May 17, 2011

Fourth Annual ACE Mentor Program Scholarship and Awards Banquet

When:
Thursday, May 19
6:00pm – Students show work; 6:30pm – Program begins

Where:
Wells Fargo Auditorium at the Knight Theater

Who:
ACE Mentor Program Student Competition
Students from five Charlotte Mecklenburg High Schools
Mayor Anthony Foxx will be the keynote speaker

CHARLOTTE – ACE Mentor Program plans to recognize students from five Charlotte Mecklenburg High Schools at the fourth annual Scholarship and Awards Banquet. The banquet is held every spring to present projects and provide recognition for the students' hard work throughout the year. The students have the ability to interact with local industry professionals and other community members, as well as compete with other ACE Mentor Program students. This year’s banquet is Thursday, May 19 at 6pm at the Wells Fargo Auditorium at the Knight Theater, and Mayor Anthony Foxx will be the keynote speaker.

This year’s project focuses on revitalization of the Eastland Mall area. The Eastland Mall property was divided into five distinct areas, and each school was assigned a specific area for redevelopment. To successfully accomplish the challenge, the students had to create a new identity for Eastland Mall by combining its 33-year retail history with a range of other activities, integrating uses, and connecting the site to surrounding neighborhoods and commercial streets. Students were charged with making the overall design pedestrian-friendly and integrating the adjacent areas represented by the other ACE teams, which requiring significant and continued collaboration between all ACE schools. For a redeveloped Eastland to succeed, the new space has to be memorable, with interesting appearance, diverse architecture and types of housing, and have distinctive public spaces.

"The quality of the students’ work is the best we’ve seen yet in the ACE Mentor Program," said Josh Vallimont, board president. "The coordination required to accomplish a task such as this is impressive and speaks to the strong skills the students have developed over the year. If this work is representative of the future of the architecture, construction, and engineering fields, Charlotte is well positioned with bright ideas and keen insights."

Projects will be presented at the banquet and each team will be judged based on the physical display information and a PowerPoint presentation. Monetary scholarships and Peer Leader and Achiever awards will also be presented.

Eastland Community Area
In March 2007, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) recommended transforming Eastland Mall into a mixed-use town center. A review of the property showed the existing site had an oversupply of retail, was obsolete, lacked a desirable retail format for today’s shopper, and that the public realm surrounding the mall failed to meet today’s consumer needs. Growth had largely passed east Charlotte for other parts of the region. Plus, there was a perception of crime that plagued the area.

Despite these limiting constraints, the Eastland community is not without its strengths and opportunities. The mall site along Central Avenue is in the center of the city’s east side and enjoys strong roadway access along major east–west and north–south corridors. The area’s population continues to grow, especially among the city’s African American and Hispanic communities. Average household income is on the upswing and neighborhoods in the area enjoy a strong percentage of home ownership. Transportation improvements have already taken shape with the recent opening of a CATS transit facility at Eastland Mall and future improvements for the area include streetcar service from uptown to Eastland along Central Avenue.

ACE Mentor Program
ACE Mentor Program is a unique partnership among industry professionals — architects, interior designers, engineers, construction managers, college and university representatives, and other professionals from related corporations and professional organizations — who work together to attract young people to their professions. The Charlotte chapter is in its 4th year with participating schools from Berry Academy of Technology, Independence, Myers Park, South Mecklenburg, and West Charlotte High Schools. The chapter has grown from 11 students to 120 and 8 to 52 mentors. The organization's mission is to increase the awareness of high school students to career opportunities in architecture, construction and engineering (ACE) and related areas of the design and construction industry through after-school mentoring. Mentors are industry professionals who volunteer their time to educate about their chosen profession and coordinate trips into the "real world" through hands-on activities and jobsite tours; in return, the industry gets a much-needed boost of new talent as these students join the workforce.

To learn more, log on to http://www.acementor.org/612 or call Josh Vallimont at 980-721-9494.

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