Design-Build Pavilion GRAND OPENING!

Saturday, August 6
6-10pm
Burton Street Peace Garden
47 Bryant Street, West Asheville

Join ADC’s Design-Build Studio and the Burton Street community as we dedicate Mystic Dreams, the new outdoor pavilion space in the Peace Garden! We’ll fire up the pizza oven, provide drinks, and host a live d.j. for a truly special evening with our friends & neighbors. The students from the Design-Build Studio will be on hand to discuss the design and building process and tell you more about themselves. See you there!

June Design Forum: Women in the Dirt screening – Wednesday, June 15 @ Fine Arts Theatre

ADC is hosting the first public screening of Women in the Dirt at Asheville’s Fine Arts Theatre on June 15. Women in the Dirt is a film about seven groundbreaking landscape architects.

Women in the Dirt provides an overview of the architects’ work and what makes them leaders in their field. Their projects mingle awareness of architectural and landscape principles, concern with sustainability and safety, sensitivity to beauty and functionality. The scope of their work ranges from private homes to vast public projects.

Director Carolann Stoney is a landscape architect herself. Her short film on the subject received the 2009 American Society of Landscape Architects Honors Award in Communication.

Click here to watch trailers for Women in the Dirt.

May Design Forum: NC APA Focus on Climate Change and Mobility – Wednesday, May 18 @ 6pm

Our May Design Forum will be a chance for local planners to gather at ADC. Following the recent National Planning Conference in Boston, local planners will discuss their experiences at several conference sessions. Don Kostelec will present “Mastering Mobility,” about how to incorporate mobility-based measures into planning and regulations to reduce vehicle miles traveled and create a more sustainable transportation future. Judy Francis will discuss her work on the recently updated and adopted Policy Guide on Climate Change. Anyone who attended the National Planning Conference is encouraged to come and share what you learned. Sponsored by NCAPA.

April is National Landscape Architecture Month…celebrate with ADC!- Wednesday, April 27 @ 6pm

Planning, designing, land-use management, and careful applications of sustainable design practices are the work of landscape architects, who, through the American Society of Landscape Architects, have been “Green Since 1899.” This forum will acknowledge the efforts of the local landscape architects who regularly volunteer at the Asheville Design Center as well as highlight the North Carolina chapter of ASLA’s two main advocacy issues for 2011: Complete Streets and Green Infrastructure. NCASLA Mountain Section Chair, Stephanie Pankiewicz, will lead a roundtable discussion of local initiatives and projects that have the opportunity to incorporate these items. All members of the local design community are encouraged to attend to join the discussion about local ASLA efforts and what’s happening at ADC. Sponsored by NCASLA.

February Design Forum
Asheville’s K-12 School Green Retrofit Initiatives — Wednesday, February 16 @ 6pm

The Reading, Riding, and Retrofit project has spurred interest in retrofitting not only school buildings but their surrounding campuses as well. Often buffered by expanses of lawn and parking, the campuses largely reflect a dated planning model of single, segregated uses disconnected from their surrounding community fabric. With increasing momentum, however, volunteer-led initiatives have begun to reclaim the grounds, gradually filling the “clean slates” of these campuses with nature trails, gardens and outdoor classrooms. Join us to be a part of the discussion on transforming Asheville’s schools into sustainable, ecologically healthy and inspiring learning environments for our community’s children.

November Design Forum: Historic Plans That Shaped Asheville – Wed. Nov. 17 @ 6pm

Presented by Dr. David Johnson, FAICP. ADC Board Member and Prof. Emeritus of Planning at the University of Tennessee, Dave Johnson has been a Fulbright Scholar in India, Thailand, the Soviet Union, and Cyprus, and served as a professional planner on the staffs of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the Washington National Capital Planning Commission and the Regional Plan Association of New York. Join us for a conversation about how the history of planning in Asheville shaped the Asheville we know today.

October Design Forum: Modern Interpretation of a Mountain Home – Wed. Oct 13 @ 6pm

Eric Gartner of SPG Architects will discuss the firm’s local work in green building. Set in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with sweeping views across majestic landscape, SPG Architects’ Leicester House serves both as a solitary retreat and a generous space for entertaining. SPG’s work clearly presents a visual consistency based on human proportions, the exploration of light, and the judicious use of materials that provide singular tactile, visual, spatial and temporal experiences. Two external crises that unfolded during design and construction encouraged the client to turn Leicester House into a model of energy efficiency. In response to a severe drought, rainwater collection was incorporated along with geothermal energy use, energy efficient lighting, automatic sun shading and reclaimed furniture. When the economic crisis squeezed budgets and ruled out an infinity pool, plans were adapted to create a green ‘infinity’ roof instead.

Click here to view the presentation.

September Design Forum: Wednesday, Sept 15 at 6:30 p.m.

Architecture in the Public Interest: The Roles of Academia, Prof. Georgia Bizios
Established in 2004, the Home Environments Design Initiative (HEDI) at NC State’s College of Design initiates, facilitates and coordinates scholarship, research and outreach services in the area of quality design for home environments. HEDI provides a forum for the discussion of housing design issues among academics, professionals and the public. Join us at ADC and be a part of the discussion! Sept. 15 at 6:30pm.
Click here to view the presentation.

Summer Film Series – 6pm Wed August 18 – Helvetica

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which recently celebrated its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.

Summer Film Series – Wed July 21, 6pm – The Garden

The Garden, a documentary by Scott Hamilton Kennedy, is an engaging and powerful look at the famous political and social battle over the largest community garden in the U.S. (located in south central Los Angeles).

A follow-up to Kennedy’s award-winning documentary, OT: Our, the film shows how the politics of power and greed (backroom deals, land developing, green politics, money) tragically intersect with working class families who rely on this communal garden for their livelihood.

June Design Forum on Community Land Trusts — Wednesday, June 23 @ 6pm

David Harper, founder of Land In Common, will discuss how landowners and community organizations can implement a Community Land Trust (CLT) as a way to promote a resilient local economy.

A CLT is a non-profit organization using common land ownership to promote affordable, ecologically-sound land stewardship for housing, food production, forestry, and other community-based land uses. CLTs acquire land by gift, purchase, or bargain sale and hold it in trust for the community, thereby reducing the impact of land appreciation and speculation driven by the real estate market. By allowing individuals and organizations to obtain long-term (99-year), inheritable leases on the land they hold in trust, CLT’s provide a secure, affordable land base for communities and individuals seeking to re-establish resilient bioregional economies.

Click here to view the powerpoint from David Harper’s presentation on the community land trust concept.

May Design Forum

Topic: Bikeways, Greenways, and Pedestrian Facilities for Asheville: A Status Report and a Look Forward
Presenters: Marc Hunt, Chair, Asheville Greenway Commission, and Don Kostelec, AICP, Senior Transportation Planner, TRANSPO GROUP

April Design Forum

Topic: Designing Community
Speaker: UNC-Charlotte Professor David Walters

Architect, town planner and professor of urban design David Walters will be discussing the fundamentals of his book Designing Community, especially as they relate to urban design as a process of interaction between professional designers and the community. Discussions will deal mainly with topics such as the public participation and the charrette process, the importance of design guidelines and the emergence of form-based codes to regulate the urban fabric. Case studies from across several urban scales will be used to illustrate these topics, which are at the heart of the Asheville Design Center’s mission to empower people to work together in developing their communities.