Carleton University architecture students have teamed up with the Somerset Street Chinatown BIA to develop projects to improve the design, look and feel of Chinatown.
The students from Carleton’s urban studies heritage conservation class have been working with the community since September to come up with innovative plans to improve various aspects of Chinatown.
Jim Mountain, the professor who runs the project, says the initiative benefits both the students and businesses in the area.
“I believe in application and I believe in real experience for students,” Mountain says.
“We approached the BIA three years ago, and they were open to a student group coming in and looking at their area in a comprehensive way.”
Students have been working on a variety of projects, from creating guidelines for store front developments to looking at the BIA’s marketing plan for the area.
The area has suffered from criticisms that is ‘run down’ and ‘unkept’. .
Mountain says a key component of the program is to develop of design guidelines for business owners that would encourage owners to follow a cohesive look and feel in their developments, like specific building materials and colours, and good quality signage.
“Many successful communities, in terms of how they address and manage change in their areas, work with these types of guideline tools.”
The students aren’t the only ones participating in the process. Mountain says he believes in a bottom-up approach to the planning, which involves community input at every step of the project.
Grace Xin, the BIA executive director, says the students’ projects are already making a difference.
She says the red lamp posts on Somerset Street used to be green, but the community changed them in response to student suggestions that would give the area more of a Chinatown feel.
“Red represents happiness in most of the Asian nations,” Xin says.
Xin says some student projects have helped the BIA immensely in their long-term planning.
As part of the project, students completed an inventory of every building in the Chinatown area, and collected all the historical data, architectural details and condition assessments of the buildings.
Terence Tourangeau, a master’s student involved in the project, says he believes their efforts could have a snowball effect.
“A few key changes could empower the community to take on greater initiatives down the road,” he says.
“I really think that a community develops from a sense of belonging, a common sense of pride and ownership in the public realm.”
The students met with Xin in September to go over the BIA’s goals for the area, and then met with the community and the BIA on November 14 to go over a draft of their projects. Their revisions and final projects will be completed in the next month or two.
Mountain says he thinks the group’s approach to development and improvement in the area is more effective than hiring a professional design team.
“We go in, and we listen first, then plan around what we’ve heard,” he says. “It’s a different approach than a very traditional approach where expert designers come in and say, ‘this is what it should be like.’”
Xin says that the students are helping improve some of Chinatown’s most priceless assets to the community.
“Our buildings serve as a reminder of the community history and are the most visible source of the neighbourhood’s uniqueness,” she says.
“The Carleton project reminds us to take all this into consideration when we try to expand and review the neighbourhood.”