DATE:     9/28/98
CONTACT:  Bob Bainbridge, (864) 656-7128
WRITER:   Giles Singleton, (864) 656-3876

Extension Aids Communities Through Design Arts Partnership 

     CLEMSON  -- Since the first Extension-generated Design Arts
Partnership projects began in 1995, Extension has been a vital
partner in this Clemson University Outreach program.
     Through the partnership, South Carolina residents can use
the expertise of Clemson University's architecture and landscape
architecture students to help them get ideas, overall plans,
preliminary drawings, and models for important local projects
that will improve the quality of life, beautify their communities
and attract new businesses and residents.    
     "This partnership is part of the new side of Extension,
economic development," said Bob Bainbridge, director of the
partnership.
     The Chesterfield-Dillon-Marlboro Cluster has had more
projects than any other cluster. "James Sweeney was the first
Extension cluster director to realize the potential that our
design services could have for his counties," Bainbridge said.
     "From the beginning, I saw this as one of the best things to
come out of Extension and Clemson University in terms of helping
rural South Carolina," Sweeney said. "A lot of our rural towns in
South Carolina and across the United States are starting to fade
out. This partnership brings needed resources to assist 
communities with projects that will improve their quality of
life. Another of the main benefits is that it creates community
involvement from the citizens."
     He added, "The Design Arts Partnership has been a real plus
for us. It's also been a tremendous plus for the Extension
Service. We do all sorts of community development projects, but
most of them don't have this kind of deep impact. The partnership
is also a plus for the university, that Clemson had that kind of
foresight for the citizens of our state."    
     In the Greenwood County town of Hodges, Clemson Extension
Agent Ernie Church and Mayor Al Nickles asked for a design to
create a garden to provide an attractive stopping place for
tourists who travel the Heritage Corridor. The garden is located
at the heart of the community, which is the public well housed
inside a small gazebo. A hundred years ago, the well was
available for residents and also filled a wayside horse trough.
     On August 7, about a year after the mayor first contacted
Clemson Extension, Bainbridge presented the completed plan. The
design calls for reopening the historic water trough, adding
hitching posts next to it, and a garden around the gazebo that
will have vibrant color all year round. Plants selected for this
are: camellias for Christmas time; early daffodils, azaleas, and
day lilies for spring; Cherokee crape myrtles for summer;
chrysanthemums for late summer and fall; and red maples for 
intense fall leaf color. 
      "Hodges was laid out in a half-mile radius from the
community well," Nickles said. "At one time we had over 300
people; now we're down to 125. We're starting to grow a little.
We want to make the town the center of this area, a place for
doing things together." 
     "In so many towns like Hodges, there's no tax base to
support employees, no design engineers, planners," said Church,
who serves as the lead Clemson Extension agent in community
development for seven western counties. "But you can look to
Extension for ideas, landscaping, community improvement, visual
enhancement."
     He added, "It's the perfect marriage. A project can start in
Hodges, go to campus, and come back the way this one did today."
     "When we started the Design Arts Partnership," Bainbridge
said, "we realized we couldn't be effective without some form of
long-term involvement in the communities we were to work with. If
we hadn't already had the Extension Service, we would have had to
invent it.
     "So many things about Extension work have made a world of
difference in terms of our effectiveness," he said. "Things like
the knowledge of people in the community, of the background
surrounding the projects, even E-mail and satellite downloading
for video capabilities."
     He added, "In smaller communities, Extension is often the
only base we have."
      Bainbridge is a lecturer in Clemson's Department of
Planning and Landscape Architecture and a practicing architect.
He has been at Clemson full or part-time for the past 12 years.
In addition, Bainbridge has served as director of downtown
revitalization in Greenville with the Greenville Central Area
Partnership.
     DAP's goals are to design livable cities, preserve and
restore the landscape, and promote design excellence.
     "We help develop a concept to work from so the professionals
can come in. This way we save money for the communities,"
Bainbridge said. "Sometimes, especially for Extension, we do
actual drawings;  A Wayside Garden' in Hodges is one of these."
