Students help design affordable housing in service-learning class

By Linda Myers

How do you build a neighborhood? Students of Felecia Davis and Michelle Thompson discussed that question with Ithaca's mayor and other key people from the local community and campus during a town meeting in Sibley Hall's Hartell Gallery Feb. 8.

Under discussion was a project to design affordable housing for a parcel of land on Ithaca's West Hill that belongs to Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Service (INHS), a group whose charge is to revive neighborhoods by helping residents repair dilapidated homes and create more affordable housing. INHS, a partnership of neighborhood residents and the local business community and government, is credited with almost single-handedly reviving Ithaca's Southside and Northside neighborhoods, turning houses that had been eyesores into sources of community pride.

The project is being undertaken by Assistant Professor of Architecture Davis, co-instructor Thompson and their students through a service-learning course, PRAXIS-2, Building Neighborhoods: Cost Effective Housing Design.

Paul Mazzarella, executive director of INHS, specified that his organization, which has owned the land since 1988, has no immediate plans to develop it. "It's a challenging site, and we're looking for creative ideas," he said.

Right, Felecia Davis, assistant professor of architecture, who teaches the course with co-instructor Michelle Thompson, listens to the discussion.

The 15 students in PRAXIS-2 ­ planning and architecture undergraduates and graduate students plus one student each in design and environmental analysis and landscape architecture ­ were full of questions about the site's potential as well as the project's potential pitfalls. City of Ithaca Mayor Alan Cohen, Planning Director Matthys Van Cort and Common Council member Susan Blumenthal all offered this advice: Proceed slowly and carefully, with buy-in from all constituents. And Katherine Klute, community development officer in Ithaca's Office of City Planning, cautioned, "Make sure that the affordable housing you create is what's needed. Put people in your dreams."

Cohen was among those who warned the students that most people are averse to change, even change that's for the better. To prove the point he asked the students to clasp their two hands together. "How many of you had your right thumb on top?" he then asked.

Nearly everyone did. "Now shift to left thumb on top," he directed. "How does it feel now?"

"Different." "Not quite right." "Weird." "Like a shoe that doesn't fit."

"That," he said, "is how change feels to most people." However, he called the project "an excellent opportunity to sink your teeth into a real-life situation."

The presentation on the undeveloped site itself and the wide-ranging discussion that followed touched on everything from the geologic and environmental history of the land in question, to how difficult and costly it can be to develop on a steep hill, to the pros and cons of clustering affordable housing versus interspersing it.

John Forester, chair of the Cornell's Department of City and Regional Planning, and Mark Cruvellier, chair of the Department of Architecture, sat side by side during the meeting, visible symbols of their departments' joint support and collaboration.

"The most interesting definition of planning that I know," said Forester, "calls it 'the organization of hope,' what's possible to do on a piece of land to improve human spaces and environments. This is an overview, a starting point."

And Ken Reardon, an assistant visiting professor from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and alumnus of the college's planning program, asked: "How serious can a 15-week undertaking be? Very serious." Community stakeholders are likely to scrutinize the final report and respond vocally, he predicted. He praised the students' plan to make the project accessible and seek community opinions via the college's web site.

Rachel Cohen-Stevens, a sophomore in city and regional planning, asked about proposed property density. Both Van Cort and Blumenthal commented that the site had the potential to be a transitional mid-density buffer zone between high-density downtown Ithaca and low-density upper West Hill. Van Cort also observed, however, that the site is currently used unofficially as a sledding hill. "It's entirely human that [the people who use it] think of it as their sledding hill" and will resist losing it, he said, even though it isn't theirs to lose.

Planning graduate student Margot Welk asked what the environmental issues were and learned from Van Cort that a creek running through the site was viewed as an asset that should not be altered, while the ecological value of certain trees found on the site was arguable.

"Your job will be to find out what the myths are [about the parcel and its potential occupants] and to demystify them," advised the mayor. For example, contrary to popular belief the majority of people who seek affordable housing in Ithaca today are white, not people of color, he noted. "The largest segment is from the refugee population."

"The project is an ambitious one to undertake," said Davis, "but we're all very excited about the learning opportunities it offers our students and the potential to develop an affordable-housing model that may be of future use to the community."

The course is supported by a Faculty Fellows in Service grant from Cornell's Public Service Center. The students will present their marketing study results and design proposals to interested members of the community in mid-May. For information about the course, the project and the presentation contact Michelle Thompson, 255-4331, mmt7@cornell.edu or visit the web site http://www.architecture. cornell.edu/Spring2000/Arch303EX.htm.