With the participation of more than 45 school district members, students, local and regional government, and business representatives, Build Pagosa accomplished a major milestone toward the design and construction of the future regional workforce center, to be located on the Pagosa Springs High School (PSHS) property.
Build Pagosa is a charitable organization dedicated to providing volunteer opportunities for the building trades industry, local businesses, and Pagosa Springs residents who want to support the educational, vocational, communication, economic and stabilization goals within the community.
In 2023, Build Pagosa raised $150,000 through community fundraising and generous donations. The organization has secured $650,000 in grant funds with additional larger grants awaiting approval. Their summer internship program included 47 students and 36 industry partners, CTE enrollment has increased, and graduates of the PSHS Career and technical Education program are finding good paying jobs in their desired trades. Plans are being finalized for a future Regional Workforce Center.
On Thursday, January 11, in collaboration with PSHS and the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation, Build Pagosa commissioned consultants from Colorado State University’s Institute for the Built Environment to facilitate a design charrette to capture the vision, values and ideas of the multitude of community stakeholders in attendance.
A design charrette is a type of participatory planning process that assembles an interdisciplinary team, typically consisting of the primary users of the project, local/regional and state officials, local businesses/industry partners, architects, community members and other stakeholders to create a design and implementation plan for a specific project.
A key component of a design charrette is time compression. The design charrette process encourages collaboration between groups that would not traditionally work together in a planning process. It allows a number of different options and scenarios to be explored, provides designers with insights into a community’s needs and values they may not otherwise have considered, and provides community members the opportunity to be directly involved in the design process. Our participants worked together in brainstorming sessions, smaller working groups, sketching workshops and other exercises for a solid eight hours.
According to the U.S. National Charrette Institute, “the French word, ‘charrette’ means ‘cart’ and is often used to describe the final, intense work effort expended by art and architecture students to meet a project deadline. This use of the term is said to originate in Paris during the 19th century, where proctors circulated a cart, or ‘charrette’, to collect final drawings while students frantically put finishing touches on their work.”
Highlights from the event include the enthusiasm of the five career and technical education student participants who impressed the community members with their confidence, sharing insights with the attendees who were previously unfamiliar with the current facilities’ space limitations. The students presented their ideas and vision for programming and design concepts for the future of the building, as well as future students.
The event was a great success. We will share more details about recommendations from the consultants when they share their report of findings, and suggestions for next steps.