One Man's Trash
Philadelphia is home to a flourishing skateboard community. Temple Univsersity plays host to many members of the skateboarding community as evidenced by the waxed ledges throughout its north philadelphia campus. Cecil B. Moore Plaza, a granite paved sunken plaza located at the interesection of Broad and Cecil B. is their homebase. Cecil B. Moore plaza is owned by Septa, and maintained by temple; the relationship between the local skateboarders and the owners of the plaza is of a contentious nature. Though we are allowed to skate the plaza (and nowhere else on campus), we have been unsuccesful in building anything other than friendships here, and have long saught to make the space ours.
This project seeks to deal with trash, dead spaces, and outcasted communities. By using discarded and recycled material, it is possible to activate dead spaces and enhance community pride and stewardship. As such, the project began with an assesment of North Philadelphia's trash.
Skateboarders are not the only community that have been outcasted by Temple University. Though it provides many jobs for locals, the University has not always been delicate in its expansion into their neighborhoods. Similarly, students living off campus in these neghborhoods are not always delicate in their dealings with the locals, and recently, tensions are rising. It is imperative that students take the first step in building up the relationship with local community. We must act as ambassadors and seek opportunities for the application of our learning to the betterment of the North Philadelphia community.
As an environmentally conscious student of architecture, and skateboarder, the logical thought process was to build playgrounds out of recycled material. A playground would bring life to a space as long as their are kids using it. If the playground could be built out of trash and recycled construction waste, then it could also be viewed as a means of recycling. If I could work with a community to build a playground, then I would fulfill my duties as an ambassador to the local community. For a 21 year old skateboarder, a playground is quite obviously a skatepark. However, for the youth of North Philadelphia, a playground is much different.
My first experiment was a pop-up skatepark at Cecil B. Moore Plaza. Building the obstacles allowed me to practice building with the material I had found and made me think about how the skateboarding community could become the maintainers of the plaza. We have built ledges and re-arranged the furniture to make it skate-able plenty of times only to have our ledges stolen, and the furniture out back in its place. Instead of leaving the stuff we build at the plaza, why not make it all portable and take it somewhere safe when we are done skating (or back to the architecture studio). Also, why rearrange and damage the furniture when we could replicate the same obstacles for very little cost (under 100 dollars).
Material
Site
Pop-up Skatepark
Pop-up Playground
In my scavenging phase I came in contact with the "Express Urself Urban Crisis Response Center". I explained to them my ideas about building with recycled material and the potential benefits of a playground both designed and built by the community. The Urban Crisis Response Center hosts nieghborhood kids afterschool and provides a platform for them to express themselves. In the basement is a small recording studio and a larger open space for dancing. Some of the kids make rap music while others are members of a dance crew named "Bomb Squad". The coordinators, Wanda Abdula, and Terry Starks allowed me to work with the kids to begin to desing a playground in an empty lot next door to the community center on 15th and Oakdale that they owned. The following documents and accompanying images are my lesson plans for the design workshops I conducted on tuesdays and thursdays from November 3rd to the 20th, and the results of those workshops which are still underway. I plan to continue to work with this community to finalize a design and eventually, build with them their playground.