Saturday, February 5, 2005
Sheraton Capital Center Hotel, 421 S. Salisbury St., Raleigh

Opening address by Rich Killingsworth, Active Living by Design and Shobha Srinivasan, PHD, Division of Extramural Research and Training of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

10:45 am Concurrent Sessions (choose work and school or neighborhoods)

Designing Work and School Environments for Healthy Living

Part 1: Work to Live: Strategies for Active Workplaces: A discussion on the attributes of walkable workplaces with a series of projects examples organized around three prototypes: corporate or research campuses; mixed-use developments; and transit– oriented developments. Strategies will include provision of active and passive recreation, connectivity to off-site systems and pedestrian amenities. Also discussed will be the expansion of the workplace to the outdoors, breaking out of the cubicle and off the time clock. Presenter: Dennis Carmichael, FASLA, EDAW

Part 2: Designing School Environments for Healthy Learning: The design of schools has transitioned from “institutions” to learning environments. In this session participants will review this transition, studying trends in school design that promote healthy learning environments. They’ll learn about specific examples of both school systems and individual schools that are making bold efforts toward healthy learning environments, discuss potential roadblocks and challenges and how to apply new trends and examples to North Carolina and Wake County schools. Presenter: Christine Hilt, ASLA, CLH Design, PA.

Designing Neighborhoods for Healthy Living

Part 1: Winmore Community: A Personal Journey Winmore, a new multi-phased community on Carrboro, N.C., is scheduled to start construction this spring after more than four years of planning and design. As an architect and developer, the design and development of Winmore project with its 232 unit first phase, was a personal journey in the understanding of the relationships of the built environment, planning and our health. The health and safety of the future residents of Winmore became a key design criteria for the planning, development and the marketing of this benchmark project. The relationship of these issues with the affordable housing and the environmental issues will be presented and discussed. With built-in measures for evaluation, results from Winmore and its plans will be able to be evaluated as a new model for development. Presenter: Phil Szostak, AIA, Philip Szostak Associates and Winmore Land Management, LLC

Part 2: Traditional Neighborhood Developments--“Fitness by Design” This session will explore how neighborhoods can enhance the physical well being of its residents by routinely encouraging walking to tend the daily rites of life. The philosophy is not to consciously promote walking as exercise, but rather to provide residents with pleasant places to walk to and through. The health benefit results from a daily pattern of living rather than an intentional effort to “get some exercise” for some specific interval. Specific objectives include how group interaction helps maintain individual exercise continuity and how design can promote physical health. Presenter: Buddy Milliken, Woodsong

Part 3: Urban Action: City Design for Healthy Lifestyles With the continued resurgence of urban residential and mixed-use growth in cities across the country paralleled by an unprecedented and alarming increase in obesity and other health threatening conditions, this session will present design strategies to incorporate opportunities for healthy choices into a variety of projects. The session will provide participants a firsthand look at developments in the Charlotte urban core and compare them with successful similar project types in several large U.S. cities. We will carefully examine design elements from a historic perspective which promote healthy lifestyles. We will then compare the health promoting aspect of each project. Our discussions will focus on: · Programming · Green space · Walkways · Alternative transportation · Landscape/gardens · Fitness paths · Water features · Fencing and security · Artwork .This session will be helpful to design professionals as well as developers and public review agencies. Presenters: Michael Cole, ASLA, and Brian Jenest, ASLA, of ColeJenest & Stone

12:15 pm Box Lunch: Networking and Lobby Display

1:30 pm Concurrent Sessions (choose cities or public spaces)

Designing Cities for Healthy Living

Part 1: Green Infrastructure: The Link for Healthier Cities The Centers for Disease Control concludes that there is a direct correlation between trail development and increased physical activity. The City of Greensboro in partnership with Action Greensboro, Inc. and the Moses Cone-Wesley Long Community Health Foundation has commissioned Greenways Incorporated to develop a Greenway Trails Master Plan for the city that will illustrate an essential linkage between an extensive network of trails and improved community health. Using the master plan as a case study, participants will: learn how greenways are ideal host facilities for health and wellness activities and foster a healthy lifestyle; understand the comprehensive planning process in collaboration with the city and health foundation; and gain knowledge about specific design elements intended to achieve immediate benefits to the population in terms of a healthier population, a cleaner, friendlier community and a highly desirable area in which to live and work. Presenter: Chuck Flink, FASLA, Greenways, Inc.

