Hey
okay I think we're gonna get started
here welcome everyone thank you all for
being here tonight I'm Jennifer Akerman
I'm an assistant professor in the School
of Architecture and it is my pleasure to
introduce tonight's speaker Germane
Barnes who teaches architecture at the
University of Miami at Coral Gables
tonight's lecture is part of the College
of Architecture and Design lecture
series and is supported by the Robert B
church the third Memorial Lecture Fund
Professor J Marin Jermaine Barnes is a
scholar educator and designer whose work
examines how identity and culture
influence architecture he studies
architecture social and political agency
through historical research through the
inclusion of cultural perspectives and
narratives and through design
speculation he challenges the status quo
in architecture Germane holds a BS in
architecture from the University of
Illinois at Urbana excuse me Urbana
Champaign he was conferred a Master of
Architecture degree from Woodbury
University where he won the thesis prize
for his project symbiotic territories
architectural investigations of race
identity and community he's an educator
and a practice practitioner teaching at
Miami while maintaining a practice that
blends architecture social practice and
urban planning his professional career
bears influence from his time working
with Jennifer Bonner and Chris Church
Christian stainer through their
collaboration on the project made in
opa-locka a community-wide design
project exploring the nature of public
space that experience positioned
Germane well to then serve as the
designer and residents of opa-locka
himself leading projects including
community gardens urban farms public
houses and a community studio art space
he also develops critical architectural
scholarship and research in 2018
Germane was awarded a gram foundation grant
in support of his project sacred Stoops
typological studies of black congruent
and congregational space spaces which
investigates the residential porch and
its role in african-american community
to me Germane Barnes's work asks
essential questions of agency who
decides what the built environment
should be like what should it care for
what should what stories can it honor
and inspire and I'm so glad he's taking
the time to share his work with us
tonight please join me in welcoming
Germane Barnes thank you so much for
that wonderful introduction might steel
some of those lines and added to my bio
I definitely did not I didn't give that
um Thank You University of Tennessee for
having me I definitely appreciate this
but it's my first time in Knoxville so
everything is pretty new to me but so
far I've had two really good meals I've
met a lot of really nice people so if
the rest of my time here is like this
you have definitely won me over so the
title of my lecture is a children's
story which is my way of framing the
power of narrative with architecture and
so we're going to talk about three
projects each of those projects have a
couple sub projects within them so in
realistically I'm finding the way to
steal some time to get seven or eight
projects within this lecture it's a woo
those will all be weaved together
through narratives such as the changing
of a narrative with made in opa-locka
proposal the telling of the untold
narrative which is the sacred Stoops
proposal and creating a narrative and
Dory Beach Florida alright so with that
said we'll get started so made in
opa-locka is the first project that
we're going to talk about opa-locka is
in Northwest miami-dade it is a pretty
small city it's about 15,000 people it
was incorporated in 1926 and it has the
largest collection of moorish Revival
architecture in the Western Hemisphere
it's just a really bizarre place like I
would tell people it's a dystopic
Disneyland for the most part right it
was planned around the exact same time
as Coral Gables and Miami Beach so Coral
Gables being Spanish Revival and
the beach being Art Deco and so I got
here through a project with Krishna
Steiner Jennifer Bonner who are both my
thesis advisors when I was in graduate
school and so they were they found this
organization called the opa-locka CDC
who in turn had a grant to do some
redevelopment in a neighborhood called
the triangle and that's what this
portion up here is right this little
triangular area now called Magnolia
north and then there's the downtown area
down here
alright so our proposal was that we
would not be designers architects who
would drop in art and then leave and go
on about our business right so how do
you help a community from afar so what
major I'll propose a unique was that I
would actually move from Los Angeles to
this neighborhood within opa-locka which
at one point in time had the highest
murder rate in the entire country so if
you can imagine my mom and dad freaked
out a bit you're choosing to
move from North Hollywood in LA to
opa-locka Florida is that even a real
place I was like yeah I mean you always
tell me go explore make the world a better
place and now you're telling me not to
move away also I'm the youngest of six
so they kind of freak out a bit anytime
I do things but the same time they don't
really care like if you're a youngest
you understand that certain point it's
