From Bus Shelters to Stormwater Innovations to Building Commons and Community Capacity

Our thinking has been expanded by Bill Stricktland's visit last week. Bill is the founder and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation in Pittsburgh, PA. These two programs -- Manchester Craftsman Guild and Bidwell Training Center -- offer free training and enrichment programs to those with greatest need. Manchester offers after school art classes, while Bidwell Training Center focuses on workforce development and job training.

Students working at Manchester Craftsman Guild from 

Bidwell Training Center (link to image)

Mr. Stricktland is a visionary who believes that beautiful environments bring out the best in us and inspire excellence. Likewise, he believes that when we surround ourselves with beauty and operate from a deep sense of respect for others, our spirits are elevated and we are able to achieve great things.

This is a vision I can buy into.

Bill's visit helped me see that there might be a larger purpose behind the Asbury Manor bus shelter project. This site has such great potential for transformation. I see opportunities for an extreme makeover, grounded in sustainable and resilient design; one that models adaptive reuse and celebrates creativity. What a cool, one-of-a-kind site it could be. I can imagine stumbling on it as I stumbled on Piccasiette in France back in 1985.

Piccasiette

or Grandma Prisbey's Bottle Village

Grandma Prisby's Village

or something as unusual as the Watts Towers in LA....

Watts Towers....

Or Project Row House for the Third Ward in Houston, Texas?

Project Row House from ...

Project Row House from

How might these sorts of projects -- and many other cool and unusual projects -- influence our work at Asbury Manor? 

What about looking at the intersections of the natural and built environments, two distinct 'ecosystems' in which our lives unfold? Can the built environments that we create become more resilient in the face of changing natural systems?

Bill's visit has made me wonder if the bus shelter we have been imagining, envisioning and planning for could lead to something greater at Asbury Manor; something more than our initial goal of providing refuge from the weather while waiting for the CATA bus?

Would the residents want this? Would they be willing to work to help make it happen?