Students in Kent State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design are working with the city of Warren, Ohio, to revitalize a portion of the community on the southwest side.
Sixteen third-year architecture students from Kent State, along with Associate Professor Bill Willoughby, are working on plans to revitalize the area around the Quinby and Jefferson neighborhoods in Warren. As part of the project, they are tasked with preserving the proud heritage of the area while better connecting it with the rest of the city.
So far, the project has included roughly six weeks of research and facilitated community meetings to understand the neighborhood and its needs. Some of the primary concerns they look to address include housing, food deserts and food swamps.
“We want to look at the geography of the land. Its natural geography. But its social geography too,” Willoughby told The Business Journal. “We want to do that in a way where we look at the large scale of a city, where we can look at a neighborhood and we can look at a site. In the end, these students will be developing an area plan that hopefully will be of value to the community.”
The Business Journal featured a video segment about the project. Check it out below.
Learn more about the College of Architecture and Environmental Design.
Top Photo Image Credit: The Business Journal.