Tag: Neighborhoods

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Anthony-Northside Neighborhood Living Quality

Student studying a thermal image on a cell phone

The goal of this project was to map the quality-of-life for Muncie neighborhoods, and specifically to map the living quality for the Anthony-Northside neighborhood using GIS and remote sensing techniques. Four general categories of living quality indicators were evaluated for each house in the neighborhood and fifteen maps were created in this project: one map for Home Insulation; two maps for Home value and Lot size; one map for Lot Greenness, ten maps for its adjacency to community amenities, and one Overall Living Quality Index map.

Home Insulation for each house was evaluated from a thermal infrared image collected by students using a FLIR One thermal camera. Home value and lot size were obtained from Zillow.com. Lot Greenness was assessed based the greenness percentage in each lot, which was derived from the USA NAIP NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) imagery. Proximity to community amenities including Clinics, Schools, Libraries, Restaurants, USPS Mailboxes, Bus Stops, Parks, Bike Trails, Recreations, and Fire Stations were analyzed using Network Analysis in ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online. The values of all indicators were scaled to categories of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest living quality and 5 being the highest. The Overall Living Quality Index was obtained by averaging all fourteen living quality indicators.

Explore some of the story maps created using the collected data.
Image Gallery

Faculty Mentor: Jason Yang
Department: Geography
Community Partner: Muncie Action Plan, Anthony-Northside Neighborhood Association
Course: Advance Remote Sensing – GEOG 437

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Muncie Neighborhood Visual Identity Design (ongoing)

snippet of one of the branding images

The City of Muncie has diverse communities with friendly people, exciting pasts, and outstanding cultural amenities that make it a desired place to live, do business, and visit. Starting in Spring 2019, Studio 165+, an immersive design studio in the School of Art, began working with neighborhood committees to develop their visual identity, elevate their image and evoke a sense of pride in residents. The students researched each neighborhood determining unique key aspects, characteristics, challenges, and opportunities. After developing a neighborhood identity, they created designs to captured those characteristics and established style guides to help the neighborhoods illustrate graphic standards and rules to ensure consistency and continuity across applications and platforms. The neighborhoods done so far include Gatewood, Halteman Village, Westbrier, Old West End, Robinwood Estates, Forest Park, McKinley, Southside, Riverside/Normal City, and Whitely.  With input from residents of each neighborhood, they created a variety of materials including logos for each neighborhood to choose from, each one tailored to what makes that area of our community special–from the mid-century architecture of Halteman Village, to the open hands of Whitely.

If Studio 165+ is coming to your neighborhood soon, please fill out this brief questionnaire to help them get started on your new neighborhood identity.

Photo Gallery | You can also check out the great work they’ve done so far!

Awards & Recognition:

Whitely Community Identity Design

  1. American Graphic Design Award (National Award)
  2. American Advertising Federation East Central Indiana, Silver ADDY (Local Award)

Old West End Neighborhood Identity Design

  1. American Advertising Federation East Central Indiana, Gold ADDY (Local Award)
  2. American Advertising Federation East Central Indiana, Judges Choice ADDY (Local Award)
  3. American Advertising Federation East Central Indiana, Best of Show ADDY (Local Award)

Studio 165+

Project Page: https://www.studio165plus.com/bbn
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/studio165plus/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studio165plus

 

Spring 2019

Faculty Mentor: Shantanu Suman
Department: Art
Community Partner: Building Better Neighborhoods, Muncie Action Plan, Halteman Village, Robinwood Estates, Westbrier Neighborhood, Whitely Community, Old West End
Students: Nikki Abel, Ashley Allegretti, Hanna Boggs, Mariah Drake, Kate Hamilton, Valerie Francis, Emily Lipps, Sylvia Marbach, Samantha Robbins, Cameo Smith, Ashlyn Sterling, Katie Strader, Angel Winchester

Fall 2019

Faculty Mentor: Shantanu Suman
Department: Art
Community Partner: Building Better Neighborhoods, Muncie Action Plan, Forest Park, McKinley Live Learn Neighborhood, Southside Neighborhood
Student Team: Samantha Robbins, Ashlyn Sterling, Dominic Zelli, Erin Mawhorter, Jared Carter, Joel Hall, Katie Strader, Katie Hamilton, Mariah Drake, Ashley Allegretti, Jakob Rosenberger, Mariah Jester, Nikki Abel

