School News
Ajo Comes to Conway NEA Grant Underwrites Design Charrette with the International Sonoran Desert Alliance What could be better on a snowy mid-January day in Massachusetts than to imagine being in the Sonoran Desert? The two dozen participants who attended the Ajo Design Charrette at the Conway School January 13, 2012 were warmed with visions of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, stately palm trees, and bright desert skies as the International Sonoran Desert Alliance’s (ISDA) Maria Gmuca presented images of the historic Arizona town and its thirteen-acre public core. Six Conway alums, two prospective students and additional guests joined current students, faculty and staff in the day-long brainstorming session. In preparation for a community-based charrette to be held later in Ajo, the Conway session was charged with developing recommendations that would better link the historic plaza with the renovated Curley School. The challenges include an underused public plaza, overly wide boulevards designed along City Beautiful standards, a newer school complex separated from the town center by an old railroad, and a limited budget which will require incremental implementation in this economically depressed former mining town. Although the focus was place-based, participants were divided into groups based on user profiles: How can we encourage those driving through Ajo on the way to the beach in Mexico to stop and explore the plaza? How can we make neighbors feel comfortable coming into the Curley School complex, now that it has been converted into work and living quarters for artists? How would
The Conway School and its partner, the International Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA) will receive an Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), one of only 51 grants awarded nationwide. A portion of the $100,000 grant will support the Conway School in its work with ISDA and the Ajo community in creating a new master plan for the historic town center of Ajo, Arizona, a former mining town in the Sonoran Desert.
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Christina Puerto ‘12
A sketch produced by a student team during the charrette explores how teenagers might use the town plaza
we increase the participation of high school students in events at the historic town center? What would make residents choose to walk through town rather than simply drive to the post office? Though many of the proposed solutions were initially programmatic, the task was to imagine how physical changes to the streetscape, building facades, and open spaces could generate community identity, encourage creative activity, and provide stronger connections within the public core. Quickly assembled presentations suggested new gateways to the town, the plaza, and the Curley complex. Using photos of existing conditions, images from other places, diagrams and overlays, the participants proposed a full range of ideas: narrowing streets and introducing rotaries; adding street trees and native plantings; enlivening building facades with art and banners; expanding markets under colorful awnings and tents; creating shady gathering and sitting places; and turning vacant lots and alleyways into pocket parks. ISDA’s Tracy Taft and Sylvia Tatman-Burruss viewed the presentations via Skype, and Gary Bachman ’84 and Danny Tylutki listened in from Gary’s office in Tucson. According to Maria Gmuca, “The workshop was a fun, cram-packed, and productive day. Drawing upon the expertise of students, alums, and Conway community members some truly fresh ideas were generated to address the unique issues Ajo’s downtown faces today. ISDA will certainly be using the images and concepts to inspire public interest and engagement as the project develops!”
Our Town is the NEA’s latest investment in creative placemaking, through which partners from both public and private sectors come together to strategically shape the social, physical, and economic character of a neighborhood, town, city, or region around arts and cultural activities. The International Sonoran Desert Alliance was incorporated in 1993 as a tri-cultural organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing the environment, culture, and economy of Sonoran Desert Communities.