Alexandra Avila - Working Team
We got together and decided on a color, type, image palette to focus on when sketching. We’ve also divided up the jobs as follows: Pit (Lauren), Entrance 1 (Alexandra), Entrance 2 (Jovan), Stage (Josey).
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Gavin Angell - Working Team
One digital stop that provides service to two different groups and purposes.Â
For those that live inside the West Bottoms, a place that allows for internal communication, trading of basic amenities, and event planning. All of these have to have a level of privacy or publicity that is controllable by the end user.
For those that live outside the West Bottoms, a place that allows for a viewable schedule of events occurring in the West Bottoms, if they have been brought into the network. Possibly the ability to create content themselves.Â
Possibly the ability to plan events on the longer term, but also the ability to create something on a much shorter timeframe. I think specifically of flash mobs that organize over text message. I could imagine “Tom” texting everyone for an impromptu movie night or otherwise. I think that this would have a different dynamic on the community that an event that had much more planned and put together events (both being important).
Some administrative power. Though we want to allow this to live organically, there needs to be some level of control over the happenings. As an example, to prevent organizing of criminal activity. We are talking about a place for a community to be able to create meetings, exchange goods, etc. in a low occupancy area of town. We have to address the risk that inherently comes with this type of online space. In hopefully a more common scenario, for publicity purposes, there is a captain for the ship, as I mentioned early with text messaging, emails that could be sent, etc…
Jaclyn Co - Living Team
Lauren Schroer - Living Team
I’m posting for the Physical Team – Alexandra, Josie, Jovan and I.
After class on Thursday, Michael and I stopped by the potential area for the physical space. The initial space that we had been talking about that was by the graffiti wall (area 1 on the map below) was serving as a parking space for a number of cars, which makes me wonder how possible it would be to eliminate that many parking spaces. However, when we turned the corner to go down the alley and into a more closed off open space (area 2 on the map), I became much more hopeful of the potential of this space. Actual photos of the area are posted on the flickr account.
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AREA:
Must be an area that can work as an event space to hold a lot of people, and as a community space to hold smaller amounts at a time.
Must be a space that allows the community to mold it into whatever they need it to be – can be manipulated and changed on its own.
Must be a space that allows the people inside of it to feel comfortable, and like it is their own.
Must be as unique as the area surrounding it, and needs to have a signifier that allows people to identify that specific area and be able to tell others about it.
>>> Alexa <<<
Must be sustainable in its own.
Must be well-maintained.
Must have lighting at night. // Must feel and be safe.
Must be an escape from the normal chaotic life. // A place where people are taken back to the old times, where physical interaction was a must. // Peaceful
Jovan Nedeljkovic -
I had a blast in PNL Â hearing different perceptions and opinions from diversity of people who live in KC or somewhere else.
Here is what I got out of them…
Perception on RM:
•Positive: artsy, lovely lofty, homey safe, fun healthy food, farmers market, bold, diverse, slow, great, interesting etc.
•Negative: dirty to far
Perception on WB:
•Positive: haunted houses, shopping, Kamper
•Negative: rundown, mud, it needs modified, upgradable, opposite of homey, industrial park, s..t hole, old, dirtier, where ?
Michael Selby - Living Team
The unsuspecting fans of the Big 12 conference provided thoughtful and honest reactions to our perception research. I asked participants to provide one word descriptions of both the West Bottoms and the Crossroads district. Most interesting were the initial reactions to both prompts; West Bottoms often brought on one of two reactions: a joking smile / concerned face that alluded to a long-standing, negative connotation, or a renewed engagement that hinted at the individuals knowledge or involvement with the area. The Crossroads, on the other hand, usually prompted one of two phrases: “I love the Crossroads,” or “I don’t know where that is.” Crossroad ‘lovers’ usually cited “fun” and “good times” as experiential clues to their association.
How can we create a new experience for the West Bottoms? Can it slowly gain positivity through association?
Gavin Angell - Working Team
My results at the Big 12 Tournament yielded some interesting results. The West Bottoms results came across largely as I suspected. Though it was largely negative, with words like “frumpy” and “run down”, there were some surprises like “revitalization” that came up in conversation. When contrasting that with Westport (the area that I was comparing the West Bottoms with), there were vast discrepancies between the responses. Though the responses on Westport did result in an overall higher positive reaction, what spoke to me the most was the descriptive terms that came from Westport.
The West Bottoms responses were much more broad, but because Westport has created itself with a niche, and the life that is drawn from the venues there, people had specific experiences and emotions from time they had spent there. This is not to say that the West Bottoms doesn’t have personality, as it certainly does, but the general population has had very little exposure to that area of town and thus, had largely broad, surface level emotions and experiences.
I think that this shows that there is an opportunity in the West Bottoms to be able to capture the social perceptions of the general population in Kansas City and create something that has all the charm and personality of any other part of town, but with its unique life.
Jaclyn Co - Living Team
Our original “perception project” was scheduled during First Friday, but the rain held us back so we did it the following Thursday. A good thing too! It was the second day of the Big 12 Tournament in Power & Light district. The crowd was a better data source, not just artsy people, and the results were better than I thought.
My West Bottoms comparison was Overland Park. As I walked around attempting to find someone for the question, I felt a bit like a stalker. I asked mostly individuals because I didn’t want to interrupt a group. I also wanted non-influenced answers. Most people were hesitant to “help our school project,” and took a long to time to answer. 80% of who I asked were from Kansas City, while the rest were out-of-towners who have no idea where one or both places were.
The results for West Bottoms from KC folks were equally positive and negative. I thought it would be more negative, but the ones who said positive words were the ones who have visited West Bottoms personally. “Beautiful,” “historic,” “unique” were just a few of their remarks; “Dilapidated,” “abandon,” “deserted” from the other half of the crowd. On the other hand, nearly everyone pictured Overland Park negatively like “phony,” “pricey,” “too commercialized,” “money”…
While I had a hard time finding people, the group with the sandwich boards had lots of answers. People were more interested in something exciting like writing on someone’s chest. We need to do something that excites Kansas City if we were to plan for a change of perception. I think those who’s been to West Bottoms had better responses, so we should do something that brings the crowd to West Bottoms and have their experience change their perception.
