urbanOut

I’ve been an urban planning and design practitioner for almost a year now.  Sure, I have had my fair share of internships and co-ops, but none has given me the hands on experience and understanding of how urban planning and design works in a consulting firm the way my last year in the real world has.  During this time, I have been taking in every experience, trying to soak up as much planning knowledge as possible.  While on this journey for knowledge (so corny, ha!), I have been repeatedly told “an understanding of the planning process will form the basis of knowledge for your career.”  I thought to myself “Ok, processes are usually easy.  Done and done.”   

As I continued to work on projects and interact with my peers and colleagues at planning events and began to see this ‘process’ for all it was worth, I realized that a lot of what the profession is focused on, at least in my current surroundings, is this all important process of planning and design.  And unfortunately, what seems to be forgotten about or paid little attention to is the actual end result of what we as planners and designers are ultimately creating.  This observation has led me to question a few things about the profession and wonder: if planners are more worried about the process than the product, have we simply become cogs in the machine, going through the motions of the planning process and ignoring the overarching end results?

To a degree, I think the answer to this question is ‘yes’, as many planners have taken on a linear, incremental approach that focuses more on the ‘here and now’ and less on the future.  This process seems to go something like this:

• Field work – check
• Opportunities and constraints – check
• Vision statement, principles, goals, objectives, and action steps – check
• Transportation, Economic Development, Land Use, and Urban Design Recommendations – check
• Public input interlaced throughout – check. 

What we get from this process is a profession bogged down in an incremental approach and details such as properly articulating goals and objectives, putting together meeting minutes, interfacing with clients, and updating schedules.  While I understand the importance of these details, I can’t help but feel that new, fresh ideas have been lost in the fray, resulting in the recycling of old ideas and concepts time and time again.  To me, this does a huge disservice to our profession and the communities we serve.

The solution?  I think planning and design professionals, both public and private, needs to start thinking outside the box, worry less about the business side of the profession, and start brainstorming new ideas and outlooks for communities.  Ultimately, we need to ask ourselves ‘what are we going to produce?’ instead of ‘how are we going to produce it?’.  From this, I think a fresh viewpoint can be brought into each ‘process’, making each plan different from the other.  And ultimately, this should be the goal of the profession – to create uniqueness instead of homogeneity in our end products.

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