like I whatever you'll figure it out so
it's kind of what it works right so as I
said that's the largest collection of
more survivable architecture in the west
hemisphere so a lot of the architecture
that you see looks like this distress
these buildings are almost a
hundred years old a lot of them on the
National Historic Registry as well so my
office when I first moved there was
actually in this building right here in
the historic herb building which at one
point in time was a hospital a hotel a
gas station then the hospital again then
the Community Development Corporation
and now the first floor has a urgent
care center on the first level so goes
to a lot of different permutations of
use that's it at the top left is a
historic train station which doesn't
operate at the moment but it's just
there it's a nice object and this is
some of the housing stock that you'll
find there right so a lot of bright
colors
a lot of bright colors coming from the
Midwest it's really odd when you see
houses they're like pinks and greens and
things like that but I'd get used to it
when I moved alright so you start to see
a lot of these sort of color palettes
throughout the area which is pretty
unique to South Florida and so our made
an opa-locka proposal started in 2013
that's when we found out we were awarded
the competition we were one of five
teams that was awarded so the CEO got a
bit greedy it was like well instead of
having one proposal I want all five
finalists and just be the five winners
and figure out a way to split the money
from there and then over time certain
firms decided to remove themselves from
the proposal because five people five
firms one small neighborhood doesn't
really work out as well as you think it
would financially when in turn by the
end of the first year both Christian and
Jennifer had to explore other options as
well because the project was taking so
long it was so stagnant that we were
trying to figure out how do we even make
these things happen
especially when we're trying to do
interventions their properties like this
at this historic church in a
neighborhood what's now Cathy doesn't
exist anymore it was torn down so these
are some of the housing stuff that you
find in the area a lot of and this is
sort of some of the porch stuff as well
like you see a lot of the chairs there
on the porches faces conversational
spaces people hang out and so by now
it's 2014 nothing's been done yet with
the project I have to decide if I want
to stay in opa-locka or if I want to
move and go back to the Los Angeles and
the Community Development Organisation
gave me an offer they said well we know
that the things that you wanted to do
have them come to fruition but we love
if you stay on because we like you and
I'm sure we could figure out some kind
of way to keep your part of the phone
would you like to be our designer and
residents I don't know what that means
but sure I'll stick on and so I became
one of two people in a design department
myself and a young lady named Eileen
Allen she wrote all the grants I did all
the design so from 2014 to 2018 we were
actually able to secure to secure the
necessary funding to actually start
implementing things where I was solely
the lead designer from the point
going forward so it really worked out
that this amazing opportunity that
Jennifer and Christian gave to me and
it'll be something that allowed me to
push my career forward at such an early
age and that was the no blocker proposal
so part of the narrative to us spoke
about is how do you change that
neighborhoods narrative so during the
80s there was a big crack epidemic and a
lot of black communities across the
country
specifically in opa-locka because of its
convergence among many different means
of transportation so you have the
highway you have the major I 95 you have
826 which are these big thoroughfares
that created this pocket that allowed a
lot of crime to get in and out so drugs
murder things like that and we're like
how do we change the narrative well you
make an opa-locka you design an
opa-locka
you read an opa-locka you do when you
make it becomes a place of creation as
opposed to a place where things go to
die or even worse and so we started to
have these exhibitions where we would
you know put up flags and this is a
history of Miami where we talk about the
history of the area the importance of
the history of the legacy of the people
that live there and then some people in
this photo are members of the CDC at the
time it's really important that I showed
this this image because this woman over
here her name is Stephanie Williams
Baldwin and she is what she was she's
retired now the VP of the CDC and it was
part of her vision that the CDC can
become a place that you have a lot of
housing and work and development and the
young man there in the front with the
blue shirt is actually now the vice
mayor of the city of Oklahoma and he
actually started in the CDC same time I
did where I was doing some of the design
work he was being a community organizer
and he's named to elevate himself the
level of vice mayor and the city to try
to make infrastructure changes at a
policy level one of the things I would
like to do was go into the community and
talk to people about what do we think we
