Projects
Appalachian Trail Conservancy Strategic Plan
As part of his role on the Board of Directors, Dan led the Board's Strategic Directions Committee and shepherded the organization through the evaluation of the prior Strategic Plan, established goals and process for developing a new strategic direction, rewrote the organizations mission and vision statements, and worked with ATC staff to change to develop a rolling 3-year plan with broad engagement with the AT "ecosystem". The plan focuses the work of the organization on three key areas of conservation work, and three key areas of communication and engagement work, with the objective to set the organization up for success in the wake of the 100th anniversary of Benton MacKaye's 1921 article suggesting the creation of an Appalachian Trail, and leading into the second century of the ATC's existence. Its centenary celebration is in 2025.
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Friends of the City of Raleigh (COR) Museum
Perry Street Studio has completed a contract with the Friends of the City of Raleigh Museum, helping build organizational capacity in its role of support to the COR Museum, a history museum in downtown Raleigh located in the historic Briggs Building (1874). Perry Street Studio provided staff assistance, membership management, board development and organizational assistance to the Friends, as well as support for new exhibits.
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Dorothea Dix Park Master Plan
Perry Street Studio was selected in March 2017 to be part of the team that developed a Master Plan for Dorothea Dix Park - a 300+ acre tract, formerly the Dorothea Dix Hospital campus in Raleigh. This is one of the premier new urban park projects in the country in one of the fastest growing metro regions in the nation. The lead designers on the project were Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates of New York, designers of Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York and Maggie Daley Park in Chicago among other noteworthy landscapes. This team won a competitive selection process over three of the premier landscape architecture firms in the world. Perry Street Studio participated in the local public engagement process for the team during this 18-month planning process.
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Presentations and Writing
Dan has made presentations at the National Planning Conference, the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and at state chapter annual meetings and national industry meetings. He has spoken to elected bodies, local civic groups and neighborhood groups. Recent presentation subjects:
Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation - Asheville: People and Landscape - Stories about the contributions of landscape architects to the National Parks American Society of Landscape Architects National Conference - Intimate Beauty - Personal stories of National Park Rangers and American landscapes American Planning Association National Conference - Interconnected Street systems - why this is important to cities NCAPA Annual Conference - Large Landscape Conservation and the National Trails System Dan has also published articles in National Parks Magazine, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Appalachian Trail Journeys Magazine, Planners Casebook (American Planning Association), Carolina Planning, and EC & M Magazine, and has edited the NC Citizen Planner Training Manual. |
Downtown Raleigh Renaissance
Dan was involved in many aspects of the successful re-invention of Downtown Raleigh since 2003, including the Fayetteville Street re-opening project, the construction of the Raleigh Convention Center and the City Center Marriott, and the construction of City Plaza, including negotiations with private developers, urban design decision-making, public presentations to City Council and the Wake County Commission, and positioning of city assets for development. Dan developed RFP's for private development, oversaw consultant work, and coordinated the activities of multiple departments in the design and construction process. He also managed public-private partnerships for a variety of complex inter-relationships and shared building structures.
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Oak City Outreach Center / Oak City Cares
When a crisis developed between the community involved in supporting the homeless by setting up food stations in Moore Square and the Raleigh Police Department, Dan coordinated the City's response and facilitated a community process that resulted in a short-term solution, the Oak City Outreach Center - a temporary facility to house the food distribution volunteer efforts adjacent to the square, and a long-term solution - a multi-services center, jointly funded by the City of Raleigh and Wake County. The Raleigh Police Department and the staff of the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department made it all happen along with the Partnership to End Homelessness, Catholic Charities, Love Wins Ministry and many other partners. This ended with a unanimous endorsement in a community meeting in a tense environment and a unanimous vote at the City Council. The Outreach Center has now served meals in the hundreds of thousands to those in need. The long-term goal was realized when the Raleigh City Council and the Wake County Commission funded and constructed the Oak City Cares Center, with a broad array of services intended to help vulnerable populations in the community. It opened in 2019.
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Solid State Lighting
In 2007 The City of Raleigh and Cree, Inc. of Research Triangle Park created a partnership called LED City, that engaged both partners in bringing emerging solid state lighting to Raleigh as a test site for general illumination lighting. Dan explains this in this video. Over the span of 3 years the City implemented street light pilots, parking deck lighting, exterior park lighting, office lighting and decorative lighting at the Performing Arts Center - all well before acceptance of this new technology in the general market. This positioned Raleigh as a national leader and helped launch Cree's prominence in the field of LED lighting. It also resulted in a $1 Million contribution by Cree to build the Cree Shimmer Wall at the Raleigh Convention Center. Dan helped create the original project with Greg Merritt at Cree, and spoke at national conferences about Raleigh's experience with LED. The City's streetlight system has now been 100% transitioned to LED, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Watch this video about a streetlight pilot on Hillsborough Street.
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Hillsborough Street Community Services Corporation
Dan has been involved in the community design effort underway on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, the university "strip", since graduate school. This effort, which has involved North Carolina State University, the local business community, property owners and adjacent neighborhoods, resulted in the establishment of a Business Improvement District in 2010. Dan served on the inaugural Board of Directors of the corporation, and has helped facilitate the hiring of staff and initial success of the district, that has seen hundreds of millions of dollars of investment since the establishment of the Corporation. Dan helped build the first Pedestrian Business Overlay Zoning District in 1986 that allowed pedestrian-scale development here - a project that won an Outstanding Planning Award from the NC Chapter of the American Planning Association. Perry Street Studio, LLC recently designed a wayfinding signage program for parking on Hillsborough Street, and continues to provide occasional consulting or project services for the HSCSC. Visit the HSCSC web site.
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Development Management
For 10 years Dan led the City's entitlement process and site plan review division for the City of Raleigh - during a period where the City's population grew by over 30%, and represented the creation of major new neighborhoods in Raleigh such as Wakefield Plantation, Brier Creek and Falls River. Dan negotiated development agreements, automated the review documentation process, supervised the Planning Department's current planning staff, coordinated with other City Departments, presented development cases to the Raleigh Planning Commission and City Council and facilitated changes to the development regulations to respond to real-life challenges in the development industry. During this time he also taught the site planning module of the Zoning Administrator's Course at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government.
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Public Administration
Starting as a Planner I in the City Planning Department, Dan became supervisor of the development management function of the Department, led the division that first put the Comprehensive Plan on the internet, managed the redistricting surrounding the 2000 census, moved to the City Manager's Office where he led the negotiations to secure a convention center headquarters hotel. After becoming Assistant City Manager in 2004, Dan led several business re-invention efforts, established a new customer service function and implemented See Click Fix as the City's interface with the public, participated on the City's Benefit Committee and Technology Committee during several major changes and implementation of a new web site and an ERP system, led the Manager's Office public communication effort surrounding the City's change to curbside waste collection, supervised the Office of Sustainability and the Emergency Management Office, and served as the City administration's final level of appeal for employee actions before referral to the Civil Service Commission.
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