FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The University of Arkansas Community Design Center (UACDC), a division of the School of Architecture, will receive grants totaling $346,000 from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation to fund Center operations and launch an effort in the Delta region.

Of the grants, the first is an award of $250,000 is designated to provide bridge operation funding to the UACDC until the next legislative biennium when state funding is likely to resume. The second award of $96,000 is designated to establishing the Delta Research and Design Center in eastern Arkansas. The Delta Center will help towns and cities in the region to develop plans and programs for physical, economic, educational and social regeneration. Residents and businesses in communities such as Marvell, Clarendon, Marianna and Helena will benefit from the Center.

David Evan Glasser, UACDC director and holder of the Steven L. Anderson Chair in Urban Studies, said, "We are extremely grateful to the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation for this timely and much-needed support for the Center. At a time when UACDC was poised to expand its services to distressed and underserved communities throughout the state, reduced state revenues appeared to imperil our further operations. The generous grant from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation will permit us to not only continue our efforts, but to also increase our community planning and urban design services to Arkansas communities."

The UACDC provides long-term physical planning and design services to communities throughout Arkansas that have neither the resources nor staff to undertake these types of projects themselves. The Center serves as an advocate for Arkansas towns and cities by helping communities identify civic projects they can carry out with the services of design professionals - architects, landscape architects or engineers. Projects emphasize: maintaining the quality and character of historic downtown areas; promoting local efforts to counter sprawl into the surrounding countryside; and encouraging preservation of open space near towns. The UACDC often provides projects and opportunities in which UA School of Architecture students may participate.

"This grant will support full operation of the Center through the 2001-2002 academic year and provide an additional $50,000 to supplement state funds in the second year of the biennium," Glasser said.

Glasser said that for several years the School of Architecture and UACDC have been assessing the need for a branch of the Center located in the Delta, where many communities might benefit from UACDC’s planning work. The grant of $96,000 designated toward this purpose permits the UACDC to initiate this effort this fall. Funds in the grant will help pay for a new director, support staff, furnishing and equipping workspace and provide funding for three doctoral fellowships for candidates whose dissertations will focus on Delta economic and physical development.

"An integral component of the grant is the projected partnership between the Nature Conservancy, headquartered in Clarendon, and the new Delta Outreach office. We anticipate generating a substantial number of development initiatives in the coming years, thanks in large part to support from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation," Glasser continued.

UA School of Architecture Dean Jeff Shannon said, "The School of Architecture is extremely pleased and grateful to the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation for their most generous support of the School’s Community Design Center. Their support ensures our intentions to expand the amount of service we provide to the communities of the state. We are particularly enthused that we will be able, because of this funding, to move forward with our plans to start the Delta Research and Design Center in Clarendon, Arkansas as early as this fall."

The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to improving the economic and social well being of Arkansas and its people. Created in 1974 by an endowment from the estate of Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, the Foundation has made gifts and grants of more than $54,000,000 to nonprofit organizations and educational institutions.