DESIGN RESEARCH
I led a multidisciplinary design team to produce a facilities master plan for the public library system of the fastest growing city in the United States.
Facilities Master Plan
Date:
Deliverable:
2022
Design Research; Strategic Design; Workshop Facilitation; Community Engagement; Project Management
Client:
Roles:
The City of Buckeye, AZ
Resource Allocation; Urban Planning;
Concepts:
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
I led the execution and delivery of a Facilities Master Plan for the library system in the fastest growing city in the country. Over the course of 9 months, our team gathered and synthesized data ranging from general discovery to various quantitative and qualitative research methods. The end result was a comprehensive and aspirational Facilities Master Plan plan that empowered the client with short and long-term recommendations for the growing library system.
Our work and thinking needed to reflect our understanding of the needs of a nuanced and rapidly growing desert city with limited and uncertain natural resources. Our team needed to gather and reconcile significant amounts of qualitative and quantitative data with the commercial and residential development landscape of the region.
PROBLEM:
Buckeye Arizona, a sleepy bedroom community 45 minutes west of Phoenix has big plans for growth. Although it leads the country in permits for residential dwellings, the city’s library only has two branches; both of which are currently at capacity. My team was tasked to help provide recommendations and guidelines for growth based on our assessment of the needs, challenges and strengths of the city. At the same time, we needed to be mindful of how the lack of available water could affect how large and quickly the city may expand.
SOLUTION:
This work was broken into two phases: (1) a Strategic Planning Phase and (2) a Facilities Master Planning Phase.
The purpose of the strategic planning work was to further develop and articulate the organization's mission, vision & values and create the space and organizational capacity for an aspirational Facilities Master Plan.
The strategic planning work was conducted with the library leadership and selected staff and other stakeholders over a 14 week period. During this time, our team met with the clients for virtual and in-person workshopping. In parallel with our work with the library team, we conducted extensive community engagement throughout the city. Over a 16 week period we conducted 9 focus groups, five in-person community engagement meetings, eight 1-on-1 interviews, and two surveys.
Phase two, focused on the development of the Facilities Master Plan over a 12-week period and built upon the framework established during the Strategic Planning work. The primary takeaway from this phase was the development of an action plan matrix. The matrix recommended one of several different library typologies that would be triggered based on the needs identified during our engagement and size of the community.
