Master Plan Summary Overview

Date: October 28, 2011
From: Core Team
To: Yestermorrow Board of Directors

To facilitate the Board’s review of our Master Planning efforts to date, the following brief overview outlines the process which is detailed further in the full report linked below. There is still much to do, of course, but we have made impressive progress in the little time provided. From a foundation of teaching at Yestermorrow (3 years!) and personally interviewing a great number of the community members, Regenisis then went on to study the land, the watershed and above all, Yestermorrow’s Mission and Purpose. All this and more is reflected in the documents submitted here. And yet this is not a finished study nor should the drawings be interpreted as a final site plan. Rather, this is a “principled gesture” or bubble diagram of where natural functions and educational activities should be accommodated and placed on the land, based on our Purpose and Principles.

We started by asking “What is the Mad River watershed?” and how has it unfolded since the Beginning? What accounts for the resilient character of the inhabitants of this place? And, is this place congruent with the Yestermorrow School’s Mission? The result is a Master Plan that reflects both the place as well as the people. It is rooted in the dynamic flow between the essence of the school (revitalizing place-makers) and the essence of the larger community (seeking self-reliant innovation).

As a board, we have done the hard work of developing our core purpose so that it resonates with all our disparate members: “The Yestermorrow Design/Build School’s purpose is to learn
together, through shared inquiry and hands-on experience, the ways of making human habitat,
In a way that expands our understanding of who we are and how to live in beneficial interrelationship with the earth and each other, So that we all can thrive in a world with limited resources and unlimited potential.”

Along with Regenisis, the Core Team has developed Design and Process Principles (see pages 14 and 15 of the Yestermorrow Master Planning Grounding and Process Report) so that as we move forward with the actual design and building, we can continually ground ourselves in these
Design Principles. This will allow us to make certain that each of the five stakeholders in the “Pentad” benefit (Grounding and Process Report page 13-14). This is how we embrace the largest, evolving vision without becoming misguided or inflexible as time passes.

Some may be surprised to learn that we are not presenting a final design for your approval or modification. Rather, we are offering a means of distilling Yestermorrow’s Purpose and Principles into the built form of its campus. By approving the “principled gesture” (bubble diagram) presented, and the process by which it was articulated, we will have taken the first and most difficult step in creating our school’s future in this valley.

To move ahead, the Core Team should be board authorized to oversee the continued work on the Master Plan. The purpose of the Core Team is to hold the core principles of Yestermorrow, making sure all the stakeholders are not only represented but nurtured. The Core Team
would provide guidance for a Design Committee that would lead the Design discussion and oversight at Yestermorrow (see page 27 of the Grounding and Process Report). Central to the Core Team’s responsibility will be continual review and alignment of the built Master Plan with the School’s Purpose and the Design Principles derived from it.

As always, the board’s and Yestermorrow community’s insights and suggestions are needed and welcomed.

Sincerely,
Kinny Perot
Robin Morris
John Connell
Gillian Davis
Kate Stephenson
(2011 Core Team Members)

This downloadable PDF packet includes:
- Regenesis' Master Planning Process- Executive Summary 10.15.11
- Appendix: "How to Start A Design Conversation at Yestermorrow" by John Connell
- An aerial photo of the YM campus site to provide context
- A copy of the "working site plan" version 10.19.11
- A "bubble diagram" detailing the different zones, access etc

You can also download the full Grounding and Process Report prepared by Regenesis which provides additional detail and notes from board meetings and workshops held throughout the spring and summer of 2011.