Baltimore and the Neighborhood Design Center. Participatory approaches to urban design under conditions of urban shrinkage (1968–2000)

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the fall of 1968, as the city of Baltimore endured urban shrinkage, a group of architects founded the Neighborhood Design Center, a non-profit organization providing design services for disadvantaged communities, still active today. This paper, framed theoretically against the backdrop of participation models developed in the social sciences and the field of community design, argues that the NDC’s approach to urban planning and design constitutes a successful example of participatory methodology but presents important shortcomings when evaluating the impacts of their projects in the current urban environment, with little to nonexistent traces of them.