design:SD Schedule for Thursday

The first-ever design:South Dakota charrette begins Thursday, May 17 with the “Learning Studio” at the Corsica Legion Hall. We’ll kick things off with presentations from local leaders, followed by Community Roundtables–discussions about six different topics.

Click here to view the full Thursday Learning Studio schedule.

Pie and Ideas

Things got off to a rough start for us Tuesday night at the Dessert and Design event held at the Corsica Grade School. Thanks to the school district’s janitorial staff and Mr. Muckey for helping us get our disaster averted. For most attendees, it jus tmeant we got off to a bit of a late start. That just meant more time to eat pie and ice cream from Cheryl’s Bakery and the Travel Plaza! (Mucho gracias to Sylvia and Birdie for organizing and serving!!)

We introduced folks to some of the design:SD team members, talked about how the whole event will work in May, and about who will be coming. We’re still looking for a few more families willing to host a team member or two from May 16-19 (three nights). You won’t even need to feed them, just provide a bed and some hospitality. If you’re interested in opening your home to the team, contact Rose Lauck.

We heard from the CHS senior class on their survey of the community and involvement with the design:SD project, and started the local “Photo Relay” project. We also put people to work on Tuesday night. We brainstormed and shared visions for the future of the Corsica region. The 60-plus people in attendance split into eight teams, and came up with ideas like:

• a new daycare and preschool,
• an ethnic festival,
• entrepreneurial (how to start a local business) classes in local schools,
• build a wind farm,
• area towns working together
  

Photo Relay begins at “Dessert and Design” event tonight!

Design:SD is coming to the Corsica area, but before the team gets here, the regional community has a little work to do. The design team is inviting area residents to take photos of three kinds of places in this region: places you love, places you don’t like, and places you think are special or important. The camera distribution will kickoff at the “Dessert and Design” community gathering on April 24th at the Corsica Grade School gymnasium. Free pie, ice cream and refreshments will be served at 7:00 p.m.

The cameras will be passed throughout the community and used to determine which areas should be showcased or focused on during the design visit in May. Should you have the cameras passed to you, simply follow the instructions included in the bag and keep the cameras rolling. To see a copy of the directions, click here.

The photo relay will run from April 24-May 9. If you would like to be involved in the relay, please contact Lindsey at the Rural Learning Center via email at lindsey.karlson@rlcenter.net or by phone at (605) 772-5139.

The design:SD planning team has tied up the loose ends on the schedule for May 16-19 in Corsica. You can see a color-coded schedule by clicking the picture below. Don’t forget the Official Kickoff event on April 24 at the Grade School Gym. It’s your chance to share your visions for the future and be part of this historic process for the region!

See the design:SD schedule!

“Dessert and Design” Event Kicks Off design:SD Project

Tuesday, April 24th will mark the official local kickoff for design:SD, Project Corsica. Please join members of the South Dakota design team for an evening of “Dessert and Design” from 7:00 to 8:30pm on April 24th in the Corsica grade school gym. The evening gathering begins the three week countdown to the design:SD event that will be held May 16-19. Dessert and coffee will be served while the design team describes the project and what it means for the Corsica region. Area residents will discuss what ideas and dreams they have for the future of the Corsica region. Those ideas will help create the foundation of the design team’s visit in May.

Corsica and the surrounding region is the first-ever design:SD project community. The event will draw 20-30 professionals from all walks of design and community development to the region to visually express local dreams for the future. The design team will spend three intense days in the area learning, listening, and drawing what locals want the community and region to look like in years to come. The design event will help people of the Corsica region dream about the future, with special emphasis on the importance of design in building a vision we can all share.

The success of design:SD, Project Corsica relies on your involvement in the process. Please join members of the design team on Tuesday, April 24th to learn more about becoming involved in this special event. To view the event flyer, click here.

Lindsey Karlson, RLC

design:SD Introduced at the Pancake Feed

The Design South Dakota team introduced the project to many Corsica area residents at the Corsica Commercial Club’s Customer Appreciation Days last Saturday. The Commercial Club served pancakes and sausages for free to hundreds of Corsica locals, while Jim Beddow, Ward Whitwam and I talked design and charrette with the locals.

