Designing an Urban Room on Pleasant Street
PSSNC Executive Director Adriana Ojeda-Joslyn talks with Penn Ruderman and the Community Design Team about Urban Room plans.
Supported by a TDI Equity Grant, the Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center hosted its second Community Design Team meeting in which architect Penn Ruderman shared some of the ideas and feedback he’d heard from the community, including many young people, and began to present design concepts for how the space could be redesigned into a dynamic, multifunctional Urban Room. The design team talked about use-case scenarios, programing, color schemes, lighting, future expansion ideas, and audience. We talked about sustainable HVAC solutions using mini-split heat pumps and transforming the space into a neighborhood cooling center and a Community Resilience Hub.
Penn Ruderman presented an Urban Room design concept plan to the PSNNC Community Design Team.
The Community Design Team Spent much of their time rethinking and shifting plans for the space, keeping in mind the need for flexible seating, a tele-health center, ample storage, a refreshment station, areas for teens and kids, an event “stage,” and a welcoming entry area. The team is hoping to remove the drop ceiling and restore the original tin ceiling, gaining additional height and flexibility. The team also talked a lot about lighting—how to balance the natural light up front with the darker areas in back. The long, narrow shape of the space presents plenty of challenges—and opportunities.
Patricia Kirkpatrick of Flower Crown Farm hosts an illustration workshop at the Pleasant Street Food Truck Festival.
After the meeting, the Design Team headed over to the Pleasant Street Food Truck Festival, hosted by Pleasant Street TDI and Worcester Common Ground each Wednesday throughout the month of September. Some of the vendors were creating amazing interactive community activities, including Patricia Kirkpatrick of Flower Crown Farm, who offered an illustration station for kids. Patricia grows all of her flowers locally in the neighborhood. This is exactly the kind of programing that the PSNNC Urban Room will host when it is completed.
Meanwhile, we continue to work with Clark University Intern Angela Ruan on creating a Community Map Table for the Pleasant Street Network Center. FoSCI built a similar table for the FOCUS Lab in Troy, NY. The table is being built at Technocopia Maker Space. The Community Map Table will offer a power storytelling and re-visioning tool for community members to see their neighborhood in new ways. We’ve created neighborhood maps about environmental justice, commercial businesses, owning vs renting, zoning, race and ethnicity, bike access, and trees.
The Pleasant Street Community Map Table will be unveiled later this month!
