Client The Western School For Science And Technology Location Phoenix, AZ Year 2016 A few years ago when we first started working with the great folks at the Western School For Science And Technology (WSST) in Phoenix, AZ, there was great interest in design-building a path to connect the middle-high school with its sister elementary school that is […]
Client The Western School For Science And Technology Location Phoenix, AZ Year 2015 to present What began as a project to put our client’s–The Western School of Science and Technology–middle/high school’s students at the forefront of designing and building outdoor amenities–a path and seating–to physically connect the new building with its sister school, quickly grew into something much […]
Client Community Design Collaborative and Get Healthy Philly Location Philadelphia Year 2015 In the summer of 2015, working with our clients The Community Design Collaborative and Get Healthy Philly, through the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we led a participatory design-build process exploring what happens when play and exercise spill beyond a playground, becoming part of the sidewalk, […]
Client People’s Emergency Center, Community Design Collaborative and Get Healthy Philly Location Philadelphia, PA Year 2015 What began in November 2014 as creative intervention to put an end to the drug use and defecation that was occurring daily on a vacant lot on Lancaster Avenue has evolved into an ever-growing mini-park and playground for young and […]
Client Albemarle County Public Schools, Walton Middle School Location Charlottesville, VA Year 2015 If you don’t know about the great things happening in Albemarle County Schools in Virginia, you should. Superintendent Pam Moran, her compatriot Ira Socol and the many great teachers and administrators that make up the system are doing something pretty special. With not a lot […]
Client Playscapes and Industria Creative Location Boston Year 2015 Since first creating our cardboard Build-It! Disks in 2011, we have consistently gotten requests to develop an all-weather version. Until now we’ve held off for two reasons: they are pretty expensive and we’ve had some material concerns. Happily, our friends at Playscapes and Chris Wangro were working with […]
Client Flint Public Art Project Location Flint, MI Year 2015 In June we had the privilege of working once again with our friends at Flint Genesee Job Corps on developing a prototype bus stop bench through one of our favorite clients, Flint Public Art Project. Over the course of eight days we worked with twenty of Rejean Houle‘s […]
Client Drexel University Location Philadelphia Year 2015 The staff at Drexel University‘s new Dornsife Community Center is diligently building relationships, community and programming around the facility. To accelerate this process while adding amenities to the significant lawn surrounding the Center, Drexel hired Public Workshop to create a participatory design-build workshop for Dornsife staff, stakeholders and neighbors. We are […]
GREAT PRODUCTS BY YOUNG BUILDING HEROES THAT GROW AND SUPPORT EVEN MORE. The Building Hero Project is Public Workshop’s young adult community design leadership and entrepreneurship program. The Building Heroes are a growing army of empowered and skilled young adult leaders and change agents who want to make our neighborhoods and Philadelphia in general, better […]
Client People’s Emergency Center Location Philadelphia Year 2014 With the support of Cognizant and ArtPlace through the Department of Making + Doing, Public Workshop worked with seven teens from our client, People’s Emergency Center (PEC) in 2014 to co-design solutions that would make their work as ‘Community Connectors’ more effective. Through a quick design research process, they decided that […]
Client Coopers Ferry Partnership Location Camden, NJ Year 2014 This summer, Coopers Ferry Partnership hired us to work with local youth and community members to create a series of pop-up places for skating, play and building in Camden, NJ. The project has been a great success and we are excited to work with Coopers Ferry, the Camden Building […]
Client North 5th Street Revitalization Project Location Philadelphia Year 2014 Can community benches that are design-built by neighborhood youth in partnership with local businesses strengthen a business corridor? Public Workshop worked with our client, The North 5th Street Revitalization Project, and local youth through Education Works to design-build four temporary, prototype benches with four businesses along North 5th Street. […]
How can we empower citizens to re-imagine the public spaces around them? Late this spring we were hired by the Van Alen Institute to create a building event that would empower people to change a place and stimulate a rich conversation around DIY public space. Although torrential rain forced us to move the event inside, […]
At 2:35 pm on a Wednesday in May, a series of amazing things happened. As school wrapped up for the day, with little fanfare a team of ninth grade teenage women started using power tools to assemble two massive rolling hangout pods in their school’s cafe. They spent the last six months designing and fabricating […]
In a dream I saw a city invincible and together, we made it playable too. We couldn’t be more excited to be working with Coopers Ferry Partnership via the support of the Kresge Foundation this summer to make Camden more playable and skateable. Starting on July 28th, we will be working young adults and community members in Camden […]
‘If my friends or family walked past our (green water infrastructure) site with me, they got excited and wanted to help’-Josiah, 17. Last week we had a great download with all of the citizen scientists who participated in the beta version of the citizen science program that we are helping scientists at Drexel develop. This […]
What happens when you challenge people to build 400 years of history–forgotten bridges, forts, factories, etc.–along the Schuylkill River out of cardboard in just two days in a largely unknown public park along the River? You get local fisherman, high school students, grandmothers, designers, local community members, college students, skateboarders, and families from across Philadelphia […]
How can government be considered ‘open’ or function effectively if even the most navigationally astute visitors to Philadelphia’s City Hall can’t find the most basic services? Public Workshop is currently working with the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics to make City Hall more inviting and accessible. The project entails rethinking and prototyping a […]
We’ve been incredibly lucky and are grateful to have received considerable press over the past year for all of the projects that we get to work on with our great partners and collaborators. Among others, there are the articles about the formation of The Department of Making + Doing, the numerous pieces covering our Tiny […]
Last spring we were ecstatic to win the Greenbuild Legacy Project grant with our partners at Smith Memorial Playground from the Delaware Valley Green Building Council to work with youth in Philly to design and build an adventure play space at Smith. Six months later with many thousands of people starting to stream into Philadelphia for Greenbuild, […]
June 13, 2016
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