want to do and so when we first saw a
proposal we had all these amazing ideas
of how we wanted to help and fix the
neighborhood I think we would go to
these community meetings and the young
people would have no idea what we meant
and say we don't want that we just want
to park all right but we have all these
amazingly beautiful things to offer you
we have these design spaces in and why
don't you want this
well we just want somewhere to play and
so at that point you have to decide who
am i designing for am i designing for
myself or am i designing for the public
are going to use these faces and and how
do you negotiate between the two and so
this is the triangle that I spoke of
right so obviously it's triangular in
shape this was an open-plan of land of
where we're able to institute the
Magnolia North Community Park and then
I'd show this image in the top right and
it's extremely important because as I
mentioned crime in the area
the thing that the city thought was the
best method to move forward was to put
up barricades at the end of every street
so the exes you see along the top of the
drawing are the locations of barricades
which forced people only have one means
of entry and exit into the neighborhood
so that way if the police are chasing
you in the car or something and you go
inside the neighborhood you're stuck in
the neighborhood while you're in your
car so if you can imagine being a
resident this area you get you're
basically treated like a trapped animal
I cannot allow the same freedoms of
others about the area so a lot of people
fled the neighborhood they moved away
there's a lot of a lot of disinvestment
in the area
it was pretty empty I remember when my
mom came to visit me for the first time
and she was like wow there's nobody here
okay yeah it's pretty empty neighborhood
yeah well I feel happier now because
there's nobody here and I know you'll be
safe you say all right I guess but part
of their process is how do you meet
people so my first week there I walked
from house to house took a photograph of
every single home and you know we are
architects right so we do everything
very methodically I was like alright if
I'm standing this far from the front
home and standing the exact step for every
single house so I'm walking down the
Miller Street doing this
and there's people outside in their
porch there's no like what the hell is
this kid doing why is he walking into
the street and I'm lucky enough to where
at the time I was only 27 years old
doing all of this say it's like hey what
are you doing in neighborhood are you
the cops because I have a camera and I'm
taking the floor guys I'm like no I'm a
student at University of Miami and I'm
doing work it was like clearly I'm not a
student but because I look like a
student it worked like all right go
ahead whatever so they are
I could easily could have been a cop but
I said that I wasn't so you believed me
so I'm walking around and I'm taking the
photos and I can't this the entire
neighborhood all right so I'll take a
photo of every single home have
conversations people are outside people
who don't can have conversation with
them but in the end I started meeting a
lot of people they do my face and
they're like well what are you doing our
neighborhood
I'm like well I just moved in and they
looking me up and down they're like you
don't live in this neighborhood like
what's that supposed to mean they're
like look at how you dress I'm like okay
what am I wearing that so that's so
different it makes you think I'm not I
don't live here that way you just don't
look like us I'm like well little bové
on duval 1 503 7 you can knock on my
door I'm there that's where I live and
that personality trait that that I think
I got from my father which is basically
you see everybody the same you have
conversation the same competition you
have the person who's bringing your food
from the person who's cleaning the table
like just what you do and so that
personality has allowed me into a lot of
rooms that people just feel comfortable
and this is one of those spaces where it
worked out really well
because these are people who have been
traditionally just sent like lie to
trampled on they've been told we'll get
you a park and nothing ever happens we
get housing that never happens there's a
lot of disinvestment in the area at one
point in time a lot of these open lots
that you see throughout the drawing were
bought up by Habitat for Humanity right
so it's like do good architectural
saviorism let's do what we can to fix
the neighborhood but then you realize
that people in neighborhood can't afford
the mortgage that comes with the
single-family home so like working you
why would you provide that housing stock
to a population that can't afford it and
so in turn nothing got built and they
just gave all the parcels back to the
city so it's completely undeveloped all
right there's like again more failed
promises
but the actual part so we said hell
we'll give him a part so we found these
open lots in the neighborhood we only
owned one of the four right but we said
if you want to tell us something come
find us so it's better to ask for
forgiveness than permission
the whole thing so we designed this park
and we did it with the help of kaboom
and you guys know what kaboom is watch
