HKS Design Fellowship Links Young Designers with Community

by Tracy Ostroff
Contributing Editor

How do you . . . link young architects with political leaders and solve community challenges all at the same time?

Summary: HKS launched the HKS Design Fellowship program two years ago to expand opportunities for the firm’s young professionals and bring them together with civic leaders to show how good design can be used to solve challenges and shape communities. For the first two years, HKS focused on projects in Dallas, where the large firm has its headquarters. The long-term goal of the HKS Design Fellowship is to add other cities in which HKS has offices. This year, in addition to a Dallas charrette, the firm will expand the program to Detroit.

In 2006, the fellowship addressed the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park, for which the charrette developed plans to knit four disparate districts in the downtown Dallas area into a cohesive whole. Imperative to the city’s growth, the plans developed during the charrette offered a way for people to walk among the areas and better move around the downtown.

HKS Director of Design Dan Noble, FAIA, explains that the 2007 two-and-a-half-day charrette dealt with the Trinity River Park project, during which participants in the design fellowship focused on how the community could better leverage the Trinity River Park. Architects were asked to envision the development of key sites that will promote access to the proposed park. The group—council members, civic leaders, the HKS architects, and other community members from both sides of a debate about the project—reviewed the challenges of addressing views, green development, access, circulation, and the project as a catalyst for new development.

“The cumulative impact of this program is reaching out to the community,” says Shannon Kraus, AIA, HKS vice president and chair of the HKS Design Fellowship. “The feedback has been outstanding. Parties come in reticent, but come out energized.” Most importantly, Kraus notes, it allows a positive connection with civic leaders in the community. “Younger architects get exposed to creating relationships with political leaders and better understand the power of design in shaping communities.”

Showing leadership
“These are real problems that need real solutions,” Kraus says. “The HKS Design fellowship’s work on the Deck Park has helped to demonstrate how the architecture industry can help address issues in the community. “The fellowship has had an impact on the Woodall Deck Park implementation, addressing pedestrian and traffic flows as well as improving the communication among all parties, including the City of Dallas and HKS.”

The firm selects the 30 or so younger architects for the Design Fellowship Program from informal nominations from peers and firm leaders. The designers come from all offices. It’s offered as a perk, with the firm covering costs and the employee donating his or her time to the project.

“Instead of waiting to be invited to the table, we are showing leadership by organizing the program,” Kraus notes. “The program positions the architects and the firm as problem-solvers and resources for the community. The design fellowship also helps the designers build relationships with people with whom we might otherwise not have had access. However small, at the end of the day, we have had a bit of influence.”

The design fellowship program is just one of the firm’s pro bono efforts. “Architects can and should play a more active role in community-based issues,” Kraus says.

Design for design’s sake
The program also demonstrates to the firm’s young architects that “design for design’s sake and solving problems is still valued and worthwhile,” Noble says. “There is a lot of cross-pollination toward ultimate solutions . . . you never know where a good idea is going to come from.” The architects have drawing materials in hand, but also bring computers. They hot-wire model-making machines to build more tangible foam building representations. The group has made a presentation to city officials and to the mayor and produced a written report.

The process also offers an enculturation into the firm’s design ethic and philosophies and an opportunity to break bread with people from all over the HKS family. The community is appreciating the firm’s efforts as well. “Word is getting out through the city that this fellowship has opened people’s eyes,” Noble reports.