Welcome Patrick Blaydes!

Patrick Blaydes is a Housing Associate with buildingcommunityWORKSHOP.   Patrick's work revolves around expanding the quantity, improving the quality and broadening the pervasiveness of affordable housing in Dallas, thereby allowing for a greater degree of personal housing choice for residents of affordable housing.

With roots in Dallas that go back five generations to the first century of Dallas's history, Patrick has had both personal and professional experience with a number of different communities throughout Dallas.  Patrick has worked in private, public and non-profit organizations throughout the past decade with experience in comprehensive planning, transportation planning, neighborhoods planning, affordable housing development, CDBG programs, and working with the homeless in the community.

He attended Austin College majoring in History and Political Science, and graduate school at the University of Texas at Arlington focusing on Urban Affairs.

Settlements to Districts - Tracing the Identities of Downtown Dallas Neighborhoods

By Amruta Sakalker

Over the last decade Downtown Dallas has diversified its offerings from a single use office district to include cultural, residential, and entertainment opportunities 24/7. Today’s Downtown Dallas has a rich history of neighborhoods with unique identities and wide range of uses. As Downtown continues to evolve and strengthen its neighborhoods, it is critical to understand the lineage of socio-cultural character, design, and urban fabric that has given the neighborhoods their unique identity. While these identities are malleable, they can impact the direction of development in neighborhoods. Knowing the narratives of identities empowers neighborhoods to evolve stronger representational identities that emerge through their own stories and adds value to them. To illustrate the variety of these evolutions, we trace back Downtown Dallas Districts through this blog post.

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POPonymy - An Interpretive Typology of Dallas Neighborhood Names

By Thomas Simpson

Dallas neighborhood names speak volumes about the city’s complexion. Just as our words offer insight into our character, the way the city describes itself and names its parts- its toponymy- offer insight into its anatomy, its aspirations, its values, and its history. Rather than a study of the origin of individual place names, this is a typology of toponymy, revealing the city’s values through categories of place names. Neighborhoods are the building blocks of cities; what information can we elicit about the city collectively from the kind of names it gives it components?

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Welcome Amruta Sakalker!

Check out Amruta's page for updates on future projects!

We're excited to welcome Amruta Sakalker as our newest bcFELLOW!

Amruta recently graduated from Penn State with a Masters in Architecture. She received the University Graduate Fellowship from Penn State in 2013, the highest level of award given to incoming graduate student. Her research interest lies in understanding the role of various cultural desires and urban networks in the evolution of a city, especially in urban public spaces. Her master's thesis focused on studying the impact of transient methods of design for civic spaces around extensively used train stations. Before pursuing her masters she was working as a cartographer and project assistant for an urban research and art project called "Cinema City" in Mumbai, India. Working with an interdisciplinary team of artists, architects, film makers, photographers and planners the study focused on how cinema making processes impact the urban fabric of the city through the unorganized small scale industries, settlement patterns, labor flow and development policies. She was also a part of the team exhibiting the project at Berlinale in Germany for an international audience. She was an Associate with SJK Architects in Mumbai for two and a half years where she worked on many hospitality and office projects. Taking forward her experience working in parallel with community based institutions and direct engagement with citizens as clients, she is excited to join [bc] Dallas team.

Welcome T Hanson!

Check out T's page for updates on future projects!

We're excited to welcome T Hanson to the [bc] family!

Tamson "T" Hanson joins the [bc] leadership team as Chief Revenue Officer.  T spent the last 7 years in Dallas at the environmental non-profit, Trinity River Audubon Center. As Director of Operations, she managed the LEED-Gold, Antoine Predock, facility developing and growing many successful earned revenue programs. In 2013, she launched the partnership with [bc]’s Neighborhood Stories project to tell the history of Audubon’s south Dallas community which culminated in the release of [bc]’s Out of Deepwood documentary.

Prior to her non-profit work, T spent 15+ years working in the corporate business and technology arena. She has been a systems engineer for IBM, and technology architect and development manager for Sabre and American Airlines IT departments where she led strategic business ventures.  Her team launched aa.com during the transition from travel agency flight purchasing to consumer-driven online ticketing. 

