Community Design Sprints partnership brings visibility and enthusiasm to Peace Park

This spring, students in the new Community Design Sprints course supported the ongoing progress of transforming vacant land in North St. Louis’ College Hill neighborhood into a park envisioned by the neighbors. The course was led by lecturer and WashU senior urban designer Matthew Bernstine with substantial support from Emily Coffman, curriculum and outreach coordinator in the Office for Socially Engaged Practice, and Shameen Akhtar (MArch22, MUD22), an intern in the Office for Socially Engaged Practice. The course was enriched through partnerships with three community members—Linda Braboy, Alfreda Darden, and Elaine Laura—and two St. Louis organizations, the Urban League of Metropolitan Saint Louis and the Green City Coalition.

Community Design Sprints ran as a pilot, seven-week seminar in the spring semester of 2021. The course project sought to bring renewed visibility and enthusiasm for the proposed transformation of 1.6 acres of vacant land in the College Hill neighborhood into a park to be known as Peace Park. Of the 79 neighborhoods in St. Louis, College Hill is the only one that has not historically had its own neighborhood park.

This site has a history of investment, interest, and recognition in the community. For several decades, Rev. Otis Woodward, a civil rights activist and College Hill resident, maintained this land and operated a sharing shed, a community exchange where goods and other items could be donated. He was the one responsible for giving the land its current name, Peace Park—a title local residents have carried on.

Since 2017, community partners have supported the efforts to formally establish an active park on this vacant land. These efforts are now being led by Green City Coalition at the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC). Both Arbolope Studio, led by alum L. Irene Compadre (BA08, MLA12), and Bernstine, are actively collaborating with the many partners. In December 2020, Arbolope Studio released new landscape designs to the community for feedback.

Implementation efforts for the Peace Park are currently underway. Concurrently, eight enrolled undergraduates and graduate students received the prompt to create a temporary installation idea for generating activity and awareness in Peace Park while sustaining community interest in the space. The course drew from the experience and participation of local residents and the knowledge of course partners, including the Green City Coalition at SLDC, Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, and Arbolope Studio. The course began with a site visit and tour with community residents and partners. Students worked individually on ideas, workshopping them with local partners to connect design aspirations with resident interest and need.

The students and residents anonymously voted on which two projects the class would collectively move forward. One project provided welcome signage and community information on a board, seat, and storage structure, while the other project utilized paint and color on the brick alleyway that runs through the site to further activate and energize the park.

The course provided an opportunity for students to work on a tangible design problem for a small-scale yet pressing St. Louis community need. Students advanced their own knowledge of community engagement, facilitation, and communication skills, and also practiced research, representation, and design skills.

“By anchoring the course within in a community-driven project, the students were able to see how their skills as designers can be utilized in a civic design process,” Bernstine said. “As their instructor, one of the many rewarding aspects of the course was the opportunity to watch relationships form among the residents, partners, and students. The rapport built within the group afforded the students the ability to become more in-tune with community concerns and desires, and afforded the residents and partners the ability to take ownership in the design process. In fact, many of the final ideas were born out of the group conversations.”

The students developed the projects alongside community feedback and two emerged: one project provided welcome signage and community information on a board, seat, and storage structure, while the other project utilized paint and color on the brick alleyway that runs through the site to further activate and energize the park. Students pitched these two ideas to community residents and partners and developed prototypes.

“What I really enjoyed about Community Design Sprints was the relationship-building with community partners and residents of the College Hill neighborhood,” said Akhtar, a Master of Architecture student. “By establishing this, our design process was handled in a nuanced and delicate manner, taking into consideration the impact of our decisions in real-time with their feedback.”

The course ended with a celebratory community event in Peace Park, where College Hill residents and community partners could safely gather to engage with the ideas from the course. Families used chalk to envision what the existing brick path through the site could look like and how color could enliven the space.

A documentation of the project work is underway and will be delivered to the participating community partners and residents for their reference and future use.

Learn more about Peace Park.