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Urban Studio had activities for kids and adults during recent South Allison Hill Multicultural Festival Harrisbug Urban
Studio Community Relations Committee Chair Maria
Diaz and Architect Advisory Committee Chair Tim
Allen enjoy the "Box City" assembled by children
during the Fourth Annual South Allison Hill
Multicultural Festival in Harrisburg. The Urban Studio Community Relations Committee, led by Committee Chair Maria Diaz, set up a booth, which featured the "Box City" activity for local kids and a "Canvas of the neighborhood" survey activity for adults. The Urban Studio Architect Advisory Committee chair, Tim Allen, AIA, helped assemble and manage the booth. "Both the multicultural festival and the Urban Studio booth were a huge success on April 29," Diaz said. "We would like to thank everyone who participated in our activities as well as Danna Gonzalez-McIntire, the festival's coordinator." "Box City" is a mapping exercise where children use cardboard boxes to build a model of the city. The kids paint and label the boxes to match buildings in their neighborhood and place them on an empty map of the area. "Canvas of the neighborhood" allowed Allison Hill residents to display comments and suggestions for the neighborhood on a large, hanging canvas. The suggestions will be reviewed by the Community Relations Committee and then presented to the Urban Studio Task Force when it is deciding what projects to pursue. "The Urban Studio can only achieve its goals with the input and opinions of people who live in the communities it serves," Maria Diaz, chair of the Community Relations Committee, said. "It is our goal to reach out to the communities and find out what they need." The Fourth Annual South Allison Hill Multicultural Festival was themed "Putting the Neighbor Back in the Hood." It started off with a community parade at 1 p.m. and ended at 6 p.m. The festival featured local live entertainment and a variety of events to showcase the talents of neighborhood residents. The Harrisburg Urban Studio is inspired by Auburn University's famous Rural Studio, a program providing architectural students with a practical learning experience while enhancing the environment of disadvantaged communities. Mayor Reed initiated the Urban Studio in March of 2004. Pennsylvania's leading architecture colleges send students to study, design and build in the Harrisburg Urban Studio. A number of architects, engineers, contractors and construction products firms are actively supporting the project. For more information visit www.nichenews.com/urbanstudio or contact Nathan Pigott, Hershey Philbin Associates, at npigott@hersheyphilbin.com or 717.975.2148. (Click Here for More Photos from the Multicultural Festival) |
