Transforming communities through architecture

[Music]

ever worked in a six-foot cubicle farm

with overhead fluorescent lighting kind

of like in the office

i have you have a very different sense

of well-being there

than if you have open access to hang out

with your peers

where you have space view access to

nature

natural light you feel

differently which ultimately makes you

do things

differently i was born

in the heart of seattle central district

a historically black community

my mother who grew up in the city as i

was called

knew that my sister and i would struggle

in a neighborhood that was under

resourced

it was difficult for a black family to

have a leg up

my parents wanted a better life for

their kids which meant two things

a zip code where the mean average

household income was twice

what it was in the cd and access to a

college track education

and a public school system the only one

they were going to be able to afford

so we moved to the suburbs

what did my parents gain for the move to

white suburbia

well my sister and i did well in school

we both graduated college

we got well paying professional jobs

what did my parents lose connection

direct day-to-day connection with people

that looked like

us cooked like us felt the same

connection of soul music

had the same way of speaking identified

with the same cultural references

had the same world view

the apartment buildings that i grew up

in on the east side felt like storage

units for humans

when i walked home from school i entered

a huge asphalt parking lot with parking

stalls as far as the eye could see

rows of vinyl-clad buildings that looked

like

oversized lego blocks spread across the

urban landscape

no differentiation no distinction the

only way to tell my building

was to find this the six foot high

letter c

and then navigate myself to our family’s

unit

c101 these cheap woody walk-ups

as they were called three-story

apartment block developments

were plentiful throughout all of

suburbia

my family would reside in one for a

number of years and then move on to the

next one

and the next one they were entirely

indistinguishable

from each other interchangeable

modern versions of affordable housing

the modern slum

this physical environment only elevated

my lack of connection

my lack of sense of place we did not

know our neighbors

we had no place to gather as a family or

as part of a community

we often had no yard no garden

no relief from the sprawl no beauty

i’m forever indebted to the sacrifices

of my loving parents

this is not any criticism of their

choices or their hopes

for me and my sister instead it’s a

reflection that environment has a

profound

impact on how you view and experience

the world

for me that lack of connection was

fundamental in shaping who i am today

a black architect working to foster

community

and connection in college

i studied architecture at a school as

far away from white suburbia as i

possibly could get

that community in st louis what i

what i learned was that there was a even

greater wage gap than where i grew up

one of those communities the former slum

pruitt igo

was a classic example of the failure of

urban renewal in the 1950s

the idea was the people lived in large

towers and freed up the ground plane for

fields of green

in practice what pruitt i go really

became was a failed experiment

of high-rise racially segregated

poverty-stricken affordable housing

ultimately pruitica was torn down in the

1970s

similar to how i grew up those those

containers for humans

did not contain environments where

people felt connected to the land

to each other or to themselves and when

you feel disconnected

it’s nearly impossible to care about

maintain

or invest in the hard shell that is your

container

this can easily turn into feelings of

resentment

anger fear or neglect it was this

disconnect that i shared and felt

and that drove me to authentically

identify with the black

indigenous people of color community

that i wanted to serve as an architect

what i know as a community architect is

that

design of our built and natural

environment can either tear communities

apart

or bring communities together

in the mid-90s i returned to my home

to create a space that would celebrate

black community in the northwest

the site was a mess a neighborhood torn

apart

by a highway expansion with a long

vacant school

and a park that was underutilized and

vacant

we started with a community visioning

process to truly

determine what mattered to the community

that we wanted to serve

now more than a decade after it opened

the northwest african-american

museum at the coleman school is still

going strong

it is served to knit the community

together

and create a space where people belong

physical space can unlock pride

another project that brought together

community was first place schools in

seattle

they served homeless kids and in doing

so

providing them education and providing

them a safe space that they otherwise

didn’t have

i had the opportunity to design an

environment to provide the things that i

was not otherwise afforded in suburbia

in the central district my parents knew

their neighbors they could hang out on

the front yard they could sit on a stoop

and talk this place needed to promote

community

it started with a small housing

development called amani village

it was built immediately adjacent to the

school it provided outdoor classroom

space for the school

and 16 units of affordable housing for

families that were part of the program

in her famous book the death and life of

great american cities

jane jacobs talks about how when people

