“The street, which is the public realm of America, is now a barrier to community life.” Attribute the quote to renowned architect and city planner Andres Duany, who along with like-minded counterparts has spent many years trying to reform urban growth patterns.

Duany now sets his sights on another “street” to conquer for the sake of communal cohesion: Walzem Road. Duany will lead a weeklong charrette, starting Dec. 3 at the Windcrest Civic Center. Charrette is a French word that loosely means “a work in progress.”

Residents, authorities and merchants who live and work around the former Windsor Park Mall area will be invited to work with consultants to visualize how this particular community — dubbed Windcrest Village — should look like and function to benefit the greater good.

Duany held an information session Nov. 13 in downtown San Antonio, talking with Windcrest and San Antonio planners and other individuals key to a project that led to Windcrest acquiring San Antonio land that includes the vacant mall.

“Duany laid down the ground rules of how the charrette will work and what people can expect,” said Ray Watson, Windcrest’s economic development director.

“This pre-planning session and the full charrette allows Mr. Duany and his associates to get a feel from San Antonio and Windcrest people, state and county officials, and the developers on where their priorities lie in the project,” said consultant Ben Brown, whose PlaceMakers Group often works with Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, the firm that offers a full range of planning and architectural services.

“The team of designers and architects talks with all stakeholders, draws from their ideas and makes sure those ideas comply not only with current local codes and regulations, but also Smart Code. They would get feedback from conceptual drawings and produce a finished product in one week,” Brown added.

Like others that Duany has led across the nation, Brown describing the upcoming charrette as akin to an art studio open to visitors several hours a day. The consultants are due to arrive Dec. 3 and open the civic center the next day, as well as conduct an opening presentation at the Westin Riverwalk Hotel. A review of “pin-up” concepts would happen Dec. 7. The studio closes Dec. 10 and a final presentation follows at the Westin.

SmartCode is a universal land use ordinance that Duany released in 2003 as a way to implement what he calls new urbanism. It is a geographical cross-section-based template that city planners can use to keep towns compact and rural lands open, while reforming any negative sprawl-producing patterns of separated-use zoning.

The finished product will involve a detailed design plan for the 303 acres (137 in Windcrest, 166 in San Antonio) that the private Windcrest Economic Deve-lopment Company acquired earlier this year to jumpstart revitalization of the Walzem corridor. Development consortium members such as Gary Cain previously met Duany through a state legislator who facilitated a separate project elsewhere in Texas.

A May 2006 New York Times article profiled Duany, who has been involved in plans to redesign communities that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Though he has his architectural critics, Duany was described in the story has having “nostalgic prescriptions for dense, walkable neighborhoods energized by stores, mass transit and traditional housing.”

“Gary and his colleagues loved the work that Andres has done and engaged him to be part of this project,” Watson said. City Council met Monday to hold a presentation from SA Partnership, an architectural firm that is interested in providing master planning for the city.

The high-tech firm Rackspace Managed Hosting, which will relocate from northwest San Antonio to anchor the redeveloped Windsor Mall site, seeks to have its first 600 employees onsite in January, according to Windcrest officials.

Rackspace has pulled permits for $40 million in renovation to the first phase of the mall. Renovations began in mid-October in the former Mervyn’s, where the initial workers will office.