parks and recs right this is a real
thing I thought it was fake and then I
moved I moved to South Florida and I
realized kaboom was a real organization
where so what kaboom does is they said
there are this idea play everywhere
right it's like it kids should have
spaces to play adults have spaces to
congregate play everywhere so there's
this really funny episode of parks and
recs where there's a guy who says this
isn't a real organization we just go
around and make people do tons of work
and then leave and that's literally what
kaboom is like they come in and they say
we're gonna spend nine months planning
how to implement this park cuz you got
to do it in two days you get 48 hours to
build a park and so you have to find a
sponsor ours was met like then you have
to find volunteers so you're reaching
out to whatever network you have to
get people to come in do you get like
200 volunteers but what they don't tell
you but they don't tell you is that's
for the second day it's not for the
first day the first day you're doing all
the site prep so you're digging trenches
you get everything ready so that the
second day everything is idiot-proof so
that people don't hurt themselves
liability waivers all you have to do is
move some mulch around twist a couple
bolts and that's it so what you see was
this empty lot that at first phase the
first day becomes this because me and
two other people have to do all of this
by ourselves because nobody tells us
this now again I am from the city of
Chicago
we don't have palm trees okay I never
knew how a palm tree was planted I
assume they're like small little
saplings and you put them in and you
walk away wrong it's not how it works
they're huge
they're already huge and you have to
build these wooden planks to hold them
in place so I'm standing here in the
middle of the Sun just cutting wood over
like this is the worst day of my life
architecture studio never told me this
is what I will be doing like you cut
tiny pieces of model but you're not
cutting two-by-fours over and over and
over again and so as I'm doing this we
have food and snacks off to the side and
I'm watching these guys in neighborhood
walk past - same age as me maybe younger
and they're just staring at me as I'm
cutting stuff so I look back and say
you're gonna help me and you're gonna
stare at me and so they're like oh I'm
good I'm not helping I walk away and so
one of the guys is brave he walks around
and he's like well I don't know how to
use a saw like don't worry I'll teach
you I'm gonna do this Henry Ford
assembly line like like you cut a hammer
bang this out I do not want to be out
here all day it's hot as hell I can't do
this so the guy helps he helped sleep
like an hour hour and a half and he goes
to get food and he leaves and so the
second day when everybody comes out and
we're done and like all the people with
money and titles come when it's over and
they sign all the documents and they cut
ribbons and you like you weren't here I
started from the bottom you weren't here
like at all while I was doing this right
and so when you're doing this kind of
stuff he walked up with this with his
kid his daughter and so I tried to get
close enough to hear the conversation
but not close enough to be a creak you
know like it's a fine line did she have
to the chapter said negotiate and I
overheard the conversation he's having
with his daughter and he goes your dad
helped build this and I'm like yes
because he's one of the neighborhood
drug dealers if he's behind the project
his knucklehead friends won't do
anything to it so to this day everything
is exactly as you said in this photo
they maintain the entire park without
any help from the city of opa-locka
because it's not a seal blocker project
and people in the neighborhood care
about it because they're the ones that
designed it and helped build it right I
was just the conduit to make sure that
all these things went proper right and
I've cut a whole lot of wood and put up
a lot of palm trees and so once we
finished that project and 2015 we were
able to move on and start working on the
arts and Recreation Center cigars
Recreation Center is the only community
facility
that deceive opa-locka has so we're like
I that's give them some kind of space we
found an old warehouse used to be a
roofing company maybe we turn it into
our offices and then we realized
opa-locka is a food desert so how do we
provide fresh food to the area as well
and so through resources University of
Miami we had some some students go outs
in neighborhood talk to some individuals
to figure out what do they cook what do
they eat so we know what for proper what
the plant within the um within the area
and so similar to the park we partnered
with John Deere Home Depot and we got
volunteers out and we did community
build days and we started to build the
whole thing in the top right hand corner
that's the bottom right so cultivating
we actually employ a guy from the city
opa-locka who went to jail learn
horticulture and farming while in jail
and now he's the manager of the farm and
he teaches everybody so how do you make
this stuff sustainable which restorative
justice as well architecture as the
conduit to do all these things the top
left picture is the courtyard of the
