Communities

DesignConnect is a student run Community Design organization based at Cornell University. We are committed to partnering with communities to address significant planning and design issues through a participatory and multidisciplinary process. This process requires a meaningful commitment of time and resources from both the community and DesignConnect.
Services

DesignConnect offers community-based planning, design, and policy work in the following areas:

  • Research and Analysis
  • Charrettes & Participatory Visioning
  • Town and Master Planning
  • Conceptual Designs for Public Spaces
  • Public & Non-Profit Strategy

Process

Students from across Cornell’s disciplines:

  • Architecture
  • Landscape Architecture
  • City & Regional Planning
  • Design and Environmental Analysis
  • Real Estate
  • Development Sociology
  • Sociology
  • Regional Science
  • Historic Preservation

Together participants form teams, and work with input from a faculty advisor and the community sponsor. Teams engage community members to shape an initial project idea into a conceptual design that reflects local needs and inspires the community to move the project forward.

Most teams are formed and work within an academic semester; however, DesignConnect also encourages applicants with long term projects to submit proposals. Projects requiring more than one semester’s work should have distinct components with deliverables to be completed each semester.

Cost

We ask for an upfront donation of $400 per project per semester to provide financial support to the organization as a whole. This is not intended to be payment for services, but rather to cover a range of activities such as student travel to project sites, supplies for presentations and meetings, administrative expenses, and support for ongoing student efforts. If your organization is unable to provide this support please contact us to discuss alternatives.

If requested by the client, DesignConnect participants will log in-kind hours at a rate of $15 per hour which can be used in the future to support the clients’ grants. These in-kind hours can be used to document total hours already logged on a project if and when communities apply for grants that require applicants to provide matching hours.