Concordia: Community Centered Planning & Design

We create harmony through design.
www.concordia.com

“Concordia,” is our one word name and mission statement. Simply put, it means harmony and agreement among people and things. Our approach to architecture, planning, and urban design is based upon collaboration. Community and user engagement is not just one component of our work; it is a hallmark of our success. As we celebrate our 30th anniversary, we are proud to present our innovative and socially conscious planning and design studio that has developed based on a set of authentic and community-centered principles of practice.

To implement this highly integrative work, we have developed a framework for community planning and design that we call nexus. This nexus approach includes a high level of collaboration with our client and or client’s client – which more often than not extends to the community at large. So our Nexus framework helps to align all of the project’s physical, cultural, social, economic, organizational, and educational assets and needs in a way that both enhances planning and design outcomes and maximizes user and community benefits. In the planning process we often ask groups of people representing a cross-section of the user community to review project-related data, discuss design options, and make concrete recommendations. This method insures that the users and impacted community are always at the table, resulting in more effective ownership of the programmatic and operational outcomes.

Applications for our collaborative model have included some innovative research, planning and architectural design projects that span a wide range of building types; from the Jackson Brewery Festival Marketplace and Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, to the internationally acclaimed Henry Ford Learning Academy in Detroit, Michigan, and the Baker Ripley Neighborhood Center in Houston, Texas. Additionally, Concordia coordinated the post Katrina disaster planning that resulted in the creation of the Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP) and also led a disaster recovery planning plan for the tornado impacted community of Springfield, Massachusetts. Current planning and architectural design projects are underway in Louisiana, California, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Hawaii.