The Center for Community Design and Preservation began a virtual charrette this month to envision a brewpub and enhanced river walk for downtown Hawkinsville (Pulaski County) GA. After Covid-19 postponed the initial plan to spend a weekend in Hawkinsville and have students work with local leaders in- person, the charrette team has pivoted to exploring the town through pictures and video, meeting locals over Zoom, and holding day-long design blitz sessions on campus.
On a beautiful October Sunday, a group of student volunteers representing every CED program collaborated on redevelopment challenges and opportunities for four historic sites – an empty Downtown lot, a cotton mill warehouse, a former laundromat, and an oil supply company – all in proximity to the Ocmulgee River.
One positive outcome of the pandemic is that a wider range of citizens can participate in community planning efforts when input is presented asynchronously and available online for at least a week, versus having to attend an in-person meeting that may conflict with job schedules or childcare.
To ensure the widest possible distribution to Hawkinsville’s citizens, the initial design concepts were packaged both as a video to share via social media and as printed posters to display in town, along with an online survey to collect feedback. The county commissioner’s office served as an ideal place to display the concepts in town, as it is adjacent to a voting precinct! People in line to vote were able to peruse the design ideas while they waited and take home a flyer with information on how to access the online survey.
The charrette team will use this feedback to enhance their ideas during their next workday and will provide a report with refined design concepts as well as case studies from other locales that have found success combining beer gardens and riverfront recreation. This charrette is a key element in a larger revitalization effort led by UGA colleagues at the Archway Partnership and the Carl Vinson Institute of Government’s Renaissance Strategic Visioning and Planning (RSVP) program – both of which have CED graduate students and alumni at the helm!
Stay tuned to social media for updates as this project progresses, and tag @ccdp_uga to share pics from YOUR favorite beer garden – you can consider it research assistance!
