How can you concisely describe the NCI Charrette System™ to elected officials, commissioners or community members? Answer: Download and present the free NCI Charrette System™ scripted PowerPoint presentation. With the NCI Charrette System scripted PowerPoint, you can show the slides and read the script to describe the benefits of public involvement, what a charrette is [...]

[Read more →]

One of the most common questions we receive at NCI is how to convince a sponsoring agency or client to do a charrette for their project. Some sponsors are concerned that charrettes take too much time and/or are too expensive. Here are a few benefit statements for making the case to use a charrette.     

Charrettes save [...]

[Read more →]

“…we should use the time-tested, vernacular, pervasive, and virtuous Charrette as a sustainable planning process.”

[Read more →]

How can you concisely describe the NCI Charrette System to elected officials, commissioners or community members? Answer: Download and present the free NCI Charrette System scripted PowerPoint presentation.
With the NCI Charrette System scripted PowerPoint, you can show the slides and read the script to describe the benefits of public involvement, what a charrette is and [...]

[Read more →]

In response to shrinking project budgets, more and more planning agencies are developing the in-house capacity to conduct charrettes. Director of Fayetteville Long Range Planning, Karen Minkel, has assembled a staff of planners and designers who possess the diverse talents from both planning and design disciplines necessary to run a community charrette. Last year, Karen [...]

[Read more →]

For some time now we have been urging our students not to think of a charrette as a public involvement process but rather as an accelerated, collaborative design process. Although charrettes include a successful method for involving broad groups of stakeholders, the power of the charrette goes beyond its role as a design-based public involvement [...]

[Read more →]

We live in an age of multi-tasking. As I write this piece I am distracted by the multiple windows open on my computer. My email program alerts me every time a new message arrives, the phone rings as people try to reach me with unrelated issues, colleagues stop by with questions. Computers and the [...]

[Read more →]

One of the case studies in The Charrette Handbook takes place in Hercules, California. It chronicles a charrette that took place in 2000 to plan an urban center for the suburban town. Dover, Kohl and Partners created a form-based code that has successfully guided development under the charrette vision of a traditional town center. [...]

[Read more →]

The uncertainties of our current economy call for smarter ways to plan. Today, project resources and budgets are being cut, resulting in less work for everyone. How can a project sponsor carry on project work with a reduced budget? How can a consultant sharpen their competitive advantage in a shrinking market? One answer is [...]

[Read more →]

Charrettes are often confused with visioning sessions. The purpose of vision development is to establish a description of a future state based on shared community values that acts as a guide for the project decision-making process. The visioning process can include one or a number of efforts including educational lectures, workshops, neighborhood walks, and preference [...]

[Read more →]