2024-Bergmeyer-CSRReport FINAL - Flipbook - Page 19
PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: AIA SDAT Sierra Leone
Since 2010, Bergmeyer has provided pro-bono consulting services to communities struggling
to achieve equitable and sustainable growth through supporting the work of the American
Institute of Architects’ Communities by Design (CxD) service grants known as RUDATs
(Regional Urban Design Assistance Teams) or SDATs (Sustainable Design Assistance Teams).
Bergmeyer’s participation in thirteen design assistance projects has allowed us to help
communities in Georgia and Kentucky address disinvestment related to institutionalized
racism, help communities in Utah and New Mexico address the impacts of the changing
global economy, and help communities in coastal Maine address the threat of sea level rise.
In 2020, the Freetown Town Council and Mayor secured a feasibility study for a cable car
system that would connect Freetown’s steeply sloped residential neighborhoods with
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Bergmeyer | 2023 Corporate Social Responsibility Report
its downtown commercial district, creating more equitable job access for Freetown’s
residents and taking pressure o昀昀 the city’s highly congested infrastructure. In March 2023,
Bergmeyer’s Mike Davis FAIA was part of an AIA SDAT team whose mission was to imagine
what these cable car stations might look like and, more importantly, to show how this
investment in public transportation could be leveraged to redevelop Freetown’s historic
district as a destination for global Black heritage tourism.
The end result: The AIA SDAT in Freetown, Sierra Leone, energized the City Council and Mayor
and gave them courage to imagine their future as a tourist destination. The design team’s work
will help them rally the federal government and NGO’s around the world to the cause of telling
Freetown’s important story while creating a new economic engine for its citizens.
