Town of Clarkdale – �鶹��Ƶ

Selna Mongini STEAM Park: Visual Communication Opportunities, Strategies, & Design Elements

Ada Inman — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 19:12:24 +0000

The Town of Clarkdale is a historic mining community in the Verde Valley, a region in central Arizona. As the region and state are facing challenges around water quantity and quality, municipalities, nongovernmental organizations, and other critical stakeholders are collaborating to develop short- and long-term solutions. To advance these efforts, the Town of Clarkdale is interested in leveraging the revitalization of a neighborhood park, Selna Mongini Park, to incorporate visual communication elements that emphasize science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) with a focus on water in the region. Technical communication students worked with the Town to explore strategies, opportunities, and best practices for visually communicating STEAM concepts focused around water to youth and adult audiences in an outdoor park setting, then design and propose visual communication elements with an emphasis on awareness-building and inspiring action.

Visualizing Water Sustainability in the Clarkdale Community

Ada Inman — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 19:09:32 +0000

The Town of Clarkdale, a historic mining community in the Verde Valley in central Arizona, is dedicated to providing and ensuring a sustainable water supply for its residents now and into the future. As water is an increasingly complex topic in the region and state, the Town is interested in improving communication efforts around the current state of the local water system. Improved communications will help to educate residents on the water supply as well as local and regional decision-making around the future of water resources. To advance these efforts, the Town of Clarkdale collaborated with graduate Technical Communication students to explore new opportunities to visually communicate critical elements of the Town’s water system, including: 1) geology and health of the aquifer, 2) physical health of the system and its operations, and 3) conservation efforts, including strategies for reducing water consumption. Students will develop and create Water Visualization Portfolios of these critical elements by using key communication mediums, including a flyer “report card”, infographics, and videos and social media, depending on alignment with content.

Community Survey Analysis

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:40:49 +0000

The Town of Clarkdale is a historic town, with a growing population and evolving local government. With the recent completion of a Strategic Plan, the Town seeks to conduct a community survey with its residents and adjoining communities in order to gather feedback about the Town’s services. The goal is to identify residents’ interests and priorities for strategic planning. One graduate student will collaborate with the Town Manager’s Office and related departments to design and distribute a community survey to community members. Students from Kelli Larson’s Social Surveying course will provide guidance on the survey design and analysis.

Bitter Creek Industrial Park: Housing Analysis

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:40:49 +0000

The Town of Clarkdale has identified several points of pride in the Town to be developed for business expansion and tourism attraction, including the Bitter Creek Industrial Park. Located near the historic Bitter Creek Bridge, the Bitter Creek Industrial Park has been identified for housing and industry development. With the Industrial Park primed for development, the Town is interested in exploring opportunities and strategies for housing development, with potential to support the Town’s emerging workforce. Students from the School of Geopgraphical Sciences and Urban Planning will research peer communities and provide Clarkdale with housing planning recommendations.

Bitter Creek Industrial Park: Transportation Design

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:40:49 +0000

The Town of Clarkdale has identified several points of pride in the Town to be developed for business expansion and tourism attraction, including the Bitter Creek Industrial Park. Located near the historic Bitter Creek Bridge, the Bitter Creek Industrial Park has been identified for housing and industry development. With close proximity to the Verde Canyon Railroad, the Town seeks to conduct a transportation analysis in order to identify opportunities for a new road that will connect the Industrial area with the Town. Students from the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering �鶹��ƵS program will use design thinking strategies to identify areas and methods for the development of a transportation design.

Community Survey

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:40:36 +0000

Community Arts Incubator: Opportunities

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:40:35 +0000

The Town of Clarkdale is home to a community of artists and creatives who host an annual art show. In order to cultivate a cohesive community of arts, Clarkdale is considering the development of an arts incubator to provide physical and/or social infrastructure to support local artists. Graduate students from The Design School will explore peer community art incubators programs, recommend potential operating and funding structures, and identify critical partners for the development of a community arts incubator to support local artists.

