Pop-Up Park Buffalo
2012
What if a playground could “Pop-Up”?
“Pop-Up” refers to an intervention, usually within the urban environment, that “pops up” temporarily for a specific need or event. Vacant storefronts become pop-up art galleries, or pop-up restaurants for a one night event. On street parking spaces become “parklettes,” with lush planting and seating for nearby cafes lacking sidewalk space. The intervention is short, inexpensive, fulfills a temporary need, and often highlights an underappreciated space in our surroundings.
What if kids could build a playground, play on it, and take it down before the certified safety inspectors could catch up with them?
Last May, JKLA joined forces with architect Catherine Faust and head of the Tinkering School of Buffalo Melissa Leopard to begin the tedious process of bringing a “Pop-Up Park” to Buffalo.
We set our challenge:
Could we empower kids to play, to think and build creatively?
Could we give them a pile a stuff to work with, and some tools with which to build?
Could we find them a site on which to work?
The answer to all of these questions is yes!! On Saturday, June 9th, against a pile of odds, a group of people pulled off a “Pop Up Park” with HUGE success!
We affected not only 20 kids, but an entire neighborhood on Saturday. Kids and even adults from the neighborhood “played.” They hammered, nailed, and sawed; used screw guns, duct tape, rope, and piled tires; even painted. Tables, teeter totters, balance beams and games were just a few of the items created on this day!
The neighbors thanked us for giving them, their kids, and their neighborhood this wonderful experience, to which we replied, “Thanks for coming out to play – you made it happen.”
For more about this day, you can read Joy's full blog posts on http://www.thegoodneighborhood.com/
The creation of this event and days leading up to it:
http://www.thegoodneighborhood.com/2012/05/14/a-place-of-joy-what-if-a-playground-could-pop-up/
The results!
Watch Pop Up Park video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAgkVa6UFuU
Watch Pop Up Park timelapse! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J6Aa6ZfKAs&feature=relmfu
