of identified problems

Theatre/Dance Class. Instructors: Osnes, Sowah.

• Interviews with the vendor/business owners
• movement, words, interview material, art to share the vibrancy of the area.

Growing Up Boulder. Instructors: Mintzer, Hill

• development of children/youth input to 11^th street corridor planning
• coordination with Presbyterian Manor/Flatirons school

LEAD 4000. Instructors: Sommer, Pasquesi, Korbelik

• one team - Public Participation Working group follow up – now being called a “Neighborhood Design Lab”;
• second team - outreach with underrepresented populations  around community engagement needs
• third team - administer the Hill Perception survey as well as conduct some focus groups with key Hill stakeholder groups

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  A key cross-cutting engagement strategy is the Gathering Voices component of this project. The project will support students to develop understandings of people and history in the area by building narratives through interviews, performance, presentation, and other methods. In the Gathering Voices approach, students are trained through classroom modules and other settings, and participate in an overall structure that supports interdisciplinary learning about community engagement from other classes and student projects. Access to residents and stakeholders is developed through a coordinated approach in the overall project. Understandings/findings developed through this process are framed so that they can be incorporated into design and policy.

Web Sites Related to the Hill

http://www.growingupboulder.org/current-projects.html

https://bouldercolorado.gov/commercial-districts/university-hill 

University Hill General Improvement District