Center for Community and Regional Design
Building Better Communities
At the Center for Community and Regional Design (CCRD), we help people come together to make the changes they want to see in their communities, collectively turning ideas into designs and plans that communities can put into action.
CCRD offers expertise in design for physical improvements to the built and natural environment, at the scale of individual sites, neighborhoods, and regions. When we come together to tackle community challenges, we harness our collective creativity. With our partners, CCRD analyzes the issues and communicates our findings through design drawings and written plans, creating results that build support for better quality of life in our communities. We also carry out research that helps communities understand their places and the choices they face, and we share what we learn.
CCRD is an interdisciplinary center at SUNY ESF. S particular strength of CCRD is connecting our talented and energetic students with community members, fostering conditions where they can work and learn together. The result is powerful co-creation of vision, analyses, and plans with momentum to move community development processes forward.
"This kind of community-engaged learning is transformative for students, but it's equally valuable for our communities. When students work on real projects with real stakeholders, they bring fresh perspectives, creative energy, and new ideas that can help us reimagine our spaces and tackle challenges we've been sitting with. At the same time, students develop the problem-solving skills and professional judgment that no classroom exercise can replicate, and they gain respect for the complexity of community decision-making and the value of listening to diverse perspectives. It's a genuine partnership where both students and communities grow—students leave with a deeper understanding of their role as environmental professionals, and communities benefit from their insights, enthusiasm, and collaborative spirit."
Kelly C. Gaggin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Michigan State University
Village of Fayetteville Parks Commission
Partner With Us
Do you have an idea for something that could be improved in your community? Is there a need for better strategies for your local parks, for inventive ways to address neighborhood design / new housing, for an inclusive process to guide land use decisions, for support to protect historic or environmentally sensitive resources, for physical changes to improve mobility and transportation, for strategies to increase biodiversity and improve habitat? These are just a few examples of situations where CCRD can help you transform ideas into action.
We partner with community residents, neighborhood organizations, community boards,
planning
agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private firms.