Brownsville City Design Studio 2016: ShopFronts and Openshops

During 2016 the programming for the Brownsville City Design Studio focused on two efforts, the OpenShop and the Shopfront.

The OpenShop invites local designers to provide their services through a series of design sessions in order to increase design & planning access to the general community. During 2016 we hosted two OpenShops, one for Park(ing) Day and one for the facade improvements program of Main Street Brownsville. These OpenShops not only matched participating designers and business owners but guided participants on how to move forward after the activity. With the Park(ing) Day OpenShop by providing schedule of activities and guidelines and with the Facade and Signage OpenShop by sharing information about the facade improvements program and funding opportunities for building owners in Downtown.

The Shopfront is a series of public events focusing on important issues and topics facing the community and city. These series ought to assess and inform the state of the city through the lens of the different topics in order to understand where are we are and where can we go. We hosted our first ShopFront about Open Space and Recreation Spaces focused on one of the most underserved areas in Brownsville, the Southmost neighborhood. For the ShopFront we analyzed the state of the Open and Recreation Spaces in Southmost and during the Shopfront we gathered community input about the improvements of a neighborhood park, stormwater practices in parks, and how to rehabilitate an empty/abandoned space in favor of the community.