20 ft Wide Alley Activation Update III

As promised, here are some more pictures from the 20 ft Wide Alley Activation project in downtown Austin, which wrapped up this past weekend in alley #111 (Brazos/Congress/9th Street). Gotta figure out a way for more alley activation projects to happen here locally!

Alley #111 Before . . .
(photo courtesy of Kevin Shaw)

. . . and After

Wednesday Night Opening Party
(photo courtesy of Kevin Shaw)

Fusebox Festival performance by Convergence

Opening Night Party
(Photo Courtesy of Michael Knox)

Pecha Kucha 

20 ft Wide Alley Activation Update II

Movability Austin pop-up breakfast in the alley for downtown commuters

20 ft Wide--Austin's downtown alley activation project--wrapped up today. I have written about this exciting project in other blog posts here. Hundreds of people of all ages visited the alley at Brazos/Congress/9th over the past five days to see the alley transformed into a vibrant public space, including: an art gallery, a Pecha Kucha stage, an outdoor dining spot; a gathering space for meetings, a contemplative place to read the paper, and and an artistic playground for children. The alley became a treasured public place, a place to visit and linger in, to rest and play in, while taking in the alley's sights and sounds. Here are pictures from some of the Friday and Saturday alley events. I'll post pics from the Wednesday and Thursday events in a follow-up post.

Friday night dinner in the alley

Alley Kids Day: filled with family-friendly activities including . . . 

 

Origami with Creative Action

. . .  and balloon hats

. . . and jugglers

. . . and hula hoopers

. . . and story time

. . . and a young author's writing workshop

. . . and acro yoga . . . and more!!!

20 ft Wide Alley Activation Update

An update on 20 ft Wide, Austin's downtown alley activation project: Today, the 20 ft Wide team installed some additional features in the alley, including new murals and the first phase of the streetscape (thanks to the hard work of volunteers from TBG). Lots of FABULOUS transformations taking place in the alley.  Stop by and check it out in the alley between Congress and Brazos at 9th Street. More features will be added tomorrow, leading to an opening night party this Wednesday from 7-10pm (free and open to the public).

20 ft Wide Art Installation
photo courtesy of Michael Knox

New murals in the alley

TBG volunteers work on building the streetscape furniture

Part of the Amazing Team from TBG

20 ft Wide Has Arrived: Austin, Alley, Activation, Art

20 ft Wide -- Austin's Downtown Alley Activation pilot project -- has begun!  The first phase of the art installation went up over the weekend with more to come. Lots of fun activities are scheduled in Austin Downtown Alley #111 this week, between Congress and Brazos at 9th Street.  The opening party is this Wednesday, April 17th from 7-10pm, following by Pecha Kucha night on Thursday evening, a pop-up commuter breakfast on Friday morning, and Alley Kids Family Day on Saturday--when the alley will be transformed into an artistic playground for kids and their families. Very exciting! More pictures to come. The full line-up of free alley events is available on the Art Alliance Austin website.

20 ft Wide: Austin downtown alley #111
photo courtesy of Dan Cheetham/fyoog.com

20 ft Wide: Austin downtown alley #111
photo courtesy of Dan Cheetham/fyoog.com

20Ft Wide: Downtown Alley Activation Comes to Austin

I have written a of couple posts here about my love for alleys and the potential to transform these spaces into vibrant public places for families.  Last fall, the City of Austin's Downtown Commission (which I sit on) set up a workgroup to explore how to make this happen. This has led to the upcoming launch of 20Ft Wide, Austin's first downtown alley activation project (in recent times at least). Yay! What a thrill to see this project unfold, with a tremendous consortium of public and private partners.

20Ft Wide will temporarily activate a downtown alley along Congress Avenue as a public space over the course of five days in April. The project will involve an art installation in the upper levels of the alleyway, along with a series of artist programs and interactive activities for families, to draw people into the alley and to engage them with the alley space. “20ft Wide” is named after the 20 feet that serves as the standard width for many of Austin’s downtown alleys. On Saturday, April 20th, from 10am-3pm, the alley will be transformed into an artistic playground for children, with a writer's workshop, origami, musical performances, jugglers, and more.

The 20Ft Wide project is already generating lots of great buzz in the media, including these stories from YNN and KUT public radio. A detailed list of 20Ft Wide events will be posted soon on Art Alliance Austin's website.  Stay tuned for updates. 

Converting Alleys into Public Spaces, Part II

Last month, I posted an idea about a family-friendly alley conversion project for downtown Austin. Everyone I have been talking to about this project is excited about the possibilities. In talking to folks, I also found out that an "Alley Regeneration Project" is underway in the residential area of Guadalupe Neighborhood outside of downtown, as a partnership between the City of Austin, University of Texas Center for Sustainable Development, Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation, and the Austin Community Design and Development Center.  The project started in 2011, when a team of UT students in a Public Interest Design course put together a toolkit with some really cool ideas for greening Austin's alleys, with a focus on residential areas. The toolkit includes 17 different strategies, many of which could and should be applied in a downtown context, including lighting, alley gateways, street graphics, shading, and alley furniture

Seattle Alley Conversion
Photo by Mira Poling, Courtesy of Alley Network Project

Through this initiative, the partners are now collaborating closely with residents to put their ideas into action in the Guadalupe Neighborhood. They are working on a Green Alley demonstration site that will likely become a model for other Austin neighborhood alleys.

I've had a fun time researching other cities' alley conversion projects as well. Check out the fun stuff happening in Seattle via the Alley Network Project. As their organizers stated:

"Changing the perception of alleys as places for crime or garbage into places to be used by everyone is not only possible, but happening all over the country and the world."

World Cup Watching in Seattle Alley
Photo by Jordan Lewis, for Alley Network Project

First Thursday event in Nord Alley, Seattle
Photo by Kari Quaas, for Alley Network Project

AlleyUp! Performance in Seattle Alley
Photo by Jordan King, Courtesy of Alley Network Project

CONVERTING URBAN ALLEYS INTO PUBLIC SPACES

I get really excited about the possibility of places -- and one of my latest obsessions is urban alleys. In downtown Austin, these are blighted, deplorable places -- an underutilized resource in a densifying city. Through my work on Austin's Downtown Commission, I am hoping we can set up a workgroup to figure out ways to convert these spaces into vibrant public places for folks of all ages.  Imagine all the possibilities for these alleys in downtown Austin.  Ideas?

I found tons of inspirational examples of fabulous urban alleys online today, which I have added to two Pinterest boards (I just discovered Pinterest this week; A Pinterest Follow Me button is also now up on my blog home page).

One of the best alley conversion projects in the country has to be The Alley Art Project project.  Their mission is to "reclaim alleys for pedestrians, making the neighborhood more lively and sustainable." Check out their website to read about all the cool stuff they are doing.