T hails from New England with a Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science from Boston University and a professional certificate in Sustainable Food Systems from the University of Vermont.  T is a conservationist and locavore who stays engaged in the community keeping up with her 4 active teenagers.

[bc] and Downtown Dallas 360

Over the past two months, [bc] has participated in six public events for Downtown Dallas 360, the recently revisited master planning process undertaken by the member-based Downtown advocacy organization Downtown Dallas, Inc (DDI) and its project partners. [bc] is among those partners, teaming up with DDI to incorporate Draw Your Neighborhood into the 360 engagement process. 

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POP at the DHL Boot Camp!

Two weeks ago, as part of our year long POP Neighborhood Map engagement process, [bc] participated in the annual Dallas Homeowners League (DHL) Boot Camp. This years DHL gathering, titled "Return of the City", brought together neighborhood leaders from across Dallas for a day of discussions and best practice-sharing.

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The History of the POP Neighborhood Map

[bc] has always aspired to impact neighborhoods across the state by using design to build capacity and empower communities. In Dallas, [bc] reasoned that in order to support neighborhoods through our work, we first needed to know what and where the neighborhoods of Dallas were, launching what was then known as the Dallas Neighborhoods Project.

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Introducing the POP Neighborhood Map blog!

The POP Neighborhood Map Blog is a new digital platform that will chronicle the evolution of the POP Neighborhood Map and expounds why neighborhoods matter.  The launch of this blog coincides with the  launch of two new interactive digital tools - Know Your Neighborhood and Draw Your Neighborhood - the most recent effort of our ongoing POP Neighborhood Map project. 

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Welcome David Tucker!

We're excited to welcome David Tucker as the newest member of our RGV office!

David Tucker is a bcFELLOW at buildingcommunityWORKSHOP.  David works on making projects in the Brownsville office such as sustainABLEhouse which uses design as a tool to improve the livability of people’s homes and communities.  David is also helping to develop Activating Vacancy initiatives in the Rio Grande Valley that use the arts as a catalyst for neighborhood development.  David came to [bc] straight from his graduate studies at the University of Virginia where he researched migrant farmer trajectories and future water use along the Texas/Mexico Border.  He holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Virginia, and A Bachelor of Fine Arts from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Welcome Radhika Raman!

Radhika Raman is the newest bcFellow in the Dallas office, where she'll be working with Andrew Kramer on [bc]'s ongoing communications efforts and developing communications strategies to enhance [bc]'s mission. She is a native Houstonian and recent graduate of American University in Washington, DC, where she earned a B.A. in Journalism and Spanish. She looks forward to applying her experience in nonprofit communications and public relations to [bc]'s mission while learning as much as possible about public design and design justice. 

Welcome Emily McMillan!

Emily McMillan was born and raised in Midland, Texas. She moved to Boston to attend art school at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts. A love of drawing and a passion for environmental stewardship lead her to pursue a Master's in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2013. During her time at the GSD she was awarded a Penny White Grant to study public spaces in the Texas Colonias. She brings a background in visual arts, agriculture, small scale garden design and environmental education. Her past experience includes working in the southwest on community service design projects in East Austin and developing municipal grants for rural towns near Marfa, Texas.

Welcome Corey Browder!

This week we are welcoming our newest Fellow, Corey Browder, to [bc]!

Corey is the newest bcFellow in the Houston office where he will be working with Ann Panopio and Jonathan Mann on DR2. He is a native Texan and hails from Dallas. He earned his B.S. in Architecture from Prairie View A&M University and is also receiving his Masters in Architecture from his alma mater with focus in Community Development. He has a passion for acknowledging cultural significances and natural elements through research development and responsive design.

Welcome Michael Cochran!

Hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, Michael Cochran joins [bc] with a passion for working with people to develop healthier, better educated, safer, and more creative communities.

