Draper & Associates provided project management services to the Techwood/Clark Howell Urban Revitalization Demonstration project located in Atlanta. As a national redevelopment model for the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), the effective planning, design and implementation of the $42 million grant project was essential.

Techwood/Clark Howell, developed in 1929, is the oldest public housing community in the nation. As part of the national movement to eliminate public housing as we know it, HUD created a federally-funded grant program to provide money to housing authorities for the comprehensive redevelopment of these communities. Techwood/Clark Howell was selected as the primary site after which other communities in Atlanta and the country have been restructured.

The complex nature of the project was defined by a number of factors:

Draper & Associates was responsible for providing planning, scheduling and management control services during all phases of the project. In order to effectively manage information and successfully facilitate decision-making Draper & Associates structured the project into three operational levels, each with a specific function and responsibility: Executive, Interlink and Component.

• The Executive level represented the highest level of decision-making in terms of the Authority and Program Management. This group, including the Executive Director, Program Manager, key Deputy Executive Directors, and Draper Project Engineers, focused on critical, overriding issues identified at the Interlink or Component level.

• The Interlink level provided a forum for intra-departmental reporting among Directors, Managers, Staff and Draper Engineers. Issues at this level were identified at the Component level as requiring input from other departments and components.

• The Component level served as the most fundamental decision-making platform. This level was generally the source for issues and activities which may or may not have been tracked through the hierarchy of operational levels. For the Techwood/Clark Howell project, this level was defined by five specific program areas: Relocation & Reoccupancy, On-Site Development, Off-Site Development, Community & Supportive Services/Economic Development, and Legal. Issues and schedules specific to each component were developed by Component Managers, Staff and Draper Engineers.

Draper & Associates facilitated weekly Job Coordination Meetings for Executive, Interlink and each Component. During these meetings, Near Term Schedules, developed from the Overall Project Schedule and by each Component group, and Action Item Agendas served as the primary tools for identifying and tracking specific issues. The Near Term Schedules provided a detailed, eight-week look at graphically-represented activities defined by each Component. The Action Item Agendas, managed through a customized database, tracked specific tasks assigned at any of the three levels.

This project created a nationwide model for public/ private partnership which has been used successfully by the Housing Authority of the City of Atlanta, Georgia and has been copied by other authorities to reposition their real estate portfolios with socially and economically viable neighborhoods.