HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-04-2004 Item VIII-B-5CITY OF -� 0AN
AGENDA BILL APPROVAL FORM
r WASHINGTON
Agenda Subject
Date:
Resolution No. 3771 - Auburn Storefront Studio Project
September 28, 2004
Department:
Attachments:
Budget Impact:
Planning & Community
Resolution No. 3771; Storefront
Development
Studio Document
Administrative Recommendation:
City Council adopt Resolution No. 3771.
Background Summary:
The King County Historic Preservation Program has offered to fund an Auburn Storefront Studio Project.
King County has partnered with the University of Washington's Department of Architecture in the
development of the Project which brings architecture students to Main Street. The students have
previously worked on a similar project on University Avenue and the students have also developed
preliminary design guidelines for White Center.
The University of Washington's School of Architecture Professor Jim Nicholls would manage the students,
but it would be a collaborative process with the City Planning and Community Development Department,
the Auburn Downtown Association, the Chamber of Commerce and other applicable city
departments/offices.
The students would set up offices in a vacant storefront on Main Street and would work with downtown
businesses and property owners, hold open houses and provide computer generated renderings and cost
estimates of potential fagade improvements. The work product would be developed into preliminary
design guidelines for downtown.
Staff recommends Council support for the Auburn Storefront Studio Project.
A1.10
Reviewed by Council & Committees:
Reviewed by Departments & Divisions:
❑ Arts Commission COUNCIL COMMITTEES:
❑ Building ❑ M&O
❑ Airport ❑ Finance
❑ Cemetery ® Mayor
❑ Hearing Examiner ❑ Municipal Serv.
❑ Finance ❑ Parks
❑ Human Services ® Planning & CD
❑ Fire ® Planning
❑ Park Board ❑Public Works
® Legal ❑ Police
❑ Planning Comm. ❑ Other
❑ Public Works ❑ Human Resources
Action:
Committee Approval: ❑Yes ❑No
Council Approval: []Yes []No Call for Public Hearing
Referred to Until _
Tabled Until
Councilmember: Singer Staff: Krauss
Meeting Date: October 4, 2004 Item Number: VIII.B.5
AUBU * MORE THAN YOU IMAGINED
RESOLUTION NO. 3771
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF AUBURN,
WASHINGTON, EXPRESSING COUNCIL SUPPORT FOR THE AUBURN
STOREFRONT STUDIO PROJECT
WHEREAS, Auburn has contracted with King County for landmark services since
1995; and
WHEREAS, The King County Historic Preservation Program has offered to fund
a Storefront Studio Project in Downtown Auburn; and
WHEREAS, The King County Historic Preservation Program has partnered with
the University of Washington's Department of Architecture in the development of the
Storefront Studio Project which brings the architecture students' classroom to Main
Street; and
WHEREAS, A design studio will be established in a vacant storefront and
students will work with downtown businesses and property owners, hold open houses
and provide computer generated renderings and cost estimates of potential fagade
improvements; and
WHEREAS, The work product will be developed into the precursor to design
guidelines for Downtown Auburn; and
WHEREAS, The University of Washington's School of Architecture Professor
Jim Nicholls would manage the students work in collaboration with the City Planning
Resolution No. 3771
September 29, 2004
Page 1
and Community Development Department, other applicable city departments, the
Auburn Downtown Association, and the Chamber of Commerce.
WHEREAS, The project is supported by the Auburn Downtown Association and
the Chamber of Commerce.
NOW THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF AUBURN,
WASHINGTON, IN A REGULAR MEETING DULY ASSEMBLED, HEREWITH
RESOLVES AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. The City Council of the City of Auburn hereby expresses its support
for the Auburn Storefront Studio Project.
Section 2. This Resolution shall be in full force and effect upon passage and
signatures hereon
DATED and SIGNED this day of October, 2004.
CITY OF AUBURN
PETER B. LEWIS, MAYOR
ATTEST:
Danielle E. Daskam,
City Clerk
Resolution No. 3771
September 29, 2004
Page 2
The Storefront Studio: Mission Statement
The Storefront Studio for Community Architecture and Public Art is dedicated to
pairing the academic capital of the University of Washington with the social capital of
community members to build strong neighborhoods in Seattle and King County. Our
goal, through collaborative projects, is to strengthen the connections between the
members of a community and their physical setting, transforming existing assets into
anchors for economic growth, social interaction and neighborhood identity.
