Urban Planners: Local skaters redevelop tennis court on Water Street.
Back in 2010 Victor Guilefoy, A.J. DeStephano, Alton Lawson (pictured above, far left) and some of their friends began to develop a dilapidated court at Ormand G. Spencer park (East Water Street) and make it a place to skate.
Victor G. told me his friends wanted a public skating facility since there are times when skates get tickets for being on the road or sidewalks. After some civic finesse with the Parks Commissioner they got their wish.
Fast forward to Wednesday, when it was almost 50-degrees and Ormond Spencer Park, located near the vacated Kennedy Square Complex, pulsated with kick…push…jump, and the sounds of skateboarders surfing on air.
“The tendency to think that a city can build itself out of decline is an example of the edifice error, the tendency to think that abundant new buildings leads to urban success. Successful cities typically do build, because economic vitality makes people willing to pay for space and builders are happy to accommodate. But building is the result, not the cause of success…” -Edward Glaeser
Walter Hood gives the 2011 Warner Selgiman Lecture at Syracuse University
Designer, architect, artist and urbanist Walter Hood described some of nationwide design projects and the agrarian roots in modern day urbanism yesterday at SU’s School of Architecture.
Below is an excerpt form his talk, which focuses on the “Find the Rivers” project Hood did in Pittsburgh, PA. The “Rivers” geographic location is the setting for many of the plays by August Wilson called the Hill District.
Hood, who is based in Oakland CA, was in town for the 2011 Werner Seligman lecture.
