Minnesota Design Team Visits Milan March 29-31
by Andrea Johnson, The Appleton Press
Here is your invitation to participate in the Minnesota Design Team weekend in
The event will take place
Town meetings will be held the evening of Friday, March 30 and Saturday, March 31, and organizers hope for great turnouts for both town meetings.
In addition, volunteers are needed to assist in hosting this event. “Hosts should be willing to do more than housing,” said Erik Thompson,
If interested, please contact Anne Kanten at 734-4406 or Chris Kleven at the Milan City Office at 734-4411.
The Minnesota Design Team is made up of architects, landscape designers and professionals in related fields that volunteer their time and services to foster healthy communities throughout
Anyone who has a commitment to
Here’s What’s Happening:
A group of 10-20 volunteer designers will arrive in Milan late on Thursday, March 29. There will be a reception when the Design Team arrives and meets their host families.
The work begins on Friday morning, March 30. From 9 a.m. – noon, the community has the opportunity to present Milan to the design professionals. The morning will be divided into presentations about Milan, as well as conversations on the city’s identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Representatives from throughout the community are asked to give 5-10 minute presentations on Milan’s issues, and factual information should be used to make the issues understandable.
“Friday is a day when the Design Team is just getting as much information as they can about the community,” said Mike Lamb, a member of the Minnesota Design Team. Lamb as well as Cindy Harper and Marney Curfman, of the Minnesota Design Team, recently traveled to Milan to discuss the upcoming weekend.
Milan’s presentations to the Design Team will help the group quickly understand the community as well as concerns, dominant issues and future plans. The presentations should convey the personality of Milan, as well.
The Design Team coordinators said they are very interested in learning more about the Milan School building that will not hold classes after this school year. They also want to hear presentations from children, Senior Citizens and all ages in-between.
On Friday afternoon, the Team will take a tour of the community of Milan. The Design Team will also begin to converse and formulate their thoughts about Milan’s course into the future.
Town meetings will be held both Friday and Saturday evening.
The Friday evening meeting will include a meal at the Kviteseid Lutheran church basement. Following the meal, the Design Team will lead small groups in discussion. This is an opportunity for the Team to get input from all segments of the community.
“We really want to hear from as many people as possible – as broad of a perspective on what’s going to be best for your community,” said Harper. “We’re selfish – we want as much of you as we can get.”
On Saturday, after breakfast at the host families’ homes, the Team will begin the design portion of the weekend. Sequestered in the Milan school, the Team will begin to create their vision for Milan.
“We will be talking about what we heard from you – all of the different issues that we heard, experiences,” said Harper. “We’re going to hear a lot of different things so we’re going to talk amongst ourselves and talk about what has emerged and the major set of issues that we need to address while we are here.”
Around noon, the Team will begin producing drawings for their presentations to Milan on Saturday evening. These presentation drawings will include recommendations, ideas and concepts that Milan can use to turn a vision into projects.
The Saturday evening town meeting will be held in the Milan School gymnasium. Everyone in the community is invited as the Design Team presents and explains their drawings.
These drawings will represent the Team’s ideas for tackling design, planning and development issues in Milan.
Their presentations will be given via Power Point presentation as well as individual displays.
A question and answer session will follow, as well as a discussion on how the community can implement the recommendations. There will also be sign up sheets so that people can immediately indicate their interest in working on a particular project.
A social time will follow, and a thank you breakfast will be held the next day. Some Team members will likely leave Saturday night, while others will stay, depending on what they have going on at home.
The drawings will be given to Milan, as tools to regenerate and move ahead.
“We do this because we like to do it, it inspires us and we enjoy getting to know you as a community,” said Harper. “Most of us want to stay and spend as much time as we can. As we get closer to the actual visit, that’s when all of these arrangements will start to gel.”