OVERVIEW
In July 1995 the Urban Technical Assistance Project (UTAP) was established as an independent organization within the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation under the auspices of the Graduate Program in Urban Planning. UTAP emerged out of the expansion of the Urban Planning Program's outreach activities and the University's renewed commitment to service in the life and development of New York City. UTAP has evolved as an urban extension model for assisting distressed communities with the support of the Univesity's Strategic Initiatives Program.
Collaborations toward urban revitalization require the combination of basic and applied research with a grounded understanding of the city and its neighborhoods. To achieve the aim, faculty and experts with a diversity of skills, perspectives and knowledge are engaged in project development. UTAP maintains as its principal focus assisting grassroot community development and believes that resident empowerment is essential to good planning.
Located in West Harlem, UTAP's office provides off-campus space for staff and graduate student interns to conduct planning projects. Staff, interns and clients interact in an open environment that allows for the integration of project work with advanced research design that utilizes computer technologies and some of the best professional thinking.
UTAP's capacity to conduct spatial analyses of social, economic and physical data is substantially enhanced by its Geographic Information System (GIS). UTAP's GIS features database and mapping tools for creating comprehensive and sector-specific assessments of community development activity. To further enhance its analysis, UTAP has also pursued the use of 3-dimensional models and other forms of digital visualizations as a means for translating and articulating community conditions visions, and proposals.
UTAP envisions advanced technologies as playing an ever increasing role in the generation of new knowledge concerning the urban environment. Dynamic changes occurring in cities and the expanded role of community builders necessitate new types of capacities within communities. This can be accomplished through the infusion of new technologies, training programs and advanced communication links with centers of higher education such as the Columbia University.