Join Design Connect as a Project Manger for the Spring 2024 semester!
Project manager applications are now open and will close November 24 at 11:59 p.m.
Project Manager Description:
The goal of the Project Manager position is to support student professional development throughout the project and leverage their passion and talent to advance collaborative, democratic, and sustainable design projects for partnering municipalities and non-profits. As a Design Connect Project Manager, you will use best practice recommendations working with your assigned project partner. You will be responsible for developing a strategic project plan to assure goals are met throughout the semester for a team of 5 to 10 student professionals in different disciplines to develop community designs. In these plans, you develop experiential learning objectives for teammates to gain skills in project design and implementation, community engagement, and professional writing and presentation. You will stipulate deliverable deadlines and will develop community engagement with your team, based on the community’s identification and definition of the problem to collect information, analyze options, and work with the community to design appropriate solutions. Throughout the semester you will manage project partner relations and seek advice from experts at Cornell University, practitioners in the Upstate New York area, and elsewhere.
Spring 2024 Projects
Town of Georgetown Outdoor Activities Area: Georgetown is a small rural town in Madison County that is looking to build a new outdoor activities area for its community. The town obtained property that can accommodate a playground, trails and outdoor recreation space for a new park space. This project will involve community engagement, planning, development, cost estimates and design for this site. Not only will this new outdoor space provide an environment for healthy and fun activities, it will also bring Georgetown’s small community a sense of pride. This project would be an excellent opportunity for a group of students to synthesize community ideas for a town's park and prepare a compelling design that can be used competitively to secure funding.
Fillmore Nature Preserve Trails: The Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council recently acquired ~161 acres of land, Fillmore Nature Preserve, within the Owasco Lake Watershed for the purposes of source water protection and stewardship. This new site is seeking design ideas and implementation of a trail network, including maps and signs. This project will offer students the opportunity to establish a new outdoor and recreation experience with planning, design and community engagement.
Village of Hammondsport’s Historic Park Rehabilitation: Depot Park, located on Keuka Lake in Hammondsport, NY, hopes to preserve their historic train depot building along with improving their public space amenities and use. The park is a popular amenity, with trails, swimming and fishing and the town wants to renovate the historic depot building to better accommodate water-related uses and community activity. The town is hoping to save the depot building, as well as introduce environmental sustainability and better public space utilization into the current park. This project will involve historic preservation planning and design, along with overall park and recreation improvements.
Town of Ithaca South Hill Trail Extension: The Town of Ithaca is looking to extend the South Hill pedestrian/bike trail from 3.4 miles to 7.8 miles to provide a connection to the Finger Lakes Trail. The Town hopes to have a conceptual plan for the unique site context, including a creek gully, residential access and stormwater erosion. The goals for the Project are to extend the network of trails in Tompkins County to encourage more residents to get outside and get exercise, enjoy nature and meet other trail users. This would be a great opportunity for students interested in working with local community members, environmental feasibility and trail work within Ithaca.