Moving from the Midwest out to Los Angeles, Michael studied Architecture at the University of Southern California. At USC, Michael was recognized as a Global Scholar having spent time studying and partnering with organizations around the world including time in Southeast Asia and Southern Mexico. After graduating from USC and before joining [bc], Michael's desire to travel and learn through different cultures led him to spend 14 months working in Matagalpa, Nicaragua designing public oriented projects through the municipal planning office.

Aside from traveling, Michael loves riding his bike, listening to and playing music, and learning new things, but most of all he just loves people.

Welcome Tom Hill!

Thomas Hill joins the bcWorkshop Fellows Program after working in design/build and organic farming in Virginia, and studying at the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems in Austin, TX. Since graduating from Architecture school at the University of Virginia, Thomas has become increasingly interested in low-tech sustainable solutions that re-connect people with nature and rehabilitate damaged landscapes. Thomas is grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the ethical, holistic, community design process for which bcWorkshop is so highly regarded.

Welcome Jonathan Mann!

Jonathan Mann is a native New Mexican who has recently relocated to Texas. He has a degree in Art History from the University of Oregon and a master’s degree in Architecture from the University of New Mexico. While in school, he developed an interest in historic preservation particularly through the process of adaptive reuse. He believes strongly in sustainable building practices as a means to a better built environment. This appreciation for older buildings and his previous construction experience have provided him with the opportunity to lead a design-build renovation in San Antonio.

Welcome back Lizzie MacWillie!

Former [bc] Fellow Lizzie MacWillie returns to Dallas as Senior Public Designer. Lizzie is a designer, researcher and city enthusiast, whose research focuses on the relationships between city design, development and cultural production. For the past year Lizzie worked at OMA/AMO in Rotterdam, NL, as an editor of “Elements of Architecture” by Rem Koolhaas, a collection of volumes about the past, present and future of 15 basic units of architecture including door, floor, and wall. Before that she received a Master of Architecture and Urban Design and a Master of Design Studies in Art, Design and the Public Domain from Harvard's Graduate School of Design.

Welcome Shanda Lee!

Shanda Lee is originally from Jersey City, NJ, and has lived in Dallas for 17 years. She brings over 15 years of administrative experience to bcW’s Operations, and is currently enrolled at Brookhaven Community College working towards a Bachelor's degree in Accounting. Earlier this year, Shanda became the newest resident of the historic Dolphin Heights neighborhood when she purchased bcWORKSHOP's first sustainABLEhouse on Beall Street!

Welcome Ryan Williams!

Ryan Taylor Williams, a native North Texan, is a geospatial researcher committed to the analysis and visualization of data for urban resilience, sustainability, conservation, and equitable and transparent community building. Before joining bcWorkshop, Ryan served as an AmeriCorps Teaching Fellow and Data Coordinator for Citizen Schools, and as a freelance planner, cartographer, and GIS consultant in New England for a variety of planning, international development, and municipal organizations. His past research experiences include projects with DesignTank, MassAdubon Society, and TerraCarbon, and has presented work at the American Geophysical Union, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and NASA. Ryan grew up in rural North Texas and received his Bachelor of Arts with honors in Urban Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and his Masters of Science degree in GIS for Development and the Environment from Clark University in Worcester, MA.

Welcome Owen Wilson-Chavez!

Owen Wilson-Chavez is an urban geographer with a strong focus on multi-modal transportation, sustainable urban development, and geospatial analysis. Born and raised in Duncanville, TX, Owen has lived in Denton, TX for eight years – obtaining a B.A. in Geography (2010) and M.S. in Applied Geography (2014) at the University of North Texas. During his time at UNT, he worked as a Research Assistant for the Center for Economic Development and Research and performed research on a wide range of issues related to urban development and transportation in Texas. Owen has also focused his own research on issues surrounding walkability and retail development in North Texas, arguing that common measures of walkability do not serve the most vulnerable users in a community. He believes that a focus on all modes of transportation is an important aspect of developing vibrant, healthy, and safe communities. With these beliefs, Owen has served as the Internal Coordinator and Chair of the non-profit Querencia Community Bike Shop (2012) in Denton and as a member of the UNT Sustainability Council’s Sustainability Committee (2011 – 2012) and of UNT’s Operation and Land-Use Committee (2012).