Public Works: Democracy and Design Fall and Winter Quarters, 2005-06
Case Study Assignment
In a project team, sign up for a case (from the list supplied by instructors) to study and analyze. Cases are varied but all have to do with wide scale, public works projects typically implemented at the regional or local level.
Throughout the quarter, you will research and investigate your case. This is your opportunity to investigate, using an existing situation, the key elements of this program: the “technical” side of public works (engineering, design); the “public” side of public works (democracy, participation/engagement, aesthetics) and the policy and administration that implement public projects.
At heart of your investigation is the following: “If the infrastructure designed and built is the answer, what was the question?” And yes, it may turn out that the question is complicated or is really several overlapping questions.
We expect you to use traditional scholarly methods to investigate your case, relying on academic sources (professional journals, books, etc.), the popular press (newspapers, magazines, internet, etc), as well as websites associated with your projects. And we expect you will make use of personal communications with experts, politicians and other people involved.The telephone can be the fastest and richest way to get information you need. You can use the phones in our offices freely for this purpose (we will explain the arrangements). Your work should be data and fact rich and you need to back up your text with source citations.
While we have set aside Fridays as “project work days,” that time will not be sufficient to do your project work. Therefore, you can expect that teams will need to meet outside of scheduled class times (keep this in mind when forming teams).
Your team has three major goals:
1) Learn everything there is to know about your case and write a coherent, connected report about it (a “semi-formal” report, to inform others in your organizations, e.g. students and faculty, but not the general public):
a. History: what preceded it? How did things come together?
b. Policies, politics and context: What policies (federal, local, state, regional) shaped the case? What political powers shaped the case? What environmental issues shaped the case?
c. Engineering Design: What were the technical challenges, barriers and successes? Were properties of “good design” followed?
d. Aesthetics: What conscious or unconscious aesthetics govern the project?
e. Sustainability: In what ways is the project sustainable or unsustainable? What species, landscapes, or resources are affected by it, and over what time scales?
f. Decision making: Who were the decision makers? How were decisions taken? What was the role of citizens?
g. Public Processes: how were public processes managed, if at all? Adversarial (NIMBY) or collaborative?
h. Implementation: who were the players in implementation? How was the project implemented (built), including funding.
i. Results: What are, if any, the results of the project – how is the project viewed now that it is completed? What aspects were successfully or unsuccessfully integrated into the project outcome?
2) Design a newspaper supplement and a poster to communicate to and educate the public (in this case, your colleagues; in a “real” setting, the citizenry) about your case. You can find an example of such an insert at: http://www.unitedway-thurston.org/Docs/Rep_Comty.pdf. More about this as the quarter progresses.
3) Write a joint evaluation of your work as a team, to include with your individual portfolios at the end of the quarter, and to discuss in your evaluation conference.
Individually, you must:
1) Make a commitment to your project team, signing a contract of the team’s design regarding roles, responsibilities and team governance. Your evaluation and/or credit for the program is partially based on following through with your team commitments. TEAM COVENANT and TEAM CONTRACT DUE WEEK 2.
2) Keep a field journal. All class and project notes go in the field journal. FIELD JOURNAL DUE WITH PORTFOLIO AT END OF QUARTER.
In addition to the final products (insert, poster and report), you will be submitting (as a team) project assignments throughout the quarter, as follows. The purpose of submitting assignments over the quarter is to allow for faculty feedback and to allow teams to cumulatively complete projects, in steps. The first 4 weeks of the term are focused on information gathering and you can expect to spend a great deal of time doing research.
Week 2: Team Covenant and Team Contract (see handouts Week 1)
Week 3: Project Plan including some source citation. Here, you will outline the
parameters of your project and your team’s plan to accomplish the work
needed. Be sure to use the a-i checklist under “goals” above to form
your plan.
Week 4: Project Brief including Bibliography. Here, you will begin to pull together the particulars of your project and outline your information
Week 7: Dummy Insert (hand drawn), Outline of Report
Week 8: Draft of Insert using Adobe Illustrator
Week 10: Final Inserts, Reports, and Posters
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