News

April 2011- Ela Dokonal, AICP, LEED AP was a panelist at final student presentation at Hunter’s College in NY City, for the “Academy of Urban Planning: 2011 Urban Planning Spring Outreach Program”, the program created as a partnership between the Academy of Urban Planning, Hunter College, and the Metro Chapter of the American Planning Association’s Young Planners Group.

Ela Dokonal at Northport ArtWalk :  The event, titled Northport Artwalk, was organized through the cooperation of the local business community (Northport Chamber of Commerce) and the organization of local artists (NAC), with the aim to support both the local business and the local artist community.
Ela’s April exhibit included 8 paintings that together presented a short story about a village and its struggle to revive local economy. Each painting had a storyboard text associated with it, that was placed on a mobile site. Each painting has a QR code embedded into the painting itself, integrated with the scene depicted. Thus, a visitor could interact with the painting not only in a usual way, by enjoying the art, but also by using a mobile phone to scan the code and read the associated text of the story. To further underscore this business and art coalition, the mobile pages also included offers from local businesses, encouraging the “buy local” message promoted by the local Chamber of Commerce.
To explain all this and offer the text to users without mobile phones and scanners, the story is also captured in the brochure and the presentation video can be previewed on YouTube.
Ela’s May exhibit at LaMantia Gallery in Northport also included some oil canvases from the series titled “Memories”, that were created over the last decade.

Northport ArtWalk Committee Ela Dokonal is a member of the Northport ArtWalk Organizing Committee since its inception in 2010. Northport Village is a small waterfront community, with a picturesque historical downtown which has been serving its community for over a hundred years. Being that the Main Street district is located slightly “off the beaten path”, and unable to compete with convenience of the one-stop shop discounted big box centers, the impacts of the current economy had left the local merchants in distress.
The ArtWalk program spurred from the need to bring more people into the Village. At the same time, the program promotes a large community of local artists, a well-known high-school arts department and the overall Northport’s legacy to nurture and promote art. The park-once-and-walk platform of the ArtWalk offers direct interaction of local merchants and exhibiting artists with the visitors (last year drawn from all around Long Island).

Form Based Code Institute Graduates Ela Dokonal is a graduate of the Form Based Code Institute.

APA East End Conference- June 9, 2010- Ela Dokonal, AICP, LEED AP  is a speaker at APA East End Conference at Suffolk Community College’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Center (20 East Main Street in Riverhead).

The conference is a joint presentation of the Long Island Section of the NY Metro Chapter of the American Planning Association and the Peconic Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. This year’s East End Planning Conference focuses on comprehensive planning, downtown revitalization and architectural guidelines as they apply to Long Island’s East End communities. It includes several workshops on planning and design throughout the day.The workshop on comprehensive plans is moderated by Michael White of the LI Regional Planning Council and panelists include Jeff Murphree, Land Management Administrator for Southampton; Thomas Wickham, former Councilmember for Southold; Bill Chaleff, Architect; Bob DeLuca, Group for the East End; and Laurie Wiltshire, Land Planning Services. The workshop discusses the components of a comprehensive plan for accommadating growth, including social equity, and their successes and failures. The panel on downtown revitalization is moderated by Vision’s Eric Alexander and will look at the villages of Greenport and Southampton and the Town of Riverhead and how they envision the future of their downtowns, including what has already been done and the challenges and successes. Panelists include David Nyce, Mayor of Greenport; Stan Eckstut, Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn Architects; Siamak Sami, Chair, Planning Commission for Southampton Village; Chris Kempner, Director of Community Development for Riverhead; and Victor Prusinowski, former Councilman for Riverhead. The final workshop is on architectural guidelines, moderated by Anne Surchin, Architect. Panelists include Gary Jacquemin, Architect; Ela Dokonal, Director of Planning ADL III Architecture; Kyle Collins, KPC Planning Services; and Diane Mazarakis, Principal Planner for the Town of Brookhaven. The panel asks if design guidelines will lead to homogeneous design, and how they can help reinvent corridors and preserve traditional downtowns. The event will also include  presentations on Suffolk County’s 2035 Vision Plan.

New Urban News discussion on Design Guidelines Ela Dokonal, while Director of Planning for ADL III Architecture had co-authored the document.

DowntownDevelopment.com is featuring Design Guidelines and its innovative technique “Guidelines in Brief”; Ela Dokonal, while Director of Planning for ADL III Architecture had co-authored the document.

Bed and Breakfast zoning change proposal by Northport Business Development Committee Ela Dokonal as member of the Northport Business Development Committee.

NY Times Article featuring Ela’s rendering Ela Dokonal, while Director of Planning for ADL III Architecture.

2006 Westhampton Beach Business District Comprehensive Plan Update-  Ela Dokonal as a planning consultant while Director of Planning for ADL III Architecture.

Vintage Group project in Riverhead Renderings for the project in Riverhead, Ela Dokonal, while Director of Planning for ADL III Architecture

Oslo DeclarationCouncil for European Urbanism