GRADUATE STUDENTS HELP HARRISBURG URBAN STUDIO COMMUNITY RELATIONS EFFORT Penn State's architecture grad students tour city's urban neighborhoods to begin planning for the Urban Studio As part of the Harrisburg Urban Studio Penn State University graduate students tour the city to become familiar with the urban neighborhoods.   (Harrisburg, PA) -- With the official launch date of January 1, 2005 less than three months away, an advance group of architecture graduate students from Penn State University's Hamer Center of Community Design Assistance are working to develop the initial neighborhood mapping and planning process necessary for establishing good community relations in the various Harrisburg neighborhoods. Penn State graduate students, Greg Olsen, Aru Sett, Glen Walters, Greg Webb, Matt Wisniewski and Jie Zhang, recently toured the city's urban neighborhoods with Urban Studio Community Relations Committee co-chairs Dr. Caru Bowns of Penn State's Department of Landscape Architecture and Maria Diaz of the GTS Design Group. The purpose of the tour was to familiarize the students with the community and help them develop a plan to establish communications and methodology for future Urban Studio project development. "It's important that we integrate the students into the Urban Studio planning as early and as often as possible," Ms. Diaz said. "Familiarizing them with the neighborhoods and a methodology for project development will help us provide both an optimal educational experience and an understanding of the city's various communities." The Harrisburg Urban Studio is a program started by Mayor Stephen Reed that is modeled after Auburn University's famous Rural Studio, a program that provides architectural students with a practical learning experience while enhancing the environment of disadvantaged communities. Consisting of Harrisburg area architecture professionals and professors from state colleges and universities, the Community Relations Advisory Committee's primary function will be to interact with city neighborhoods, review neighborhood needs and prioritize projects for Urban Studio consideration. Pennsylvania's leading architecture colleges will send students to study, design and build in the Harrisburg Urban Studio. Representatives from the schools of architecture at Carnegie-Mellon University, The Pennsylvania State University, Temple University, Lehigh University as well as Auburn University's Rural Studio have formed a task force to establish the Harrisburg Urban Studio. Led by co-chairs Caru Bowns, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, PSU, and Maria Diaz of GTS Design Group, LTD, the Urban Studio Community Relations Committee includes: Thomas E. Potter, AIA, of Architecture YTT; Terry Martini, Director of the City of Harrisburg's Department of Building and Housing Development; Dan Leppo, Deputy Director for Planning; and the graduate students of architecture. The Harrisburg Urban Studio is a project of Mayor Stephen R. Reed's Harrisburg Urban Initiative. For further information contact Nathan Pigott, Hershey Philbin Associates, npigott@hersheyphilbin.com or 717.975.2148. ###

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