Project RiverWay Reports
Over the past five years of working with communities from Columbus, Georgia/ Phenix City, Alabama to Apalachicola, Florida, Danny Bivins and Leigh Askew Elkins of the Fanning Institute at the University of Georgia have developed a process to receive extensive community input on both general and specific community issues and successfully integrate that information into com munity visioning and development plans. The Process utilizes professionals in the fields of community and economic development and student interns in partnership with a host community to create a multidiscipline asset-based approach. The key principle of this process is that you must first design for those who are in and of the place. Without that, there will be no support for implementation.
Project Riverway Report: Summer 2006
On June 11 2006, twelve UGA students, faculty and staff - including Danny Bivins and Leigh Askew of the Fanning Institute, as well as Jennifer Lewis of the Center for Community Design and Preservation - departed on a four-day, bi-state journey from Columbus, Ga., to Fort Gaines, Ga. The trip kicked off a three-year effort dubbed "The Chattahoochee Summer Studio," an initiative based out of the Fanning Institute that aims to improve communities along the Lower Chattahoochee River.
Project Riverway Report: Summer 2007
Project Riverway takes place during the University of Georgia’s summer semester. Each session focuses on a different region of the river. To date Project Riverway has gone from Columbus, Georgia/ Phenix City, Alabama to Chattahoochee, Florida. Students participate in the project for course credit and/or internship credit. They begin by generating creative ideas and designs for communities in the region as a whole. Next, multi-disciplinary final projects are developed.
Project Riverway Report: Summer 2008
The third year of Project Riverway brought the students and faculty across state lines into the Florida towns of Chattahoochee and Apalachicola. As we changed states, the Chattahoochee River became the Apalachicola River as it flows out of Lake Seminole, and in both communities, students looked at opportunities for community redevelopment, from downtown streetscapes to riverside parks to a riverwalk along the Apalachicola Bay.
Project Riverway Report: Summer 2009
The fourth year of Project Riverway launched from the banks of the Apalachicola River with myriad opportunities before the assembled team. Revitalizing downtown Chattahoochee, with its historic storefront facades, improving opportunities for pedestrian movement, and providing alternative transportation modes were addressed, along with wayfinding, signage, and additional recreational options for residents and visitors alike. Just across the river in Sneads, downtown restoration, recreational amenities, and the adaptive reuse of the former port authority docks quickly became the focus that will build stronger links between these two quaint towns. As Lee Garner, Chattahoochee’s city manager told us, “The river doesn’t divide us, it binds us.”
Project Riverway Report: Summer 2010
The Fanning Institute's Project Riverway, in its fifth year, had the exciting opportunity to work both for and with residents of Donalsonville and Seminole County to develop creative solutions to address specifically identified issues within the area. The Project Riverway team spent nearly a week in Donalsonville talking with residents, visitors and local leaders about the tremendous assets of the area and the dreams for their community. The team, which included two Master of Historic Preservation interns and four landscape architecture interns, returned to The University of Georgia campus and spent the next nine weeks immersed in turning the hundreds of ideas, from strengthening the connection between downtown and the lake to beautifying US 84, into a focused, illustrated vision.
