designBridge: Integrating Transportation into Service Learning Design/Build Projects

This OTREC educational proposal develops transportation related projects through the interdisciplinary work of designBridge, a student-based organization focused on community oriented design/build projects. DesignBridge is based in the Department of Architecture within the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at the University of Oregon and has members from various departments including Planning, Public Policy, and Management (PPPM), Landscape Architecture, Geography, and Art. Its mission is to employ a service learning model that exposes students to actual architectural and planning projects within the community. In these projects, students are responsible for client contact, community outreach, project design, development, and final construction.…

This OTREC educational proposal develops transportation related projects through the interdisciplinary work of designBridge, a student-based organization focused on community oriented design/build projects. DesignBridge is based in the Department of Architecture within the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at the University of Oregon and has members from various departments including Planning, Public Policy, and Management (PPPM), Landscape Architecture, Geography, and Art. Its mission is to employ a service learning model that exposes students to actual architectural and planning projects within the community.  In these projects, students are responsible for client contact, community outreach, project design, development, and final construction. The proposed funding would focus this organization on two transportation based projects in the next year, exposing students from a range of disciplines to transportation issues while providing a needed transportation based service to the local community. 

Designbridge offers significant benefits to students, the local community, and the University as a whole. As a pedagogic model, the service learning structure of designBridge allows students to engage in their community while having real world experience related to the process of design and construction. Students are able to assess the needs of our surrounding community and can understand how the skills they are learning at the University are valuable, how they can be applied, and how they can provide a needed service. Through this, students are exposed to a diverse range of individuals and communities in our own area and are introduced to opportunities outside of the typical career trajectory.

The proposed funding would focus designBridge on two targeted transportation projects in the next year, one of which is currently identified and discussed throughout this document. Roosevelt Middle School currently participates in a Safe Routes to School program and has identified the need for a re-design of its current bicycle shelter and general bicycle access into the school property. In trying to promote non-auto Safe Routes to School, the location and condition of bike storage is currently seen as a deterrent to increased bicycle use. We would use the requested funding to promote an interchange of ideas between the middle school community and university students, for design development of the actual bicycle shelter/access, and for materials acquisition for the construction of the shelter.  All labor for the design and construction would be provided by University students and by the Roosevelt Middle School staff, faculty, students, and community. 

The proposed transportation focused projects will allow members of designBridge to familiarize themselves with use and design related issues of bicycle transportation that will not only be educational in this specific project, but will also be carried with them as they work professionally after graduation. Taking on transportation related service-learning projects will undoubtedly have a lasting effect on the community, and Roosevelt Middle School and the University students.