Big thanks go to our friends at the Willmar Design Center in Willmar, MN (especially Bev Daugherty) for allowing us to borrow their charrette boards to use in our display. Also thanks to TSP Architects in Sioux Falls for lending us the display background, to Bobbi Gaukel at one8ty creative for designing the logo and handouts on super short notice, and to Nathan Hinker and the Corsica Commercial Club for inviting us to participate (and giving us the idea for the booth)!

 

Ward Whitwam, AIA and a member of the design:SD planning team, ran into an old friend (or maybe adversary?) at the pancake feed. Ward designed the Corsica Elementary School 39 years ago. At that time, Sid Hoekstra, who still lives in Corsica, was the School Board Chair. Sid and Ward recalled the arguments they had almost 40 years ago over the price of the project.

Ward also visited with the folks in the Douglas County Hospital booth. He learned they will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of building the hospital later this year. As it turns out, Ward also designed that building half a century ago!

Thanks to the Corsica community for the warm welcome!

Joe B.

(you can enlarge any of the above pictures by clicking on them)

RLC and Architects at Customer Appreciation on Saturday

On Saturday we will have a booth at the Commercial Club’s Customer Appreciation event at the Corsica Legion Hall. RLC staff and a handful of architects from AIA South Dakota will be on hand to visit with folks about an exciting project coming to Corsica in May.

The design:SD team will spend four intense days in town from May 16 to 19. The team is 20-30 professionals from all walks of design and community development. They will work with Corsica area residents to dream about the future, and illustrate that vision with drawings and ideas.

Thanks to support from grants, the event will be NO COST to the Corsica community! It is being sponsored by The Rural Learning Center and American Institute of Architects, along with the Corsica Commercial Club and Planning and Development District III.

Please visit our booth on Saturday! You can learn more about design:SD at designsd.org.

Joe Bartmann, The Rural Learning Center

Nathan Hinker and I showing off the new logo designed for the project.

Fifty thank yous

A big Rural Learning Center “thank you” to the fifty or so Corsica area residents who shared soup and sandwiches with us last night at the grade school gym! Jim Beddow, Lindsey Karlson and I presented some things we’ve learned in Corsica over the past few months, and talked about a few ideas we have for the future. You can read the full report by clicking on “reports + docs” at the top of this page or by clicking here. We would also love to hear feedback and ideas from you on our presentation (many of you provided this last night on the little green sheets–thanks!).

The slides from our presentation are available on Slideshare. Click here to see them.

We will be piecing together your suggestions for Leadership Team members, and will keep you up to speed on our work through this blog and in the Corsica Globe. If you ever have any questions or ideas to share with us, you can post them in the “comments” box on the bottom of any page on this web site.

Take care,

Joe Bartmann

Read the Leadership Report

Hello Folks

This is my first “post” to the Corsica Storyboard. If you read the Globe for this week, you probably saw the announcement that we have scheduled a public meeting for Monday – eve (November 6th). The attached report will be discussed at this gathering. Feel free to look it over (just click on “leadership report” below) and join us if you can. The soup and sandwich should be good – hope to see you Monday eve!!

Jim Beddow

Leadership Report

Community Gathering on Nov. 6th

Rural Learning Center Invites You to Community Gathering

The Rural Learning Center will hold its first public community meeting in Corsica on Monday, November 6 at 5:30 pm. The meeting, to be held in the Corsica Elementary school gym, will include a free soup and sandwich meal. The RLC will be reporting on its observations, interviews, and work thus far in the Corsica area.

Jim Beddow and his staff conducted 64 interviews in Corsica area during August and September. The interviews are the first stage of a process that will help Corsica area citizens develop a vision for the future of this region. The Rural Learning Center works with small, rural communities across the Great Plains in the areas of long-term visioning, economic development, leadership development, youth engagement, community design, and housing. They were hired by the Corsica Development Corporation, the City of Corsica, and the Corsica Commercial Club. The RLC staff and sponsoring organizations encourage you to attend the November 6th meeting to learn more about the Rural Learning Center and how you can be involved in creating the future for the Corsica area.

We will be posting some more info about this meeting, including a report on our work so far, later this week.