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Trope Collaborative
A human-centered design consultancy that collaborates with clients & users to be more focused, adaptive & competitive.

Solving/
Randallstown UDAT

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Opportunity

Randallstown, Maryland is an affluent African-American suburb outside Baltimore. Unfortunately, its main thoroughfare did not reflect the perception of affluence as many community members shop in surrounding affluent white communities.

The American Institute of Architects through North Carolina State University offered a one week Urban Design Assistance Team (UDAT) to engage with the community and collaboratively revitalize the town core to be in alignment with the aspirations of the community. Trope Collaborative was asked to participate and also to develop a way to digitally document the week and the final recommendations.
Multi-Disciplinary Team Trope Collaborative was insistent with AIA and North Carolina State University that we had to have different disciplines in engineering, public policy, real estate devleopment, landscape architecture and architecture coll

Multi-Disciplinary Team
Trope Collaborative was insistent with AIA and North Carolina State University that we had to have different disciplines in engineering, public policy, real estate devleopment, landscape architecture and architecture collaborate.

Capturing "As Is" Impressions Over a series of workshops and field visits, the team identified our key impressions of Randallstown, MD.

Capturing "As Is" Impressions
Over a series of workshops and field visits, the team identified our key impressions of Randallstown, MD.

Contradictions & Tradeoffs We identified key contradictions and tradeoffs of the local community which were becoming blockers of making progress that the same groups wanted to benefit from.

Contradictions & Tradeoffs
We identified key contradictions and tradeoffs of the local community which were becoming blockers of making progress that the same groups wanted to benefit from.

Thinking Holistically As a team, we integrated topographic, historical, municipal, transportation, business, land parcels and traffic patterns in making specific improvements.

Thinking Holistically
As a team, we integrated topographic, historical, municipal, transportation, business, land parcels and traffic patterns in making specific improvements.

Redefining Place We had workshop participants identify their neighborhood on a generic map and to name their neighborhood. We realized that many people called the same place different names and did not know where some neighboroods were.

Redefining Place
We had workshop participants identify their neighborhood on a generic map and to name their neighborhood. We realized that many people called the same place different names and did not know where some neighboroods were.

New Civic Center The UDAT Team broke into three working teams. The Civic Center group focused on revitalizing the center of the town with key buildings to be reutilized for new functions.

New Civic Center
The UDAT Team broke into three working teams. The Civic Center group focused on revitalizing the center of the town with key buildings to be reutilized for new functions.

Randallstown Village We created a mixed use and flexible zoning to allow place making integrating residential, municipal and commercial functions.

Randallstown Village
We created a mixed use and flexible zoning to allow place making integrating residential, municipal and commercial functions.

Methods & Practices

Based on my initial conversations with the UDAT team lead in advance of the event and reviewing previous UDAT deliverables, we proposed rethinking the UDAT approach and suggested a wider participation of traffic engineers as well as breaking the UDAT team into three specific groups : design, policy and land use. I also developed a plan to document in real time which allowed me to develop an interactive file that had all activities and recommendations completed by the end of the five day event.

​ At the end of each day, we would present to the team the day's activities and how it would be integrated into the final presentation - like an agile sprint. This highlighted opportunities that would not have been clear if the day was not documented and made for a more integrated UDAT story. We wrote all the content, took all the photographs and developed the information architecture and story for the final presentation.

Impact & Outcome

The day of the event, we put the interactive CD-ROMS on five Randallstown Library computers so community members could review it before the main presentation. The proposed findings on an interactive CD-ROM made visible the UDAT methods which was presented to the community and officials from the town, Prince Georges County and State of Maryland.

​ Due to the documentation, Randallstown received millions of dollars of funding from the county and state that otherwise would not have been advanced to support UDAT Recommendations. They were also given to all municipal officials to take with them to review over time. The CD-ROM was recognized by the Urban Land Institute as a powerful way to package participatory design.