context of place
Making landfall in October 2016, Hurricane Matthew devastated communities across Eastern North Carolina. The tributaries that feed the Tar River received as much as fourteen inches of rain, resulting in severe flooding. After the historic event, university/community partnerships emerged between stakeholders in the Town of Princeville, faculty members from the North Carolina State University (NCSU) College of Design, and various agencies and organizations. Local stakeholders included Town of Princeville staff, elected officials, and current and former town residents, Edgecombe County administrators, and Princeville Elementary School and Edgecombe County School District administrators, teachers, and staff. Key external partners and contributors included North Carolina Emergency Management, Upper Coastal Plain Council of Governments, University of North Carolina Coastal Resilience Center, North Carolina Museum of History, and East Carolina University Department of Anthropology. This diverse partnership group sought to establish a sustainable model of working with the local community to develop both near-term recovery and long-term resilience solutions that prioritize co-creating tangible outcomes to benefit Princeville. Focused on building trust through in-situ technical assistance, the collaborative approach has resulted in a transparent, purposeful, and impactful framework centered on enabling community benefits that transcend the limits of traditional academic research outcomes.
In 2017, under the specter of future storms that are predicted to be more frequent and intense due to climate change, faculty from the NCSU Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning (LAEP) helped lead conversations with Princeville leaders about the types of assistance needed to create a more resilient community. Rather than solely focusing on hardening infrastructure or succumbing to calls for a community-scale retreat, Princeville’s citizens prioritized interventions that both increase resilience and celebrate their history as the “Oldest Town Chartered by Blacks in America.” As an outcome of that process, community leaders determined to incorporate nature-based solutions to mitigate flood impacts and educate community members about the importance of riverine and floodplain ecosystems as a central strategy for planning building consensus around, and implementing resilience-building interventions that best reflect their natural heritage and promote conservation of place.
Notably, the Town of Princeville's highest elevation is 26 feet above sea level. It is adjacent to the Tar River, which flows into the Pamlico Sound and empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Approximately 87% of Princeville’s total land area is mapped within the 100-year floodplain (an area with a 1% annual risk of flooding) of the Tar River (Figure 1). Rather than presuming an expanded levee will universally solve Princeville’s flooding issues, the Princeville/NCSU partnership recognizes that flooding is a natural and oftentimes uncontrollable process that should be expected to occur cyclically. Acknowledging these natural cycles as a part of the Town’s collective history created opportunities to proactively implement new landscape practices and techniques that are enabling Princeville’s residents to live with flood waters more symbiotically.
Following the initial conversations, the NCSU Coastal Dynamics Design Lab (CDDL) assumed the lead role in advancing the Princeville/NCSU partnership and resultant projects. The CDDL is a community technical assistance unit operated from within the NCSU College of Design and led by LAEP faculty and staff. Establishing the CDDL as the primary community liaison resulted in numerous beneficial outcomes, including:
- Serving as a singular point of continuity to filter, align, and administer varied faculty interests with community needs, thereby reducing confusion of “who is doing what” at both the local and university levels, eliminating extraneous engagements and/or projects that lead to planning fatigue, and ensuring that potentially extractive research practices are avoided.
- Creating a nexus for developing and expanding the partnership network(s) necessary to address the range of local challenges that exist outside of the disciplinary expertise offered by the NCSU team.
- Establishing a central clearinghouse for grant writing, and follow-on project administration, to address the lack of local staff capacity required to advance projects beyond the initial stages of research and/or planning.
Partnership structure and INTEGRATION
The overarching partnership structure that empowers and builds capacity for disaster-recovery initiatives encompasses multiple public and private entities and individuals. This includes the Town of Princeville town manager, elected board members, public works staff, and district- and school-level administrators, teachers, staff, and students in Edgecombe County. Allied cultural and natural resource nonprofits, such as the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, Conservation Corps North Carolina, The Conservation Fund, and Conetoe Family Life Center, have also been instrumental in building local capacity. Lastly, the cornerstone to operationalizing this robust network are the self-motivated local champions that help outside groups build trust, foster community buy-in, and, ultimately, lead to more successful outcomes.
The partnership increases resilience by deploying design strategies that reduce flood risk, recognize and respond to gaps in local capacity (e.g., funding, staffing, and technical expertise), and improve public safety, environmental awareness and ecological functions within historically flood-prone areas. The purpose is to inform, organize, and facilitate the ongoing planning, design, and implementation of communal greenspaces that mitigate localized flood risks, sustainably manage stormwater, and create social, recreational, and educational uses. The resources stewarded through the NCSU initiatives align mitigation policies, legal and programmatic uses, and Princeville's natural and built environments (Figure 3). NCSU support spanned a broad range of activities and services, some examples include: technical planning and design assistance; developing legal agreements that enable residents to lease vacant parcels that were previously acquired through federal and state voluntary “buyout” programs; working with the North Carolina Department of Transportation to design and install roadway signage that recognizes Princeville’s important place in history; grant writing and administration; and coordination and management of volunteer build days. The results have created tangible change in transitioning vacant, town-owned properties into unique spaces, thereby creating new, beneficial uses that serve the public good. In doing so, these projects promote a townscape that is simultaneously flood-ready, attractive, and productive.
impact
To date, the Princeville/NCSU partnership has attracted more than $650,000 in direct-to-community grant awards to implement foundational plans, projects, and programs that support the climate resilience, conservation, heritage, and educational goals for Princeville. Example project outcomes include the creation of a Princeville Community Floodprint Plan, the initial phases of a town-wide Heritage Trail (Figure 5), the Princeville Mobile History Museum (Figure 6), and a suite of rain gardens, bioretention devices, outdoor classroom furnishings, and educational signage at the recently repaired Princeville Elementary School.Serving as a central unifying feature within the larger Princeville Community Floodprint plan, the Heritage Trail connects Town Hall, the museum, and the elementary school. On school grounds, NCSU staff and students (Figure 7) installed ecologically rich rain gardens that use native plant species to attract pollinators for environmental learning (Figure 8). The CDDL worked with school teachers and administrators to design new lesson plans (Figure 9) and educational signage (Figure 10) to expand the school’s existing Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) curriculum.
