Community Design Resource

I ran across a wonderful resource group in New York called the Environmental Simulation Center(ESC), which was established at the New School for Social Research in 1991. Since 1997, the ESC has been an independent not-for-profit laboratory, and is the only facility of its kind in New York, and one of only several worldwide. The mission of the ESC is to improve the livability of communities through the application of information technology to the community planning, design, and development process, thereby extending the capabilities of decision-makers and citizens.



What does ESC do? The ESC provides innovative place-based and performance-based planning, urban design, and regulatory solutions as well as the development of new digital tools that enhance the decision-making process. It has been a leader in the development of 3D-GIS, sophisticated performance-based systems and regulations, and conceived and led the development of Community Viz™, the world's first multidimensional place-based decision-support software.

The ESC's approach is predicated on the recognition that 21st century urban areas are complex, constantly changing environments that render traditional planning and design techniques more reactive than proactive. The ESC has demonstrated that new applications can enable planners and decision-makers to account for change as it occurs, making for plans, guidelines, and policies that are self-adapting and self-organizing – like the places they are designed to manage. The ESC has pioneered the practice of planning in an information-rich, interactive computing environment, and continues to develop decision-making techniques and applications that enable planning and development decision-making to be informed, targeted, up-to-date, and "just in time".

Go here to learn more about ESC and gather some new ideas about how to approach community design.