Buffalo, NY

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: Preservation Buffalo Niagara wanted to improve the pedestrian experience in Buffalo's Grant Street commercial corridor, which has suffered from disinvestment. With the goal of beautifying the neighborhood, the organization installed trash receptacles on light poles and hung string lights in front of local businesses. The community has a proud history of diversity, including 20 years of welcoming resettled refugees. To celebrate the community's diversity, PBC installed multilingual wayfinding sign and distributed flags representing business owners' countries of origin. To ensure upkeep, they also provided tools to help volunteers maintain the sidewalks and support a community gardener.

Lynchburg, VA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: To organizers with the Downtown Lynchburg Association, an underused, dead-end street had potential to draw visitors downtown. The Association transformed the space into Art Alley -- a vibrant, outdoor art gallery. To activate the space, volunteers covered the pavement in turquoise, orange, pink and green paint. They also set up string lights overhead to provide illumination. Finally, they created the Spark Joy Gallery by installing panels that display digital artworks. Project organizers say the placemaking effort has since inspired nearby property owners to spruce up their building facades, and the Art Alley has become a must-see for tourists passing through town.

Columbia, SC

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: As part of efforts to activate space and increase the vitality of Columbia's downtown, this project created the city's first parklet. Parklets transform on-street parking spaces into public gathering spaces. Originally intended to be temporary, Columbia's miniature park consists of a ground-level, fenced-in deck featuring an art installation, a cafe table and chairs and new planters. While several nearby restaurants lack outdoor seating space, the parklet remedied this, giving visitors a space to eat and socialize. To gather public feedback about the new space, city staff displayed a QR code onsite, which linked to an online survey. Spurred by the success of this project, organizers made plans to add more parklets downtown. City staff have also looked into creating a parklet ordinance, which would allow local businesses to create similar spaces in the future.