The Storefront Studio: A Model for Sustainable Community Interaction
In Spring Quarter 2003, Architecture students set up studio in an empty storefront
in the beleaguered heart of an economically disadvantaged community. Housed in a
former record store on the district's shopping street, the students established and operated
the Storefront Studio. There, for six months, the students studied the present-day
community, envisioned a future streetscape, and collaborated with interested building
owners, family businesses and the community to improve street facades and pedestrian
amenities. The goal was to help bring a visible economic and social vitality back to the
street. The success of that first Storefront Studio has lead to projects on other Main
Streets of Seattle and King County; South Park, Rainier Valley, Columbia City, White
Center, Little Saigon and the Central District, with locations proposed for at least the next
three quarters.
The Storefront Studio is based in the Department of Architecture at the University
of Washington but reaches far beyond the boundaries of academia. It has become a public
showcase, laboratory and practice. From the first open house, the studio has brought
together architecture students with business, residents, community participants, city and
state officials, and the media to create an emerging vision of economic and social
revitalization.
Using the research and communication skills of architecture students, and
focusing on the physical condition of the existing main street, a detailed asset map is
developed along with a proposed set of general use and design guidelines. The aim is to
supply an easily understandable, proactive tool to assist the community in guiding and
promoting revitalization. Facade renovation plans are developed, including budgets and
funding proposals, with interested business and property owners. Student led speculative
projects are used to illustrate proposed reuse and renovations of community assets. To
create an immediate interaction between students and the community, posters and murals
are installed in the street, appropriating the forums of advertising and popular culture.
Each studio engages in a modest design/build project, resulting in an evident physical
transformation. The studio works to continue the project after the doors close with
traveling exhibits and web pages.
Postcards and Posters
As a prelude to mapping exercises, interviews, -archive and Internet research, the
students are asked to go to the Main Street and create a visual postcard. They are
introduced to the ideas of Kevin Lynch in "Image of the City" including the notion of
reading the landmarks and icons on a city's postcard rack and getting a sense of the local
image and identity. Each student is given one week to visit the community and to design
an iconic postcard, in standard format, and compose a `wish you where here' note. These
are presented and posted collectively and are used to generate class discussion. The sum
is greater than the parts, and the composite quilt is quite compelling. They are then
introduced to a range of theories about place observation, from William White's `Social
Life of Small Urban Spaces', to `The Cruise" a documentary film on a double Decker
tour bus guide's take on New York.
Each student undertakes individual research projects focused on the Main Street.
These are exercises in investigation, documentation, analysis and communication. A
study of bench locations led to observations on the importance of informal or found
seating, a photo study of sidewalk level signage produced a design for a better sandwich
board, while pedestrian interviews have produced edited movies. Video and desktop
editing have been demonstrated to be an effective tool for students, with the compressed
power of television commercials and music videos.
Students are asked to understand context and have ideas arise from a synthesis of
community -involved issues. After immersion in social street activities, including an
inventory of the festivals and events already celebrated, students create a proposal for a
street festival. A `missing' event is planned and an 11 x 17 poster promoting it designed,
presented, and placed in the community. The collective output of the students becomes an
accumulated portrait of the social life of the street. A proposal for a graffiti festival for
White Center was actually staged as part of a community clean up and has become an
annual event.
Community Asset Map
A final compilation of the research phase of the work is the Community Asset
Map, a listing of physical resources and their social overlay that constitute the found
potentials of the Main Street. This map forms the basis for proposed design goals. These
goals are then given form through commissioned and speculative designs.
The Street of Dreams
An initial project by the students is called The Street of Dreams. The students
individually select sites that have found potential and then create photographic collages
showing digital revisions. Empty stores become thriving corner markets; sidewalk cafes
flourish, and dark streets become brilliant with life. The use of digital photo -editing
programs, and poster sized printing give these visions a public presentation with very
high legibility and credibility. Collages of existing buildings and digital overlays are both
compelling and comprehendible to the community. The studio walls become a gallery of
continuous public display extending into the street. These fagade studies are effective
tools of engagement, often the initiation of a dialogue towards a developed, pragmatic
proposal. The speculative projects allow the students to use their energy, optimism and
vision to breath life and hope into a future already saturated with reports and studies.
Open Doors
After moving into an empty storefront on the Main Street, and an initial open
house, a list of clients is compiled with one student as the point person for each project.
Initially eacli of the 12 to 16 students in the studio has one lead and one back up project.