Spring 2020

Faculty Mentor: Shantanu Suman
Department: Art
Community Partner: Building Better Neighborhoods, Muncie Action Plan, Riverside/Normal City
Student Team: Samantha Robbins, Ashlyn Sterling, Katie Strader, Valerie Francis, Angel Winchester, Hanna Boggs, Mariah Drake, Cameo Smith, Kate Hamilton, Ashley Allegretti, Sylvia Marbach, Nikki Abel, Dominic Zelli, Erin Mawhorter, Jared Carter, Joel Hall, Jake Gesick, Aubrey Hayden, Xander Crawley, Kimberly Holbrook, James Ong Jakob Rosenberger, and Mariah Jester

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Halteman Park Landscape Architecture Studio Project

In the summer of 2019, the City of Muncie made the bold decision to reclaim the former Halteman Swim Club property and designate it as a new city park. The public space, called Halteman Park, represents the extensive efforts of the Halteman Village Neighborhood Association (HVNA), a Ball State class taught by Professors Chris Baas and Steve Burrows, and the City’s Park Department to turn this abandoned pool area into a green space for residents to enjoy. In this immersive Building Better Neighborhoods project, Landscape Architecture students built on the work of previous studios to develop plans for the site. Early this spring, students conducted a public work session with members of the HVNA, the City of Muncie, and the community at large to strategize, vision, and create actionable steps for future improvements for the property.

REPORT (pdf)

Faculty Mentors: Chris Baas, Jeremy Merrill, J.P. Hall
Departments: Landscape Architecture, Architecture
Community Partners: Halteman Village Neighborhood Association, City of Muncie, Muncie Parks Department
Student Team: Grace DeBaun, Andrea Eageny, Stephanie Gates, Morgan Getz, Kaitlin Gobrogge, Elise Granlund, Emma Hawkins, Jared Heitkamp, Allison Janik, Emilee Lemmer, Meaghan Lessley, Eva Martin, Sophie Moody, Bryce Muller, Drayson Nespo, Keller Oeth, Violet Overstreet, Ciera Silva, Claire Thurlow, Krista Walterbusch

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Assigning the Living Quality of Muncie Neighborhoods Using Remote Sensing and GIS

map thumbnail of the neighborhoodSocial well-being and quality of life can be measured using indicators like income, housing, education, health, and the physical environment of an area. In this immersive learning Building Better Neighborhoods project, students evaluated the quality-of-life for residents in the Riverside-Normal City Neighborhood in Muncie. They assessed the living quality for each housing unit in the neighborhood, including the building’s health, physical environment, and its adjacency to community amenities and hazards. Features, such as driving and walking distance to nearest grocery stores, parks, and other amenities, were derived from existing GIS layers or extracted from high-resolution aerial photos in the GIS lab at Ball State University. Additionally, the students used smartphones equipped with thermal infrared cameras to collect information on structure heat loss, road conditions, and lawn health. The students integrated the collected data into a living quality geodatabase of Muncie neighborhoods for further analysis. Explore some of the story maps created using the collected data.

Faculty Mentor: Jason Yang
Department: Geography
Community Partner: Muncie Action Plan
Student Team: William Cape, Nathan Gagnon, Becca Garrett, Elante Ingram, Aaron Jones, Connor Kurtz, Benjamin Lutz, Riley McCreary, Ben Meyer, Patrick Ollier, Nathan Santichen, Jonathan Strang, Erick Wilson, Clay Zeigler

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Developing Healthy Neighborhoods

Many neighborhoods throughout Muncie are working to make the places they live great. With a little support and guidance, their efforts can also contribute toward making the places they live a little healthier. In this immersive learning project, students helped community members develop a Healthy Neighborhood designation program to promote better overall health and wellness in Muncie neighborhoods.

Materials: Play everywhere card pack | Play everywhere card pack# | Neighborhood Designation and Award Structure

Faculty Mentors: Jane Ellery
Departments: Kinesiology
Community Partner: Building Better Neighborhoods
Students: Alexandra Dremonas, Nicole Dubicki, Kylie Hagarty, Julia Price, Ashley Syferd

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VIDEO: 2018 Muncie Neighborhood’s Pool Party

Muncie Neighborhood’s 2nd Annual Pool Party at Tuhey Pool was a blast!  Families and neighbors from all over the community came together for a free night of fun celebrating Muncie’s neighborhoods with popsicles, hot dogs, BINGO, yard games, swimming, and friends!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iD-DivYjTU&list=UUrJ1UVXdC6omYgez8uRToMA&index=1