     Within the university, DAP's partners are Clemson Extension,
the College of Architecture, Arts, and the Humanities, and
Clemson University Outreach. DAP is also part of a Clemson
University Special Purpose Public Service Unit. The other three
components of the unit are from the university's Strom Thurmond
Institute: community and economic development, industrial
research, and policy.
     External partners are the S.C. Arts Commission and the S.C.
Downtown Development Association.
     Each project also has its own community and other partners. 
For example, in Gaffney, the Appalachian Council of Governments
is a partner.
     "The Design Arts Partnership is unique. Its work greatly
enhances a small community's ability to access design expertise,"
said Ben Boozer, director of the   S.C. Downtown Development
Association. He added, "These days, looking good is a part of
successful economic development."
     "Partnerships are the way the Arts Commission accomplishes
many things, from education to rural development," said Suzette
Surkamer, executive director of the S.C. Arts Commission. "The
South Carolina Design Arts Partnership is considered a national
model for addressing design issues by the National Endowment for
the Arts."
     Since 1995, a total of 55 Design Arts Partnership projects
in 32 counties have had an impact on approximately 350,000
people. "There is no need to raise the profile. There are more
projects than we can do," Bainbridge said.
     So far, Bainbridge's favorite Clemson Extension project has
been a park addition in Latta initiated by James Sweeney,
director of the Chesterfield-Marlboro-Dillon Cluster, at the
request of Latta Mayor Allan Brigman.
     "For Latta, I presented the plan in one day," he said. "Then
Vic Bethea, an Extension agent in Dillon County, and I staked the
trees to be cut for trails, and a city crew came right behind us 
clearing brush and cutting trees. By 4 p.m. most of the work was
done, and the trail system was complete except for paving."
     A Methodist minister, Bill Williams, raised money to build
wooden bridges and a campfire circle, and the state Department of
Parks, Recreation and Tourism donated funds to build the brick
entryway.
     "We planned, drew, and planted the entire five acres, start
to finish, in three months," Bainbridge said. "Most projects take
much longer. It can take 15 years to complete an entire project." 
     "Latta was great," Sweeney said. "So far, every town I've
told about this partnership has wanted to be involved. We've had
eight or nine projects in our cluster."
     The Extension offices in Sweeney's cluster are beginning to
get calls for advice from other communities in the three
counties.
     In Barnwell, the Barnwell County Economic Development
Commission wanted recommendations for downtown revitalization.
These included a landscaped area in front of the county
courthouse, a new traffic flow, designs for converting a former
car dealership into a cultural arts center, and landscaping
recommendations for the Airport Industrial Park.
     "I'm as enthusiastic about the Design Arts Partnership as
anyone can be," said Terri Smith, a Clemson Extension agent in
Barnwell County. "Barnwell has been mentioned in Southern Living 
magazine as an interesting place to visit because we have the
only vertical sundial in the world. But we have no funds to
improve the way our community looks, so the partnership has
helped us get started and get our project established." Smith
also represents the Downtown Barnwell Development Association. 
     She added, "We expect these efforts to pull in tourists and
industry, and to get people involved in the community. When a
community effort exists, and people can see things are happening,
they want to be a part of it."
     Students working on the project included four fourth-year
architecture students in fall 1997 and a fifth-year landscape
architecture student in spring 1998.
     "This project is particularly strong, because of its focus
on design as a key to economic development, and its great
potential for implementation," Bainbridge said.
     Other Extension projects have a broad range, including an
equestrian-based park plan in Patrick; a master plan for
Williamsburg County Technical College  in Kingstree; a farmer's
market plan in Cheraw, a community center in Waterloo, and
several downtown development and highway beautification projects
across the state.
     This past May, DAP offered "Landscape Design in the
Community," an inservice training for Extension agents. This was
a one-day training that covered what different professionals do, 
from city planners to landscape architects, and gave some design
training.
                              END