A vision for renewal : a design workshop for the East Garrison at Fort Ord, Monterey County, CA

64 Pages·1996·4 MB·English

by  Mayors' Institute on City Design. West

A Design Workshop for
East Garrison Fort Ord
the at
CA
Monterey County,
The Mayors Institute on City Design:West
University ol California, Berkeley
National Endowment for the Arts
Leadership Initiative for Federal Property Conversion

A Design Workshop for
East Garrison Fort Ord
the at
CA
Monterey County,
Sewal
The Mayors Institute on City Design:West
University of California, Berkeley
National Endowment for the Arts
Leadership Initiative for Federal Property Conversion
This projectis supported in part bya cooperative agreement
from the National Endowmentfor theArts.

INTRODUCTION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Contents BACKGROUND
Planning Context
•ast Garrison History
Existing Conditions
Stakeholders
PROCESS TO DATE
22 ayors Institute on City Design:West
ommunity Goal Setting
Design Charrette Workshop
esign Review
ational Panel Analysis
owards a Master Plan for the East Garrison
IMMUNITY GOALS
(ESIGN CHARRETTE SCHEMES
iNALYSIS BY THE NATIONAL PANEL
OWARDS A MASTER PLAN FORTHE EAST GARRISON
INDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
•ARTICIPANTS
'•-**
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The Mayors Institute on City Design, sponsored
by the National Endowment for the Arts, brings
to community attention the power of city design
and the idea that the design of places can be an
important tool in local decision making.
The Mayors Institute became part of the East
Garrison planning process when local activists
brought the project to the attention of the
Endowment's Leadership Initiative. The Mayors
Institute on City Design: West at the University
of California, Berkeley, assembled a team of faculty
NEA
members, prominent design professionals,
Design leaders and students who worked with
public agencies and private groups interested in
developing a fresh approach to the East Garrisons
unresolved planning process.
W
The project was first considered at the MICD: conference
in Berkeley, California, in November 1996. Edith Johnsen,
then Chair ofthe Monterey County Board of Supervisors,
presented the East Garrison as a case study to the panel of
mayors, resource persons and University of California faculty
members. At the end ofthe Institute, SupervisorJohnsen
NEA
suggested that the support further design exploration
ofEast Garrison planning issues.
<
.This report reflects the effort to practice
a profound democratic principle:
that we, as a people,
can govern ourselves
and make wise decisions in the common interest.
Together, a group ofpeople came to the East Garrison to workwith
each other and the land itselfto meet our complex needs, hopes,
dreams, and visions.
We
set three goals:
1 To learn how we might shape the land in ways
thatwould serve the whole community.
2 To find new democratic practices as an example
for this region,the state and the nation.
3 To discover how to share a long happy future
ofstewardship with the land itself.
The land, Ft. Ord's East Garrison, is a dramatic site with an important
history. Ft. Ord as a whole has been the focus ofan extraordinary-
planning effort during the past six years. Already significant parts of
its 28,000 acres have been integrated into the community-most as part
ofthe state university system and as a 17,000 acre Bureau ofLand
Management environmental conservation area.The East Garrison's
approximately 750 acres provide a different opportunity and challenge
for the community design process.
The National Endowment for the Arts which sponsors both the Federal
Property Conversion Leadership Initiative and the Mayors Institute on
UC
City Design collaborated with Berkeley to bring design teams to the
East Garrison. The Mayors Institute on City Design: West, held in
Berkeley in November, 1996, began to explore the site and was looking
toward developing an exploratory forum that would bring all interested to learn
sectors ofthe community together in a collaborative process to consider
a win/win shared future for the East Garrison. Part ofthat process was
to bring outstanding designers to the site itselftojoin the community to find
in exploring the future development ofthe East Garrison.
The Fort Ord Reuse Authority, Monterey County leadership, representatives
from groups interested in the East Garrison site, and planners and architects
UC
from Berkeley and elsewhere used the opportunity presented by these
workshops to look carefully at the site itself; and then began to discuss ideas
and to develop a vision leading to a set ofshared principles for the future
development ofthe East Garrison.The following report summarizes the
process and results ofthe site analysis, two weekend workshops, and reviews,
and public presentations.
Samina Quraeshi
Director ofDesign
National Endowment for the Arts
Understanding the site itself, both its physical form and its
community meaning, is the critical component in planning
the East Garrison's future.That understanding was approached
through guided site walks and facilitated workshops, and
informed the work of the three University of California,
Berkeley, design teams during the design workshops as well as a
national panel of design professionals who reviewed the schemes
and proposed next steps. In the community participation process
continuing to date, computer modeling of a composite scheme
furthered the community's understanding ofthe site and
provided an additional tool for assessing development and design
proposals.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
JRBANIZED
\REAS
Six main principles emerged from analysis of the site.
The land,with its sharply differentiated plateau, ^% All uses and development ofthe site whether
sloping meadows and clusters oftrees should be through minimal investment or through major
the first consideration in organizing structures transformation should in some way reflect on
and activities on the site. the history and character ofthe place and the
significance ofits transformation from swords
The pattern ofconstruction on the site is derived to plowshares.These uses can include education,
directly from the army's requirements for culture,and the simple pleasures ofbeing in a
mobilizing and training recruits.Proper treatment
peaceful landscape.
ofthe buildings and their immediate surroundings ^
should include elements that would make the Whatever future the East Garrison has is intimately
history ofthis remarkable place clear. tied to the arrangements and provisions made for
the rest ofFort Ord and is dependent on the
The way the site has been used offers suggestions resources,both financial and natural,that will be
for its future.The great parade grounds were in fact required for Fort Ord's transformation.
camp grounds,occupied at full mobilization by rows
and rows oftents rigorously planned and organized ^% Site development should be compact so that uses
by parallel roads but undulating across the land and are centered around areas already developed.This
dodging existing oaks. approach to developmentwill consume less land
for new construction,promote the reuse ofexisting
buildings,and limit the costfor new infrastructure.