Community design event set for Sept. 23

Youngstown

The Youngstown Foundation will host a Universal Design Symposium from 1 to 4 p.m. Sept. 23 at The Youngstown Club.

The Symposium will be convened by Cynthia Anderson, president of Youngstown State University and Mayor Jay Williams and facilitated by Patrick W. Manley, of Manley Architecture Group, with technical support from Turning Technologies.

Architects, agency directors, builders, business owners, consumers, developers, government representatives, funders and planners, who are invested in the city, are encouraged to participate.

Participants will rank criteria and then prioritize projects that are currently on the drawing board within the city to determine those projects that will provide the greatest potential benefit by incorporating principles of Universal Design.

Turning Technologies will generate a report which can be used by those organizations with high priority projects in support of their efforts to secure funding to incorporate Universal Design.

The symposium is free and is intended to educate the community about the benefits of Universal Design, a term coined by Ronald L. Mace, founder of the Center for Universal Design and an architect who developed seven principles to create “a more usable world.”

For more on the seven principles, read Thursday's Vindicator or Vindy.com.