The “Design:SouthDakota” team was created to help small rural communities in South Dakota to gather and connect many visions for designing a better future. Design:SouthDakota is a three step process of mixing local history, culture and knowledge with expertise and experience from outside architects, engineers, designers and community development practitioners. The three steps are

1. Discovery and Charrette Preparation,
2. a Three-Day Charrette (an intense, interactive visioning and design session in the community hosted by the Design:SouthDakota team), and
3. Idea Implementation.

Our first pilot community was Corsica, SD. The “Project Corsica” charrette took place in May, 2007, with implementation now in progress. We are in the early stages of selecting the next Design:SouthDakota community, with plans to hold another charrette in Spring 2008. The goal of Design:SouthDakota is to host meaningful conversations in small towns about the future, to help communities harvest and connect the many ideas and visions they hold, and to apply design and community development talent and expertise to those ideas in a way that the community would not be able to accomplish without Design:SouthDakota’s assistance. The Design:SouthDakota project was started as part of the American Institute of Architects’ 150th Anniversary Celebration, as a way to assist communities and to showcase the talents and generosity of South Dakota’s design professionals.

Five organizations took the lead in launching Design:SouthDakota in Corsica: AIA South Dakota (Sioux Falls, SD), The Rural Learning Center (Howard, SD), Planning and Development District III (Yankton, SD), Corsica Public High School, and the Corsica Commercial Club. In addition, many volunteers from the Corsica community helped to make Project Corsica a success, including Corsica Commercial Club members and the Senior English class at Corsica High School.

The project has impacted both the Corsica community and the Design:SouthDakota team members. Many team members enjoyed an experience that challenged their assumptions about small towns, and gained a new appreciation for the energy, assets and ideas that can exist there. The Corsica community members now have 13 ideas illustrated on 2’ x 3’ boards, to hold forever. Community members have begun organizing around various projects as a result of the charrette. Perhaps the largest impact can be seen in the way community members are now beginning to tackle the process of building a better future by design. More people are involved in decision making, more input is gathered, and leaders are beginning to recognize how all the efforts and initiatives in the community are connected to each other and the future success of the community.

The original pilot project in Corsica was funded by grants from the American Institute of Architects AIA150th celebration and from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, along with in-kind support from AIA South Dakota, Planning and Development District III, The Rural Learning Center, Corsica Commercial Club and many volunteer professionals. Moving forward, Design:SouthDakota will be made possible by support from TSP Architects in Sioux Falls, various other sponsors, and by the communities the Project will serve.

For more on Corsica’s Design:SouthDakota project please contact:

Joe Bartmann, The Rural Learning Center, 109 N. Main St., Howard, SD 57349, 605.772.5139, , http://designsd.org

Alan Wiesekamp, TSP, 1112 N. West Ave., Sioux Falls, SD 57104, 605.336.1160, , http://teamtsp.com

Eric Ambroson, Planning and Development District III, 1808 Summit Street, Yankton, SD 57078, 605.665.4408, , http://districtiii.org