Drawing My City

Recently, my honors class was assigned to read a new book entitled Urban Acupuncture, written by Jaime Lerner. In one section of his book, he suggests to the public to draw your own city. So I drew a terrible map of the area of Park City that I spend most of my time in. I chose this area to draw because it could use a good dose of urban acupuncture. The area that I have entitled "Unoccupied Buildings," is in need of SOMETHING. I cannot quite put my finger on it, because I don't think tearing down the buildings would be the solution. I wish that we could make the space more sociable. There is a square right outside Maxwell's that is used sometimes for activities, but not always. I think that in the buildings, small shops, or maybe some more affordable housing could be out in place (yeah right, it's PC we're talking about). Maybe local businesses could take over, or maybe some food trucks and social gathering places could be put in. There is a bowling alley, so maybe an arcade for kids, or a place where people could go to play cornhole, or some other type of activity. There is a way to make this place more accessible, like turning the buildings into a place for art classes! Maybe then displaying local art around it would be a good idea.

I think that if the square hosted more activities and if the right businesses were put into those vacant buildings, it would be a great place to go and spend the day. I was also thinking that we could potentially take out the street. maybe make it a long plaza, because people don't park in the parking spaces very often, and the parking garage there is always completely EMPTY. It could serve as a plaza in the summer that could house a farmer's market, with food, different boutiques, art, anything really! Maybe the Park Silly market or something similar could function in this new square area. It could extend to the one outside of Maxwell's as well! Then, during the winter, perhaps a portable ice skating rink could be put in. Currently the only places in Park City to ice skate in the winter time are further in town. This would be a place for residents further out towards the junction and maybe the prices could be cheaper so that more people would be able to utilize it! I would love to have this idea realized. A new social space would go to so much more use than an unused shopping plaza.

This is a VERY realistic picture of the area, as you can see, no businesses i.e. NO PEOPLE! A truly misused space.