On Saturday, June 27, 2015, from 10am to 3pm, Joy Grefrath Kuebler (Joy Kuebler Landscape Architect, PC), Melissa Leopard and environmental activist Marika Frankenstein, will be joining a number of pop up park enthusiasts to create an installation at Billy Johnson Park on the city’s East Side (Florida St and Pansy Place). Kuebler will be joined by Councilman Demone Smith, the Hamlin Park neighborhood, and members of B Team Buffalo, as they design and build an interactive grassroots playground for the kids who live on nearby streets. “Kids start building at 10am and work until about 3pm,” says Kuebler. “We’ll have materials and tools, T-shirts and lunch for the kids. The target ages are 5 years to 10 years, but we’ve had younger try things out!”
To get a better sense about how of this all came about, PLEASE watch the following video:
These types of place making and community building exercises are low lift projects which are extremely successful. The pop up parks get young people thinking about different possibilities when it comes to building, creating, and imagining their neighborhoods in different ways. Young people are taught how to use tools, team build with others, and the value of being outdoors.
These days, most playgrounds are cookie cutter, emotionless place where families go to pass the time. Long ago, kids needed to be inventive with their time. They needed to think things through. They were required to interact with their environments – something that we see less and less of all the time. Then there are the kids who don’t even have easy access to the playgrounds that other children take for granted. Pop Up Park Buffalo is in the game of bringing the functional tools to those who need them most. In this day and age, if we must relearn what it is to effectively play, then so be it. Fortunately we have a devoted crew of grassroots activists who have decided to lead the way.
Friends from Preservation Studios and Tredo Engineers will be supplying the lunches on Saturday, and the kids will also be outfitted with Pop Up Park t-shirts thanks to Buffalo Architecture Foundation.
To learn more about the pop up park event, visit this Facebook page. Donations are always welcome, as are building supplies and tools.
Billy Johnson Park, Florida Street, Buffalo
Saturday, June 27, 2015
10:00am – 3:00pm