Common Ground

place-based design that builds community

10500 Old Babcock Boulevard
Gibsonia, PA 15044
ph: 724-799-6060
fax: 412-213-0898
alt: 724-799-6061
carma@discovercommonground.com

services

Common Ground specializes in Emergent Regenerative Design, Site Development, Civil, Environmental, and Structural Engineering. We work outwards to discover and engage all identifiable stakeholders during the design process. Our designs encompass and celebrate the energetic boundaries of a site, honoring the essence of the place.

Common Ground's fundamental step in our emergent regenerative design work is to become intimate with the patterns of living systems specific to the place. Working in tandem from a bottom-up and top-down approach we search for what we are being asked to shape while respecting what is being shaped by the existing energies. We let flourish what has been too constrained, and we minimize debilitating impacts from activities that have had unintended consequences. We search for ways to introduce, interweave and employ ecological, infrastructural, social, cultural and financial capital. Fostering cooperation across all inhabitants of a site ensures that your vision evolves into a project that captures true optimization of the whole-system abundance and stability exhibited by living systems.

Engagement

Establishing common ground, as our name implies, is foundational to successful development. Engaging in the process of finding common ground is the spring board from which creativity and innovation flourish. It brings to light differing perspectives but helps to find the common connections from which weaving these perspectives is possible. Common Ground can help you by:
- defining the right levels of design potential amongst self, organization, project, community and place
- communicating the context of the project in a transformative way
- identifying possibilities and setting goals to build more self-sufficient communities as a result of the project
- organizing activities such as: design charettes, one-on-one interviews, reflective time at the site, and historical research
Discovery

Like engagement, Discovery is fundamental to successful development and requires enrolling the expertise of all stakeholders - not just shareholders. The stories and data gathered during the discovery process fuels further engagement and the establishment of common ground. We can help you by:
- visiting and observing areas connected to the site - growing awareness as to how the life of the site is presently operating
- acquiring deep knowledge of all the linkages and webs of the nested systems whose interconnectivity promote energy flows across the project site and beyond
- determining the "boundaries of influence" of the project by understanding the mutual influences between the project and the surrounding community
- documenting existing natural, man-made, and human resources
- investigating regulatory requirements
- researching utility availability and decentralized alternatives
- understanding traffic patterns and circulation
- determining functional relationships between systems
- developing functional objectives for the project
- uncovering a revitalized vision for the project
Site Planning
Common Ground can coordinate and facilitate your Site Planning activities aligned with your vision using integrative, living systems design principles of Biophilic design and Ecodistricts to provide:
- Site Selection and Comparitive Cost Benefit Studies
- Program Development and Analysis
- Site Analysis
- Off-Site Conditions Studies
- On-Site Conditions Studies
- Opportunities and Constraints Plan
- Site Renderings
- Soil Surveys
- Zoning and Land Development Municipal Approvals
- Environmental Permitting (Water Quality, Encroachment, Solid & Municipal Waste, Sewage)
- Erosion Control Permits
- Stormwater Management
- Water Balance Studies (Net Zero Water)
- Green Building Water Strategies for supply and waste
- Waste Management
- Environmental Site Assessments
- State and Local Highway Occupancy Permitting
Design Development & Construction Documents
Create Final Designs, Specifications, Construction Cost Estimates, Bid Documents, and Bidding for:
- Site Layout
- Grading
- Green Infrastructure
- Low Impact Development (LID)
- Urban Agriculture
- Stormwater Management (BMPs)
- Green Roofs
- Floodplain Management
- Sewage Facilities Planning
- Hydrology and Hydraulic Studies
- Biophilic Spaces
- Water Management, Conservation and Reuse
- Greenway Planning
- Rainwater Harvesting and Irrigation
- Constructued Wetlands
- LEED, SITES, and Living Building Challenge Design and Documentation
Outreach and Community Building

Common Ground helps build awareness by working and volunteering with local organizations and schools to help connect people with local food sources to develop better health, wellness, and communitity, thereby strengthening connections to issues such as:

Understanding and mapping Foodsheds
Composting of Organic Wastes generated by local businesses at local farms
Developing better Food Security
Supporting Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
Connecting Local Restaurants with Farmers and Purveyors
Healthy Eating and School Meals