The Community Design Advisory Program is unique in Michigan and the nation. The purpose of the Community Design Advisory Program has been to help Michigan communities understand and effectively utilize design for successful community and commercial area environmental and economic improvement. The CDAP has had programs in the City of Frankfort, the City of Rochester Hills, the City of Fremont, the Village of Caseville, and Hamtramck.

The Community Design Advisory Program has addressed the very real need in Michigan cities and towns for coordinated design management. Many communities do not realize that qualified designers can help a community visualize appropriate environmental options, capitalize upon unrecognized resource, solve long-standing problems, and provided a framework for managing change. A piecemeal use of design or a dependency on one type of design alone is usually not enough. This is because a good design plan enhances as well as coordinates a series of community and downtown elements: spaces, entries circulation routes, buildings, interiors, signs and sign systems. Visitors and residents should be able to easily locate, enter and move through a city or town. Legible, attractive and correctly positioned signs direct users to and through downtown and provide needed information on available products, services and amenities. Commercial and public spaces, building exteriors and interiors exercise a decisive influence on how much time and money people spend downtown. Coordinated design helps create a framework for managing change because it stimulates cooperation between public and private sectors: commercial buildings, signs and interiors must be desirable destinations; public areas and routes (community and downtown entrances, streets, sidewalks, parking) must encourage access to these destinations and movement between. The Community Design Advisory Program has encouraged this partnership of interests and benefits.

The response to the program by the communities which have participated has been extremely positive. Comments received on -site and in a recent questionnaire survey from representatives of the city governments and business communities show that in each case the program has provided a unified direction which the city and business people could rally around which respecting each community's unique character, resources and the individual needs of different property owners. In addition, business owners most often responded that counseling sessions gave them a clear understanding of particular architectural, signage, interior design or landscaping options which were affordable and easy to implement.

For more information on the CDAP
and Design Michigan:

Telephone
(810) 645-3554

Or write
Design Michigan
Cranbrook Academy of Art
1221 N. Woodward Ave., Box #801
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303-0801

Go back to Main Community Design Advisory Program Page.