With this day and age of advancements across fields, people seldom resort to escaping into the woods or to a park. They rather chose to get drowned into their devices. But what if the park became an extension to your daily commute? The health benefits of spending time in nature are known to us through all the literature we come across, in different forms. What if this third place, becomes a part of our everyday social life. A place that’s for people of all ages, genders and ability, which is universally accessible.
Concerning the studio project this semester, the Lawndale community has a great resource that the neighborhood offers in the form of a boulevard. My studio partner Alexus Davis and my take on this amenity is that it has the potential to become that third place for this community, besides home and work. As we anticipate, this third place can lead to spontaneous social interactions where activities happen, and where people feel safe, welcome and comfortable. It is essential for people to feel that sense of intimacy and be a ‘regular’ here. Our idea expands to extending this corridor to connecting the major transit hubs in the neighborhood. By locating the most frequently used bus routes and stops and connecting them to the boulevard in order to achieve the sense of this third place for people on their way home.
A public space is originally designed as the one that welcomes and comforts everyone, but unfortunately there is always that fear from the factor of safety. This issue has a considerable impact on the daily lives of urban dwellers and the people in this community, directly or indirectly by causing urban open spaces such as public parks, squares, plazas, streets not be used. By activating these spaces through the third place, if a few environmental factors can be changed, we believe that certain public spaces of the neighborhood can be made more attractive and will increase the general perceived safety among people.
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