An Open Letter

If you have a Strategic Planning Problem in your city and need advice on how to proceed, you are very welcome to contact us in the Commission on Urban Planning. Hopefully we can help you.

Competitions - One often used way, when the leaders of a city face a problematic situation is to arrange competitions between planners and architects. Mostly the winners present elegant models and pictures showing the new situation in the city when the program is fully realized. Then the city leaders ask themselves: how shall we now proceed?

From Project to Process - Now you have to turn from Project to Process. And it is in this situation we can offer you our service. As a very early example, we can offer you a group of three or four city-employed architects and planners from different Baltic countries to come to your city for three or four days. They will analyse the planning situation and then give you useful advice and presentations on how to proceed with your planning problems.

The ABC-project is co-operation engaging city-employed architects and planners in 27 cities around the Baltic Sea. During three years 2003-2005 we carry out through six common seminars, one in spring and one in autumn each year and all in different countries. As a matter of fact, we started the work with our first common seminar in Malmo, Sweden, already in 1999. At our seminar in Gdansk in 2001 we tested work with substantial city planning problems and we managed quite well. In 2002 we arranged similar seminars in Riga and St. Petersburg.

EU comes in - We have now managed to get financial EU-support through Interreg IIIB. Unfortunately we haven't received the expected added support from Phare and now Phare is leaving the scene when the Baltic countries joining the EU. Anyhow we have decided to bring our project to a successful end. Maybe we can get some extra support from UBC instead.

Our way of working - If your city has not joined the ABC-project already, you are hereby invited to visit us during one of our coming seminars by sending city-employed architects or planners. During last seminar in Liepaja and in Riga our leading colleagues have formulated the following 3 items: revitalisation of mass-housing blocks from 80-ties, revitalisation of historical blocks at Old-Portside and revitalisation of former navy port.

Are you interested to join us? - Do these items sound interesting to work with? Does it seem interesting to take part in one of our coming seminars? Is your city interested to take even stronger part in our coming seminars? Does your city want any support from our group of experts to discuss and hopefully also solve one or two strategic planning problems in your city? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, please tell me or Jussi or Tomas or Inara (members of the Commission's Board).

On behalf of the UBC Commission on Urban Planning and the ABC-project.