This evolves into a list of active projects with individual or pairs of students. The fluid
studio structure often closely resembles that of a practice. Flexible, nomadic furniture is
reconfigured for open houses and allows for rapid deployment. Doors on sawhorses and
white plastic lawn chairs are complimented by laptops, a DSL connection and hub back
to the college server. Cell phones provide accessibility and a measure of safety. The walls
are increasingly mapped with output. More general open houses, such as during the
University District Street Fair, have brought in hundreds of the public, in this case to vote
for their favorite of sixteen student mural designs proposed for the side of one of the Ave
buildings.
Digital Murals and Design Build
The digital mural, using billboard -printing technology has been a provocative
shift in scale from the desktop for the architecture students. Three murals have been
designed and project managed by the studio. The first was to wrap, with digital printout,
125 feet of empty storefront at a key intersection in the University District. The second
was community generated and installed at a prominent gateway in Southpark, it is 85 feet
long and 12 high, A third in White Center is 110 feet by 8 feet and tells the history of the
area while turning the store's product -skylights- into a dancing New Year's dragon. A
two-week design -build project by the students gave the University District Family
YMCA a new entry gate, newspaper stand and front desk. In White Center we added to
their market infrastructure, with two portable market gates with steel frames and digital
print nylon banners.
Budgets and Permits
At a final open house at the end of each quarter facade designs, including
construction budgets, are presented to owners, community members and city officials.
Projects have included theaters, a shoe store, a ballet studio, pubs, a hardware store,
restaurants, copy shops, and bookstores. A core group of funded students continues to
work on the proposals after the studio and have followed through with assisting on grant
applications, building permits and working with painting, awning, storefront and signage
contractors. Main Street studio spaces are used in exchange for as -found drawings of the
building.
Sustained Interaction
The Storefront Studio is a platform for sustained and varied dialogue with the
members of each community. Originally growing out of a proposed weekend workshop,
the studio, with an agenda of extended interaction, has become an evolving forum and
street presence. The students provide an open sounding board for the issues and dreams
of each community. With accessibility allowing the public to drop in at open houses or
when they were in the neighborhood, business owners can come in when thereds a break
in their day. Students have meetings with clients who are cleaning their hands on aprons
as they come to the table; often developing empathetic relationships with them.
Community groups have also utilized the opportunity presented by the studio's storefront
for meetings and as a civic platform for media events.
Public Practice
In addition to the teaching opportunity of providing a real world scenario with
clients, budgets and actual construction for the students, the studio is seen as highlighting
the University's positive impact and potential as a community resource. The City of
Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and the Offices of Economic Development of both
the City and the State are active partners. Students continue to work on a variety of
projects from the planning scale to street furniture, from speculative work to actual
construction, and from digital to physical. The studio has grown from a program
providing design support for facade improvement to a non-profit public practice of
community service and architectural activism.
Future Work
The media, always on the look out for photo opportunities, have sought the studio
out and ask to be kept posted on developments for follow up articles. The business
sections were the first to cover the studio and have helped bring us clients. Interest began
in one department in the city, grew to include others, and then expanded to include the
state. Current facade projects include work in six districts of the city, ranging from a
hardware"store to a Sheriff's office. Additional small towns have approached us as well
as non-profit and private business. We have launched a web site through the city's server.
Conclusion
The Storefront Studio has its roots in the street level outreach that architecture
first engaged in during the sixties but it has been brought up to digital speed. It offers a
successful model of professional practice education, community service, and the local
investment of a truly sustainable resource, the academic capital of an Architecture
School.
Author
Jim Nicholls, lecturer
The Department of Architecture
Gould Hall, Box 355720
University of Washington
Seattle WA, 98195
jnicholl@u.washington.edu
Abstract
The Storefront Studio: A Model for Sustainable Community Interaction
Spring Quarter 2003, Architecture students set up studio in an empty storefront in the
beleaguered heart of an economically disadvantaged community. Housed in'a former
record store on the district's shopping street, the students established and operated the
Storefront Studio. For six months, the students studied the present-day community,
envisioned a future streetscape, and collaborated with interested building owners,
business owners and the community to improve building facades and pedestrian
amenities. The Storefront Studio has its roots in the street level outreach that architecture
first engaged in during the sixties but it has been brought up to digital speed. It offers a
successful model of professional practice education, community service, and the local
investment of a sustainable resource, the academic capital of an Architecture School.
Biography
Jim Nicholls is a lecturer at the University of Washington in Public art and Architecture
While creating teaching studios out of vacant main street storefronts, he is able to engage
the community, university and city in collaborative architecture and public art projects.
His studio was published widely in the local newspapers and has become a model of
success and has led to city and state funded projects. A recent Gallery Talk at the Henry
Art Gallery enabled him to begin researching humor as a critical language common to art
and design.