News

MM2 Keynote: Dunham-Jones Talks About Retrofitting Suburbia

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On Thursday, May 8, Georgia Tech’s Ellen Dunham-Jones kicked-off Makeover Montgomery 2 with her keynote address entitled “Raising the Bar on Suburban Retrofits.” Watch the recording of the presentation today by clicking the link below.
View the Keynote Recording
Across the country, suburban planners and residents are grappling with how to adapt to demographic shifts, changing housing preferences, and growing infrastructure needs. You are invited to participate in a conference focused on real-world solutions to these current suburban challenges.

Makeover Montgomery 2 | Moving Forward Montgomery 
kicked-off on Thursday, May 8 at the University of Maryland, College Park with a keynote address delivered by Ellen Dunham-Jones, award-winning architect and professor at the Georgia Tech School of Architecture (link to recording above).

The conference continues on Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10 at the Silver Spring Civic Building located in downtown Silver Spring. Conference organizers are pleased to present an exciting lineup of regional and national experts who will lead discussions on a variety of topics in the following tracks:

•  Transportation and TOD
•  Creative Use of Public Assets/Public-Private Partnerships
•  Current Planning Trends
Registration is now closed! Stay tuned to www.makeovermontgomery2.com after the conference to view and listen to the presentations.
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Planning the Home Front: Webinar on How the Lessons of WWII Apply to Today

The University of Maryland Urban Studies and Planning Program and
the National Center for Smart Growth’s 2014 Brown Bag Webinar Series continues with

Planning the Home Front:

How the Lessons of World War II

Apply to Today

Presentation by Sarah Jo Peterson

Wednesday, April 23
12:00 PM to 1:00 PM

 View the Webinar   

Preinkert Field House – Conference Room 1112V
University of Maryland College Park
 
Planning the Home FrontThe American mobilization for World War II is famed for its industrial production; less well known is that it was also one of the greatest urban planning challenges that the United States has ever faced. Although Americans tend to think of World War II as a time of national unity, mobilization had a fractious side. Interest groups competed for federal attention, frequent — sometimes violent — protests interrupted mobilization plans, and seemingly local urban planning controversies could blow up into investigations by the U.S. Senate.

Drawing on her recently released book, Planning the Home Front: Building Bombers and Communities at Willow Run, Sarah Jo Peterson shows how the federal government used a participatory planning approach to mobilize the home front. For the massive Willow Run Bomber Plant, Sarah Jo Petersonbuilt in a rural area 25 miles west of Detroit, bringing the plant to success required dealing with housing, transportation, and communities for its tens of thousands of workers. It involved Americans from all walks of life: federal officials, industrialists, labor leaders, social activists, small business owners, civic leaders, and—just as significantly—the industrial workers and their families.

The presentation will close by engaging the audience in a discussion about what the lessons of urban planning for World War II mean for today.

SARAH JO PETERSON,has spent over 20 years in urban planning, with experience in government, academia, and the non-profit sector. She received a M.S. in urban and regional planning from the University of Wisconsin—Madison and a Ph.D. in American history from Yale University. She currently resides in Maryland. Planning the Home Front, published by the University of Chicago Press, is a work of independent scholarship.

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Beyond the Tracks: Community Development in the Purple Line Corridor

On Friday, March 21, 2014, the NCSG will host the first Purple Line Corridor Coalition (PLCC) workshop to focus on elements vital to a community’s economic development in the Purple Line corridor, such as preserving affordable housing, supporting small businesses, connecting workers with jobs, and building community through innovative development and design. Featuring a host of informative speakers, case studies from other successful transit investments and engaging breakout-sessions, the workshop will bring together more than 150 regional leaders as they work for successful collaboration along the planned Purple Line Corridor.

Learn more here.

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