collaborative design RESEARCH
The impact on schools and children in Princeville by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and the Covid-19 pandemic beginning in 2020 was a central focus in this partnership. The NCSU Coastal Dynamics Design Lab conducted a survey with the teachers and administrators at Princeville Elementary School that revealed a need for outdoor learning opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic. To operationalize the new outdoor education curriculum, modular furnishings consisting of rolling seating and planters called ‘ed-YOU-cation’ stations were fabricated to create a flexible, outdoor classroom space adjacent to the renovated library (Figure 11). All of the furnishings were designed and built by students in the NCSU Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning in Spring 2021 during a 16-week studio. Adding to the complexity of the Design + Build Studio environment, the course took place in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, before vaccines were readily available. Three years later, the ‘ed-YOU-cation’ stations continue to provide opportunities for teachers and students to grow summer vegetables and harvest produce (Figure 12).
Because Hurricane Matthew flooded Princeville Elementary School, another Title 1 school, Tarboro High School housed the displaced students while the school underwent renovations. Following the successful construction of outdoor structures and modules at the elementary school, the principal from Tarboro High School contacted the NCSU Design + Build Studio to continue the collaborative efforts and foster a culture of equitable design solutions at the high school level. In 2022, the design/build studio engaged with high school administrators, and teachers through virtual meetings. Student teams merged their design concepts to develop a master plan before shifting into construction documentation and fabrication of outdoor learning amenities near classrooms and administrative offices (Figure 13). Concepts for the site furnishings were inspired by the Tar River, which is a symbol of unity and strength through change—echoing Tarboro High School’s core mission. The NCSU students who participated in these various community-engaged activities learned empowering skills, realized the impact that collaboration has on the success of community-based projects, and experienced the beneficial change that quality built work creates for individuals and groups working to address the realities of climate change at the grassroots level (Figure 14).
REFLECTION
Collectively, the initiative's long-term community connectedness has created a legacy of places and programs—with tangible outcomes and lessons learned that can be (re)visited, reflected upon, and shared. With a commitment to “slow” engagement, the Princeville/NCSU partnership has been essential to building trust between all partners; this trust has led to a shared willingness to support community transformation over time. Continuous engagement has also expanded partnership opportunities, including the development and delivery of high-impact service-learning experiences. Examples of best practices grown from the partnership include, but are not limited to:
Commit to filling community service gaps above all else
Research that ends at assessment instead of committing to implementation is extractive rather than additive. Holistic engagement and action-research require tangible outcomes, especially when working with underserved and underrepresented communities. Although research can reveal important issues, traditional research processes and outcomes fail to address the “how to” steps required to implement the actions needed to address the issues. Furthermore, the lack of continuity in traditional research processes can lead to “parachuting in” or do-gooderism, which unintentionally perpetuate reactive cycles of decision-making within communities. When researchers commit to long-term engagements, mutual trust and co-creation can empower community leaders to: (1) take actions that have been vetted for fit and contextual appropriateness, and (2) consider broader, holistic views of community resilience. Community-engaged university initiatives are well-situated to fill these gaps. These services require a willingness to assemble personnel, resources, and products that are atypical in higher education.
Secure external financing that prioritizes and protects community resources
Shifting the funding burden away from partner communities and toward external grantors requires time and resources from university affiliates to both write grants and, often more importantly, facilitate the conversations and nurture the relationships required to best align community-defined needs and proposed investments with the values, goals, and intent of funding entities and grant programs. Many community-engaged faculty are grant-writing experts, and bringing financial resources to the table alleviates community pressure on local staff. Developing funding pathways ultimately enables an expansion of the scope of collaborative research and the fruition and impact of community and university partnerships.
Healthy and productive relationships cannot exist in the absence of mutual respect and trust—this is especially true for groups who work in communities that are small, historically marginalized, and/or recovering from the trauma of a disaster. Built atop this core value, the outcomes and longevity of the Princeville/NCSU partnership serve as evidence of what is possible through university-based community service that is committed to authentic engagement, community-first co-design, and staying the course no matter the challenge.
References
American Society of Landscape Architects. (2022). ASLA 2022 Student award of excellence: Seeding resilience: Celebrating community, education, and the environment at Princeville Elementary School. https://www.asla.org/2022studentawards/7011.html
Fox, A., Boone, K., Fall, N., & Naylor, L. (2018). Troubled waters: A flood-ravaged town in danger of losing its nationally significant history. Grounds for Democracy. https://www.tclf.org/sites/default/files/microsites/landslide2018/princeville.html
Grace-McCaskey, C., Pearce, S., Harris, L., Corra, M., & Evans, K. (2021). Finding voices in the floods of freedom hill: Innovating solutions in Princeville, North Carolina. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 11(3), 341-351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-021-00701-5
Princeville community floodprint: Resilience Standards for Greater Princeville. (2020) NC State University Coastal Dynamics Design Lab. Retrieved from: https://www.coastaldynamicsdesignlab.com/princeville-floodprint
Naylor, L., Fall, V., & Fox, A. (2020) The power of place in disaster recovery: Heritage-based practice in the post-Matthew landscape of Princeville, North Carolina. Parks Stewardship Forum, 36(1): 128-136.
Winterbottom, D. (2020). Design-build: Integrating craft, service, and research through applied academic and practice models. Routledge.