Our Gallery at One Market just set up twelve new exhibits that come under the heading of Design in the Public Interest. These exhibits feature products, places, and processes where design is used for common good instead of monetary profit. In a series of twelve blog articles over a few weeks, I thought I would pick them off one at a time. So far I have covered nine of them:
- See Better to Learn Better Exhibit
- Laboratory to Learn Exhibit
- Reclaiming Public Space Exhibit
- Making Sanitation Safe Exhibit
- A Platform Worth Spreading Exhibit
- A Building That Heals Exhibit
- Citizen-Powered Change Exhibit
- Illuminating Possibility Exhibit
- Freedom to Move Exhibit
Our tenth one is A Place to Call Home.
People:
- Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture // more
- Community Housing Partnership // more
- David Baker + Partners Architects // more
- Mercy Housing of California // more
Related Software:
Related Article:
- The New York Times: Design as a Balm for a Community's Soul
Poet and novelist Maya Angelou has said that the "ache for home lives in all of us." In San Francisco, a city where homeless people sleep on the streets on any given night, this ache is palpable. As much-needed dialogue continues between policy makers, advocates, and the homeless themselves, some locals are collaborating on solutions. Community Housing Partnership, David Baker + Partners Architects, and Mercy Housing of California together developed the Richardson Apartments -- permanent, supportive housing for formerly homeless people.
Here are some disappointing statistics:
- In San Francisco, an estimated 10,000 people sleep on the streets on any given night.
- Veterans are 50% more likely to be homeless than the average American.
The building includes 120 bright, simply furnished residential studios, plus plentiful communal space fit for the kinds of gatherings that give people in transition a chance to strengthen their resilience together. An open grand staircase, connecting the first through fifth floors, reduces reliance on the elevator and encourages interaction. In a large, open-air courtyard, an expansive mosaic mural of dancing figures stretches across the surface of the building. It's fitting that these dignifying, communal dwellings are named after Drs. Julian and Raye Richardson, Bay Area-based partners and public intellectuals who founded Marcus Books, the oldest black bookstore in the country, in 1960. Richardson Apartments, like Marcus Books before it, has become a new kind of home for civil rights.
Thanks to Global Content Manager, Matthew Tierney, and Brand Marketing Manager, Grace Hom, for content contained in this blog article. This is just one of the many exhibits in the gallery at One Market in San Francisco. The gallery is open to the public on Wednesdays from 12 pm to 5 pm, and admission is free. Visit us.
Shelter is alive in the lab.