Part 2: Active Transportation – An Aging Agenda A key to the success of our aging population is the ability to have access to alternative transportation modes, including transit, and especially transit in development that is carefully oriented to pedestrian access. It is clearly time to focus community planning and design with mobility in mind and the evolving needs of this new ‘indicator species’ population. We are at the forefront of a global transition. If we are successful, great lessons will come from creating integrated living environments that overcome the challenges of an aging society, expand independence and enhance community health for all ages. This presentation will provide background and rationale for rethinking effective community-wide planning and design with the recognition that some of our greatest lessons come from understanding that creating communities in which seniors can age-in-place achieves better communities to benefit all residents. Increasingly, healthy living is attached with a high priority of making the desire to “Age in Place” a reality for all. Community leaders and professionals can work to develop the innovative tools, mechanisms and opportunities that meet the dynamic and changing needs of this rapidly expanding population. Presenter: Paul F. Morris, FASLA, PB Placemaking

Designing Public Policies for Healthy Living

Part 1: Design-Based Codes One major barrier to healthy neighborhoods, and by extension, healthy citizens, is local regulation. Most zoning codes either discourage developers from creating walkable mixed-use neighborhoods or actually prohibit them. Pedestrians and bicyclists are often forgotten in an environment where priority is granted to automobiles. The health benefits of appealing public spaces and streets have been overlooked in our regulations. This session will describe the important characteristics of design-based codes including traditional neighborhood development; mixed-uses; transit-oriented development; and the design of streets, public areas, and parking. It will highlight examples of specific requirements, incentives, formats and project review processes from around the State. Presenters: Dawn Blobaum, AIA, Town of Davidson, and Craig Lewis, AICP, The Lawrence Group

Part 2: Community Planning: Policies for Healthy Living This multidisciplinary panel will analyze policies found in many of our urban areas that work against good health and suggest approaches that can be taken to revise and update planning policy and procedures to promote cities that encourage a healthier lifestyle. Participants will learn to identify practices that create obstacles to good health and how to craft policies for local implementation to encourage better design at the city, neighborhood and block level. Examples taken from around the state, as well as resources that can be used to make the case for changes will be discussed, offering guidance to both the general public and governments on ways to enhance the health impacts of design. Panelists: Cara Crisler, NC Smart Growth Alliance, Ben Hitchings, Triangle J Council of Governments, Jimmy Newkirk, NC Department of Public Health; Moderator: David Stein, College of Design

Sprawl, a conspiracy of good intentions
Speaker: Doug Kelbaugh, Dean, Taubman School of Planning and Design, University of Michigan (introduced by Dean Marvin Malecha, FAIA)

The illustrated talk will cover the pattern and culture, as well as the environmental, economic, social and health costs of sprawl in the American metropolis. The transition from "mobility" to "accessibility" and "walkability", i.e. moving destinations closer together rather than moving people around in vehicles. New Urbanist examples of greenfield, grayfield and brownfield development projects alternatives will be shown, including transit-oriented-development.

View from the Top: Making it Happen
Speaker: Bill Purcell, Mayor of Nashville

Under Mayor Bill Purcell's guidance, the City of Nashville has made unprecedented investments that have significantly raised the quality of life for Nashvillians. Safe neighborhoods, good schools and improvement of the quality of life for citizens throughout the city have been the focus of his administration. Over the past several years, providing sidewalks, green space and developing mixed-use communities have been city-funding priorities. For example, in the preceding 100 years of Nashville history, a total of $10 million had been invested in sidewalks. In Mayor Purcell's first year in office, Nashville invested $25 million on fixing and building new sidewalks. The city developed a strategic plan in 2003 that recommends an investment of $200 million over ten years to improve opportunities for walking and biking throughout the county. The Mayor's "Office of Neighborhoods" helps communities to plan specific needs and develop resources to promote safer, more active communities within the city. Purcell is focused on increasing the availability of downtown residential units and preserving housing stock in the city’s historic neighborhoods. In 2002 Nashville completed the Metropolitan Parks and Greenways Master Plan which calls for $260 million to develop additional parks, walking paths, outdoor activities and recreational opportunities across the entire county. The Mayor has allocated an average of $35 million per year for parks and recreation since the plan's adoption--the largest public appropriation to the system in the history of Nashville. One of the most important efforts has been to promote physical activity. City agencies have been developing alternative zoning codes and regulations that provide the linchpin of these efforts. Nashville is one of 25 partner communities in the Active Living by Design program, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and is frequently visited by planners and designers hoping to achieve similar results in their own communities. In his presentation, Purcell will share with participants his plans that have made Nashville a national community example, how he guided these efforts to fruition, and the resulting quality of life improvements for the city of Nashville.