Partnership Allows Students To Explore Atlanta City Design

ATLANTA, GA — Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has announced the city will embark on a partnership with Atlanta Public Schools that would write an interactive curriculum based on the Atlanta City Design.

This curriculum, the city said, will be rolled out as a six-week exploration into urban planning, the history of the city's design and plans for Atlanta's future.

This new partnership is highly unique, and marks the first time Atlanta and its school system has joined forces to develop a curriculum of this kind. Department of City Planning Commissioner Tim Keane worked with Janean Lewis, the social studies coordinator for APS’ middle and high schools, to lead a team of teachers and the Atlanta City Studio staff in a collaborative writing camp, to design the curriculum.

“The Atlanta City Design is one of the most forward-looking and exciting projects in our city’s history,” Reed said. “I am delighted that the city of Atlanta has been able to partner with the Atlanta Public Schools to integrate the design initiative into their middle school social studies curriculum. These young students represent our city’s future, and there is nothing more important than engaging with them as we plan for the future. I hope that we will learn as much from the students as they learn from us.”

The Atlanta City Design: Aspiring to the Beloved Community is the anchor text for the urban planning unit of the new curriculum. The Department of City Planning, with the input of residents, visitors and local designers, worked for more than a year to create the Atlanta City Design. It promotes sustainable design that incorporates the social, economic and environmental needs of the city. The design also aims to improve and accentuate Atlanta’s "authentic character in a way that can accommodate a much larger population, offer additional transportation solutions and ensure more affordable housing opportunities," the city added.

“Atlanta Public Schools is proud that our students will have a voice in the future design of our city through this unique City Design partnership and curriculum enhancement,” said APS Superintendent Dr. Meria Carstarphen. “Eighth graders will have an amazing opportunity to guide our city toward becoming a ‘Beloved Community’ by experiencing the city from a new lens and sharing their visions and plans for the future design of Atlanta.”

APS eighth graders will engage with the learning modules in the spring semester; the modules will culminate with each student completing a capstone project. APS also plans to teach the curriculum to ninth graders starting in the 2018-2019 school year.

The Atlanta City Design focuses on five core values:

• Equity is ensuring that all the benefits of nature, access, ambition, and progress accrue fairly to everyone.
• Progress is to protect people and places with meaning from the market forces that will otherwise overrun them.
• Ambition is to leverage the disruption of change to unlock new opportunities for people to do what they want with their lives.
• Access is to update our hub of transportation for a new generation while also building a sense of community and place.
• Nature is to protect and expand the ecological value of our watersheds, forest and habitat in the face of rapid urbanization.

The Atlanta City Design book is available at www.atlcitydesign.com.

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