by Tracy Ostroff
Contributing Editor

How do you . . . help students understand the holistic and diverse nature of sustainability?

Summary: Employing a 360-degree definition of sustainable communities, University of Detroit Mercy’s graduate program in community development reaches across disciplines to help students understand the human, economic, physical, and organizational milieu that characterize architecture and placemaking. The program aims to equip students with the tools they need to succeed as leaders in sustainable community development.

Perhaps with a new commander in chief who campaigned on his roots as a community activist, and the trend toward people returning to or extending their education to ride out the poor economy, the master’s degree in community development is attracting new attention in Detroit.

The program mirrors the collaborative nature of the fields into which it launches its students. The UDM’s master’s of community development, housed in the school’s Architecture Department, takes an interdisciplinary approach to its core curriculum. That was also the way UDM Architecture Dean Stephen Vogel, FAIA, developed the course, informed by a task force composed of representatives from a cross section of the university’s academic areas. The courses combine theory and practice from the worlds of nonprofit management; organizational management, economic development, urban development and city planning, economics, and social theory.

Unseen layers
The course of study focuses on the unseen layers of socio-economic diversity that give places their complexities and opportunities. Will Wittig, Assoc. AIA, is currently the co-director of the program. The coursework, he says, delves into diverse “issues on issues like social justice and how they get translated in the built environment.” The classes present the humanistic side of architecture and prepare students to “go out into the world to develop sustainable communities.”

But for Wittig, sustainable doesn’t necessarily conjure LEED or other green rating systems. Rather, it is an approach that supports building communities that are productive in society, rich in complexity, and organized in a way to engage people in a dynamic setting to which they want to contribute and that they wish to promote. Wittig and students from the program say it fills in the issues related to the human element of architecture and urban planning coursework.

Students cross over from the architecture track to take courses in the community development program. Some also pursue a 5-year dual degree. The school conferred their first degrees in 2007. After the first wave of graduates, they have seen an uptick this year. They now have 20 active students, some working full time looking to make a significant career change, others continuing their education to add academic credentials to their professional experience.

Candidates draw real-world case studies from their Detroit neighborhood. “The issues of Detroit are so palpable,” Wittig says. “There are all kinds of unfortunate preconceptions of the city, citizens, and the region . . . it is a complex organism with all kinds of influences . . . the debates we get into about Detroit itself challenge the notion of those elements themselves.” Wittig says a quick read of the Detroit Free Press on almost any day would underscore the lack of cooperation among the many units of government in the region. The problem is also rampant among nonprofit organizations.

Quality of life and bottom line
Elijah Kafer, a 25-year-old designer in Detroit, graduated with an MArch and master’s of community development. About 10 months ago, and four months after graduating, Kafer was one of the last in and first out in an architecture firm downsizing. Instead of dwelling, Kafer says, he accelerated his life plan and decided to pursue or develop projects that show that functional use, aesthetics, quality of life, and bottom line results can be achieved in concert.

“Architecture can improve quality of life for all people, and not just the people who can afford it,” says the 25-year-old who calls AIA Gold Medalist Sam Mockbee his hero. “The way architects think about problems can be applied to different situations and address larger problems and multiple layers of complexities.” The leadership component of the MCD program appealed to his sense that architects can play a larger role in city making, not just in formulating master plans, but in creating a framework to encourage citizen involvement.

He is now working on a program to stabilize neighborhoods in Detroit. He proposed an idea to the local community development organization to use vacant buildings as an incubator for people who wanted to own their own homes. He explains: “They can live in an apartment and have a portion of their rent set aside in escrow as a portion of their down payment.” A government match program provides even more economic leverage to get people into homes in a way that they have an idea of the full cost of a loan they may get as well as the financial literacy they need to succeed. In this way, Kafer says, “they can be an asset to the community and aware of the community around them.”

To make his case to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, he wanted to have a program and a building in place. He turned to the analytical and mapping skills he acquired in his MCD courses, even more than his architecture curriculum. “There is a jump in complexity when you go from the built environment to issues you can’t see.” Part of his investigations also included seeing which buildings and communities would be eligible for additional tax credits and other financing deals. “They make a large project like this totally feasible to run.”

His efforts and training paid off. His project will receive funds through a congressional bill that gave almost $150 million to Detroit to stabilize housing nationwide. He and partners will now coordinate the logistics and design work of the historic building that is now vacant, but that had become a key component of the neighborhood. Two other of his proposals have also been approved for funding.

Nonprofit management
Angela Polk, a manager of community-based programs at the Ford Motor Company Fund, helps distribute money to schools to give many mainstreamed students greater opportunities for their future. To foster a sustainable community that can support higher achievements, Polk says she includes parents, schools, administrators, and the community as she implements the program. “The beauty of the MCD program is that it allows me to see the big picture, as well as the physical one. Understanding how they may or may not move together is crucial in overall sustainable community efforts.”

The Ford programs are directly linked to the company itself. (Polk’s program is a different entity from the Ford Motor Foundation.) They have programs and initiatives that benefit employees and customers across America. Polk explains that in her position she is seeing “the direct result of money and resources combined with the right foresight to benefit the community.”

Polk describes herself as the granddaughter of a community activist who “had the foresight to get me involved as a young child doing my homework in the corner.” She credits the MCD program with giving her the formal education to fill in the pieces and for making her more tuned into the resources around her. For example, she says she visits the Web sites for community efforts President Obama’s administration has published.

The degree does not fit into the conventional mold of architecture and urban planning courses, Wittig says, and the graduates agree. “This goes so much beyond that,” Polk says. Adds Wittig: “You go out into the world to develop sustainable communities. You have to be open minded to a wide group of people, have a deep understanding and sense of identity and aspirations, and have a knowledge base to work in this diverse world.”