The West Virginia Community Design Team (CDT) and the Ronceverte Historic Landmarks Commission (HLC) have been awarded a $7,700 grant from the Kellogg Foundation and the WVU Office of Service Learning that builds on recommendations made during the Community Design Team visit to the GreenbrierCounty community in November. The unique grant engages West VirginiaUniversity faculty and students in professional service with the community.

Three graduate students from WVU s Cultural Resource Management program are working with the HLC to develop brochures for the planned historic districts and the community theater, which produces the communitys Riders of the Flood performance. Roughly 30 undergraduate students from the Universitys Landscape Architecture program will also be involved in creating conceptual designs for several areas within the town.

WVU students and CDT staff met this month with HLC officials to begin development of the brochures. One publication will define a walking tour of historic homes, churches and commercial structures while”telling the story”of Roncevertes historic past; a second will focus on promotion of the Riders of the Flood theater production, providing insight into the historical events that are portrayed and photographs of the Island Park Amphitheater. Over the next month, the group will be collecting photographs, writing brief histories and surveying brochures from other communities in preparation for a March 15 meeting.

In late March, 30 students and a faculty member from the WVU Landscape Architecture program will visit Ronceverte to make an initial assessment of project areas that have been identified by the HLC . Over the next several weeks, the students will work up conceptual designs for the proposed MainStreetPark, streetscape design for Main Street, entrances to town and streetscape design for West Edgar Ave. and present those to the HLC for implementation.

“The Community Design Team is eager to see the Ronceverte project come to completion,”said WVU s Jeremy Morris, CDT coordinator.”In many ways the Ronceverte community is helping the CDT grow as much as it is helping Ronceverte grow. The CDT hopes that this project is the first of many steps to providing a more substantial `rural design assistance centerfor West Virginia communities.”