Reason #17: Reduce Critical, Costly Errors Today’s tight budgets leave little room for errors that result in costly rework.  The NCI Charrette System™ provides a safety net to help complex and volatile projects avoid “post-charrette meltdown.”  Months before the beginning of the charrette, during the Project Assessment and Organization phase, the project management team identifies [...]

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Here is an excerpt from a great article written by NCI alumni, Susan H. Cipperly, also a 2007 Irving Hand Professional Development Award Recipient “One thing I have been aware of during my career as a planner is that unless a comprehensive plan is created with the active involvement of community representatives and government officials, it [...]

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Excerpts from the NCI Charrette Management and Facilitation Training A successful charrette depends on efficient operations. It can be very distracting and a drain on the team’s energy to be dealing with operational breakdowns like blown fuse boxes, slow internet providers, or lack of air conditioning. It may sound obvious, but there are numerous examples [...]

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Most of us in Charrettes (and in life, I’m guessing), work diligently to avoid facing Hobbesian decisions, or making a choice in which only one option is offered – and we may only refuse to take that option, a “take it or leave it” proposition.  So, in Charrettes at least, we begin with many choices, [...]

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Of all the arguments for using the charrette method, none comes into sharper focus in times like these than the bang-for-the-buck advantage. Well-planned, well-managed charrettes can save both public and private sector clients a ton of time and money. But here’s the hitch: To realize the savings, clients have to take on more responsibility in [...]

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NCI Director, Bill Lennertz, participated in a presentation three weeks ago at Greenbuild with former USGBC chair, Sandy Wiggins from Consilience LLC and Jennifer Rezeli from ReVision Architects, both NCI certificate holders. The session featured lessons from Sandy and Jenn’s sustainable charrette practice as well as content from the NCI Sustainable Charrette Summit held last [...]

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Oliver Kuehne, Senior Town PlannerHDR Town Planning Create a supply checklist. Specify what you need, and how many of each; take inventory a few days prior to leaving for the charrette as some items may need to be ordered. Put one person in charge of inventory and packing. If everybody throws stuff in a suitcase [...]

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Answer: Feasibility TestingOne of the biggest differences between the NCI charrette and other processes is the extra time taken in the plan development charrette sub-phase to test and investigate design concepts in order to bring them to a level at which they can be approved, engineered, and built. Intensive, collaborative planning processes that last less [...]

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What does one do when community members, perhaps led by a retired planner, arrive at a charrette with “their plan?” A common reaction is to thank them, tell them it will be considered, post it on the wall and return to business. However, this scenario also presents an opportunity to learn something while gaining an [...]

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One thing that makes charrettes fun and creative is that you never know where the best ideas will come from. A recent and now famous example is the story of the “Katrina Cottage.” Six weeks after hurricane Katrina ravaged the gulf coast in 2005, hundreds of national and local professionals and community members participated in [...]

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