With the participation of more than 45 school district, students, local and regional government, and business representatives, Build Pagosa accomplished a major milestone toward the design and construction of the future regional workforce center, to be located on the Pagosa Springs High School (PSHS) property.
On Thursday, Jan. 11, in collaboration with PSHS and the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation, Build Pagosa commissioned consultants from Colorado State University’s Institute for the Built Environment to facilitate a design charrette to capture the vision, values and ideas of the multitude of community stakeholders in attendance.
A design charrette is a type of participatory planning process that assembles an interdisciplinary team, typically consisting of the primary users of the project, local/regional and state officials, local businesses/industry partners, architects, community members and other stakeholders to create a design and implementation plan for a specific project.
A key component of a design charrette is time compression. The design charrette process encourages collaboration between groups that would not traditionally work together in a planning process. It allows a number of different options and scenarios to be explored, provides designers with insights into a community’s needs and values they may not otherwise have considered, and provides community members the opportunity to be directly involved in the design process. Our participants worked together in brainstorming sessions, smaller working groups, sketching workshops and other exercises for a solid eight hours.
According to the U.S. National Charrette Institute, “the French word, ‘charrette’ means ‘cart’ and is often used to describe the final, intense work effort expended by art and architecture students to meet a project deadline. This use of the term is said to originate in Paris during the 19th century, where proctors circulated a cart, or ‘charrette’, to collect final drawings while students frantically put finishing touches on their work.”
Highlights from the event include the enthusiasm of the five career and technical education student participants who impressed the community members with their confidence, sharing insights with the attendees who were previously unfamiliar with the current facilities’ space limitations. The students presented their ideas and vision for programming and design concepts for the future of the building, as well as future students.
Many creative and humorous thoughts were shared during one of the activities where attendees were asked to write a postcard from 15 years in the future and describe their experience in Pagosa Springs because of the impact of the new building. Several community and business participants fostered new connections with other like-minded attendees, and new collaborations have already begun.
The event was a great success. We will share more details about recommendations from the consultants when they share their report of findings, and suggestions for next steps.
Sledz on Rez
Be sure to join us for our next event — WinterFest’s Sledz on Rez — this Saturday, Jan. 20.
Sledders of all ages, enter your homemade, decorated sled and try to sled down the fresh snow on Reservoir Hill.
Sledz on Rez is a free event and everyone is welcome. Register online with the QR code in this week’s ad in The SUN and PREVIEW, or visit bit.ly/41jxJsI.
Day-of registration begins at 1 p.m., and the sledding begins at 2:30 p.m. on Reservoir Hill.
Sponsorships and donations benefit the Pagosa Springs High School SkillsUSA Team, who will be participating in the SkillsUSA competition in Durango on Friday, Jan. 19.
Delicious food and hot beverages will be served. We’ll see you on the hill.
For more information about Build Pagosa, please visit our website, www.buildpagosa.org.
