Direct Design Technical Assistance

The Direct Design Technical Assistance Program (DDTA) (originally known as the Urban Design Technical Assistance) has grown to be the leading outreach program at the Metropolitan Design Center. Originally funded in 2003, thanks to a generous grant support by the McKinght Foundation’s Communities and Regions Program, the DDTA program has established an unyielding presence in the Twin Cities metropolitan region. Today, the program is recognized as a technical design outreach entity that is able to provide the kind of urban design assistance that our community partners have found to be very productive and valuable.

 

DDTA’s Approach

The DDTA program is tailored to respond to the needs of the Twin Cities Metropolitan cities, communities and non-profit organizations based on three essential objectives:

 

• To assist cities, non-profits and communities with issues and projects that strive to achieve livable and sustainable development goals integrating green and livable city design initiatives into projects related to quality of urban public space, linking transportation and land use and economic policies and developing residential design options across demographic needs.

• To develop and expand a design language that will allow for a clear decision-making process and design direction to advance sustainable design options and opportunities via community-based workshops leading to the drafting of urban design solutions and sustainable design guidelines that integrate new visions of livable communities.
• To involve members of regional or local government planning and transportation agencies early on in the technical design assistance process and engage them so that they are participants in the community’s dialogue and aspirations to become a sustainable and livable community.

The diversity of community design outcomes that can emerge from the DDTA process has made the program a visible aspect of the Metropolitan Design Center activities. This is because the type of community design and technical assistance provided by the DDTA program is generally not available through the normal channels of professional consultants, nor do the communities themselves have the knowledge, resources or political support to engage in explorations that can lead to the path of creating livable communities.  Often the projects require bringing forward the support and advice from various state, county or local governmental agencies to participate in the DDTA process with the community and to jointly integrate different solutions guiding the development of sustainable design strategies.

 

Research Team

Ignacio San Martin, Dayton Hudson Professor

Chair of Urban Design and Director Metropolitan Design Center

Adrienne Bockheim, Research Fellow, DDA Program Coordinator

Karen Wood, Administrative Specialist

Wanda Lee, Financial Services, College of Design

 

Graduate Research Assistants

Josh Sohn

Joe Krummel

Olawale Falade

Rosemary Dolata