AAO WEBINAR:
Market Street Prototyping Festival
Thursday, April 30, 2015
11:30am-12:30pm CDT
A unique design intervention has been unfolding over the past several months in San Francisco. The project, entitled the Market Street Prototyping Festival, is a three-way partnership tying together the interests of the City of San Francisco’s Planning Department, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and dozens of artists and designers from across the city.
Over the course of a three day celebration (April 9-11), sidewalks along the heavily trafficked Market Street were transformed into a public showcase of imaginative ideas for improving San Francisco’s famed “civic spine” and investigating how locals might come to use it more fully. Hundreds of entrants responded to the initial open call for ideas (launched last fall), with dozens of winning teams’ entries unveiled in prototype form during the Festival – an open invitation for pedestrians to explore and interact with the temporary installations. In the process, hundreds of thousands of residents learned more about the City’s plans for rebuilding this important roadway; a selection of the most successful prototypes will be refined and installed as permanent fixtures along the boulevard after the infrastructure improvements are completed. (For a brief event overview, browse this recent article from the San Francisco Chronicle.)
To share this case study with our AAO members, we’re pleased to welcome guest presenter Neil Hrushowy, Manager of the City Design Group, Citywide Planning for City and County of San Francisco’s Planning Department. Neil was an early pioneer for this project, hatching the idea after attending a placemaking lecture by Knight Foundation’s Carol Coletta. Good thing, too, as the Knight Foundation wound up providing critical seed funding for the Festival.
If you’re involved with a design organization that has an interest in pursuing public-private partnerships, the Market Street Prototyping Festival is an inspired case study with lots of useful information on offer. Please join us to learn more about this innovative project and the special talents each partner organization brought to the cause.
This monthly webinar series is offered free of charge to AAO members.
Note: This webinar event has now passed. If you wish to view an archive of the presentation, please visit the Resources section of our website. AAO Member log-in is required to access this content. (Need help locating your log-in credentials, please Contact Us for help.)