Participatory Design Process
Open Road/Cornell Participatory Design Process
Living Memorials Project

1. Organizing
10/23/03: Open Road presents Living Memorial idea to community, concept is approved
10/23-11/30/03: Prepare plan and draft proposal, Create participatory design process/curricula
2/5/04: Open Road recruits design team members and local leaders
3/1//04 Open Road selected as Living Memorial site
3/6/04: Cornell students visit Open Road
a. Meet with students, teachers, custodian, neighbors
b. Create your design team
3/1-3/6/04: Cornell students and Open Road break into design teams
c. Decide what you need to know
d. Learn what you can and can’t do
3/6/04: Arch students receive background information from Open Road
3/18 and 3/19/04 LMP forum: Open Road receives info from Living Memorial staff and participants
e. Plan your budget and timeline
3/22/04: Open Road prepares revised budget based on award amount
f. Train adults, teenagers, and kids
2/5 through week of 5/15/04: Open Road teams meet M, T, Th, F, S, Cornell teams meet T, Th
g. Select your site, project or theme
3/26/04: Surveys show desires for themes that are living/ symbolic, not literal references to WTC, 9/11

2. Fact Finding
a. Study your site (perimeter, sun/shade, soil)
3/6/04: Cornell students test soil pH, sun/shade, map all trees and shrubs, study use
b. Find or make maps and a base model of your site
3/6/04: Cornell students receive base map of site, week of 3/8 convert these into CAD, make maps
c. Study people near your site and people who will use it
d. Study people’s current use and desires for the design
e. Learn about neighborhood and city wide resources
3/26/04 Cornell students receive Open Road surveys/ site studies/interviews for C, D, E

3. Generating Design Ideas
a. Make drawings and lists of design ideas
b. Make moveable model pieces of design ideas
Week of 4/5/04 Open Road and Cornell teams create conceptual designs on base maps & models
c. Generate design ideas on the model
4/8/04: Open Road visits Cornell. All teams move/change/critique design ideas on models
Week of 5/16 (date to be announced): Cornell visits Open Road to present designs to community.

4. Creating a Design
5/16 through 8/30/2004: Design Workshops held at Open Road Park.
8/30/04: Design finalized with community approval

5. Building the Place
9/1/04-11/30/04: Trees planted. Community builds/ plants designs approved within budget
9/1/04-12/30/04: New funds raised for additional designs approved by community
6/30/05: Living Memorial dedicated and open to the public. Stewardship plan is in place.