Community Arts Incubator: Strategies

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:40:35 +0000

The Town of Clarkdale is home to a community of artists and creatives who host an annual art show. In order to cultivate a cohesive arts community, Clarkdale is considering the development of an arts incubator to provide physical and/or social infrastructure to support local artists. Graduate students from the School of Public Affairs will research peer community arts incubators to recommend entrepreneurship programming, recommend how to leverage an arts incubator for placemaking and historic preservation, and research grants and other opportunities for how to fund an arts incubator in Clarkdale.

Downtown Business District Revitalization Plan (2/3)

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:40:24 +0000

Clarkdale is a small community in north-central Arizona, nestled in the Coconino forest, along the southwest banks of the Verde River. Clarkdale
was founded in 1912 as a company town to serve the United Verde Copper Company and was offi cially incorporated in 1957. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Town of Clarkdale was Arizona’s first master-planned community that still serves as a model of urban planning. With Spanish Colonial style facades and original brick exposed on most buildings, the historic downtown district is poised to capitalize on its quaint charm. Despite a regional economic grow th trend that has benefited its neighbors, the Town of Clarkdale has not seen the same significant growth in recent years. Rather, the community has struggled to keep pace with the Towns of Jerome and Cottonwood; both have developed a unique character and identity, attracting both tourists and businesses alike, sometimes at Clarkdale’s loss. However, Clarkdale is well-positioned to tell a compelling story that celebrates the town’s history and positions it as a destination for tourists across Arizona.

Students with the School of Geographic Sciences and Urban Planning (SGSUP) conducted a brainstorming exercise, as a culminating assignment for their urban and regional economics class. For the project, the students tapped into all of the semester’s lessons to address a very open-ended prompt: explore a planning strategy or concept that Clarkdale could leverage to enhance its downtown. Students split into seven groups, each exploring a different strategy of interest. Over just a few weeks, students conducted virtual visits, met virtually with city staff, and studied literature for evidence of past successes of their topic.

Residents have expressed a clear desire for place-based branding and identity. The students’ analyses also support the need to establish anchor attractions in Clarkdale and solidify its brand awareness as a destination that complements the draw of neighboring Jerome and Cottonwood. The comprehensive design guidelines detailed in the latter part of this report help paint a vivid picture of what that could look like for the Town of Clarkdale, by capitalizing on existing attractions and untapped potential.

Downtown Business District Revitalization Plan (1/3)

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:40:24 +0000

Clarkdale is a small community in north-central Arizona, nestled in the Coconino forest, along the southwest banks of the Verde River. Clarkdale was founded in 1912 as a company town to serve the United Verde Copper Company and was offi cially incorporated in 1957. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Town of Clarkdale was Arizona’s first master-planned community that still serves as a model of urban planning. With Spanish Colonial style facades and original brick exposed on most buildings, the historic downtown district is poised to capitalize on its quaint charm. Despite a regional economic grow th trend that has benefited its neighbors, the Town of Clarkdale has not seen the same significant growth in recent years. Rather, the community has struggled to keep pace with the Towns of Jerome and Cottonwood; both have developed a unique character and identity, attracting both tourists and businesses alike, sometimes at Clarkdale’s loss. However, Clarkdale is well-positioned to tell a compelling story that celebrates the town’s history and positions it as a destination for tourists across Arizona.

Two master’s capstone students from the School of Public Affairs MPA program examined elements of historic preservation in Clarkdale. Both studies relied on literature review, expert interviews, site visits, and observation of the Town Council. The Shah capstone grapples with the broader framework and strategy around historic preservation. Shah draws on three leading revitalization frameworks, applying these frames to lessons learned from three other communities’ case studies. The Dabbs-Mendoza capstone explores funding mechanisms for historic preservation and similarly examines other communities’ approaches to funding historic preservation efforts. These sections position the Main Street Approach and Certified Local Government programs as core to Clarkdale’s historic preservation program.

Residents have expressed a clear desire for place-based branding and identity. The students’ analyses also support the need to establish anchor
attractions in Clarkdale and solidify its brand awareness as a destination that complements the draw of neighboring Jerome and Cottonwood. The comprehensive design guidelines detailed in the latter part of this report help paint a vivid picture of what that could look like for the Town of
Clarkdale, by capitalizing on existing attractions and untapped potential.