have windows that look out onto the

street

and onto shared outdoor space they’re

more likely to look

out on their windows and be a part of

keeping the street

safe we designed this project to make

certain that we created that same

experience the project was designed to

look like

two large residential homes people move

from the

unprotected space of the street through

a portal between the two homes and

into a shared courtyard populated with

flowering trees

adorned stoops and play equipment for

the kids

each unit’s entry and windows look into

that shared space

and people have a shared experience that

allows them to build

community allows people to co-mingle

and get to know their neighbors in doing

so

we created a sense of home

when built spaces ignore community the

cost

is high two years ago

i was asked by a majority white

developer to assist them

with a project that they had lost their

way

their goal was to develop 430 units

of residential housing on a prominent

street

in the central district two other

projects of a similar type had already

failed the black community

on that same intersection the developer

did not understand

the community’s values the project was

not being

developed in a way that was celebrating

black culture and history

the black community decided that enough

was enough

and that this white developer was coming

into their community and taking

advantage of them

the city of seattle responded by saying

that the developer could not move

forward with the project

until this disconnection was addressed

i was brought in to help re-establish

the conversation and invite

more faces to the table

the difference between involving the

community from the start

and coming in late was that we still had

big boxes on the site

however we were able to incorporate

eight black artists into both

the design of the physical buildings and

the site

and through that collaboration between

the black artists and the developer

we are able to now see and

celebrate the brilliant black history

and culture of the central district

literally cast

on the buildings of this project

the project includes a courtyard

internal to the city block

which features a huge outdoor gathering

and performance space

with a beautiful life-giving tree as the

centerpiece

the space will be given life by

african-american marketplace small

businesses

retail and art galleries that populate

all

of the spaces that wrap the courtyard

and also spill out onto the street

in partnership with africa town

community land trust

the city block will offer almost 250

units of affordable housing for families

last summer in a neighborhood in seattle

there was a single space that embodied

community

and a need to heal capitol hill

was overtaken by unrest

the capitol hill organized protest or

chop

as it came to be known came together

to celebrate culture and have their

voices heard

cal anderson park was transformed by the

black lives matter movement

and a groundswell of community members

engaged

they wanted to make a difference for

themselves by themselves

despite hardship after the death settled

and the shop

and the chop was no longer occupying the

city streets

we convened a series of public open

houses online surveys

and small gatherings to ask stakeholders

at every level

how we create own and occupy public

space

marcus henderson of black star farmers

built a community garden

in that public space of the chop because

people crave connection to each other

and to the earth he answered that call

by creating opportunities for families

to plant vegetables and grow their own

food to be more connected to both the

soil

and to be able to commune with each

other

by re-envisioning the physical

environment in the public realm

marcus created community we’re expanding

on that promise

by creating new gathering spaces for

community conversations

public art opportunities and expanding

the opportunities for food producing

garden spaces on the site

will enhance the public realm with clear

and open lines of sight

better lighting and community policing

that will allow neighbors to feel safe

to gather and to celebrate the culture

of their community

all humans have a right and

responsibility

to invest in their in their built

environment

to promote social change imagine what

would happen

if we all had our own version of cal

anderson park

architecture is an expression of who we

are as a culture

what we hold up on high is beauty what

we believe is important to invest in

and how we treat our people

without holding ourselves responsible

for that personal investment

in our own future and out of our

community

we will continue to erode the social

structure that have supported our sense

of well-being

we will not nurture our cultural center

our sense of place

our sense of home our sense of

connection

the built environment not just the

buildings but the way buildings are

designed to create opening gathering

space

can provide a stronger connection

between the community that lives there

by celebrating history and celebrating

the culture of the people that live

there

in this way we can create a renewed

sense of connection

and celebration i’ve seen it happen

but architects alone are not the answer

from public officials

down to small business owners down to

residents

everyone needs to participate in the

process to celebrate

and come together to create a space

where we can all belong

right now we’re a nation disconnected

from

ourselves from each other

we need to come together to create

spaces where we can be together

and feel a sense of belonging both

psychologically and physically thank you