The Center for Resilient Metro-regions (CRM) provides community planning and design services and applied research. Most of our work is in land use, climate change, urban greening and low-impact development, public space, and the intersections of these with housing and economic development. We work at a range of scales, from rural communities to complex metropolitan regions. Work with communities is often organized as a class studio project, providing service-learning opportunities for students and benefits for the communities who fund the studios. Other ways we work with communities is through consulting contracts through CRM or by placing student interns in your office. CRM is a state-certified provider of Municipal Vulnerability Planning. Communities who are interested in CRM services can contact us - click here for contact information.
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CRM Services
The Center has been the vehicle for Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning (LARP) to undertake service work with communities, often on a scale of $15,000 to just a few hundred dollars. Through CRM, faculty and students in LARP (and in other affiliated programs) have drafted comprehensive plans as well as specific plans such as downtown urban design, community participation, economic/facility re-use, and sustainability plans. Many of the projects have a strong component of social justice. Communities often call us to do community participation forums because they know of our commitment to, and skill with, engaging diverse communities in public meetings. CRM currently offers particular expertise in three areas:
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Research Base
The Center is also where faculty offer communities the opportunity to tap into world-class research and innovation. For instance, methods of applying low-impact development have been tested through CRM-related research, and then applied in studios. The New England Greenway plan was developed through CRM to test theories of how to bring together land with various forms of ownership and protection into a contiguously linked recreational network with integrated ecological and cultural benefits, and to develop a method for valuing the outcomes in communities with this sort of investment in public recreation. And in CRM-related work, we are developing a new approach to engaging the public and experts in more sustainable, resilient infrastructure planning. Links to some of our major current research projects include: SAGE Research Collaboration Network on Sustainable Adaptive Gradients in the coastal Environment EcoTarium Urban Eco FACULTY SCHOLARWORKS PAGE |
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