Pennsy Place
Graduate students worked as a team to study Irvington and engage the public to discover their wants and needs. The study ultimately led to a student designed, constructed, and marketed tactical urbanism installation. Pennsy Place is the result of a semester of study of the Irvington neighborhood in Indianapolis. The semester resulted in an individual project proposal and a group tactical urbanism installation.
Public Engagement & Analysis
The beginning of the planning process for Pennsy Place began with public engagement and analysis. Students formed their public engagement process around the COVID pandemic, but successfully received 109 responses to their community survey and held two pop-up engagements in Irvington at local hot spots. The data gathered was critical in the outcome of our design. Another survey was posted at the final project site where all but on respondent stated that the design of Pennsy Place solved problems in using the space it was located in. Different analysis data was used during the individual project and group project and is discussed there.
Irvington Gateway
From the analysis and public engagement process, students designed a simple project proposal to improve life for residents of Irvington. Irvington Gateway builds off of the strong neighborhood pride of Irvington residents, while satisfying their need for well maintained and programmed parks and streets found from responses to the survey. The intersection of Washington and Emerson is the gateway for Irvington with so much potential to showcase this unique neighborhood.
Pennsy Place
Using the information gathered from the semester of public engagement and analysis, students designed and a constructed a temporary tactical urbanism installation in partnership with a local restaurant, coffee shop, and bar. The project is still underway and will relocated to the Ball State: INDY center at the end of May 2021. Informational boards along with a survey has been posted on the site, with results showing high satisfaction with Irvington residents.