arch back shakin Center so every summer
we do technology and arts camps so they
play we use the location we rent this
entire 4,000 square foot facility for
$50 an hour to people who are from the
city of Oaxaca because you realize how
expensive it is to have rental space if
you're not from steel flock is like ten
times that but it's like if you're from
here he's gonna get said extremely
discounted rate and so that's what we do
bottom left corner it's just a big event
that we have some of you are too young
for this because this is before your
time but those of you going to be a bit
older if you see the lady that stand in
the front with the magenta shirt that's
the mother from family matters
so Steve Urkel and all of them like
that's the mom she's from she's from
opa-locka Florida actually and she's
friends with the one miss Stephanie
woods Baldwin so she comes a lot of the
events there there also and inside of
the space we have a we have a gallery so
we have shows people in a neighborhood a
neighborhood artists within the vicinity
of opa-locka so Miami Gardens highly
they show their work within our gallery
during the summertime and that's one
looks like from the outside
we got a artists into the mural and then
watch your hoods office
out of open
to the street landscape design and so
the interesting thing about the mural
and again students this is the whole
don't ask for permission extra
forgiveness so we weren't supposed to do
this mural on the building
it broke every single code violation
forty silver laka color palette graffiti
everything that they had we were like ah
screw you all we don't care and so they
told us all right you can have this up
for 30 days and then you got to take it
down like cool 30 days we got it cool
we'll do it after a couple weeks of them
sent it up they went and got one of
their photographers from the city they
have a photo of the building and city
hall and we never have to take the
bureau down right because they realize
Oh some of these stuff doesn't make any
sense that we're doing this is some
trakonian laws that we have and we
need to figure out a way to update our
city zoning plan to reflect that and so
now it's still there um the next project
that was actually in progress now is a
movement studio within the historic VFW
building which is across the street so
you can do you understand again 27 28 29
all this has happened extremely fast
they're a design team of me and then
just trying to design and we have a
registered architect that's there that
would be the project architect of record
for a lot of their projects all right so
I'm Lee conceptual designer all the way
through schematic and design development
and then the project architect takes it
from there and so the next project
working on is a dance studio and so
these drawings is articulating what the
seating for the dance and movie studio
will look like right so floor stairs to
go up and then sort of stadium seating
for the inside space with their bathroom
and changing room underneath and that's
sort of what the city looks like all
right so the tough thing when you're in
a CDC is funding is limited and so you
very really get to do really cool stuff
because you have to bear it away how do
I make this money stretch how do I get
as much out of it as possible so every
now and then the CEO will let me have
some fun with some projects and they
always stood out like this and in the
end they all become much more reduced
version because money
and money matters but as it currently
stands this is still the plan for what
the actual dance studio would be some
pretty excited about that
and then we're also working on a
shipping container marketplace and so as
I spoke about before the cool thing
about the community organization is that
they care about the entire neighborhood
holistically not just architecture so
that's financial literacy that's housing
literacy that social literacy health
literacy all these different ways that a
person needs to get better because
architecture can't solve every single
problem in fact architecture can't solve
most problems they can just facilitate
the learning that helps those problems
right so if you're trying to tackle
homelessness I don't know how the
building can tackle homelessness if you
don't want to talk about alcoholism or
mental health or these other social
statuses that go along with those right
and so opa-locka is a place where a lot
of people have their own businesses out
of their homes and in its location where
it's legal a lot of people cook they
clean they do things like that and so
we're like what do we provided a
commercial facility for them to cook
with in the space so that's what this is
going to be and then additionally
there's another restaurant there started
out of the garage of one of the board
members and now they're going to get
their own flagship restaurant and so
that's this here over on the left right
and so we like to give a funky names to
stuff so again we can change the
narrative of the area because if you say
opa-locka because of all of the
corruption people we immediately raise
an eyebrow and say so are you with the
city and I no no I am NOT a corrupt city
official I'm just a designer who's doing
some work in opa-locka and so we named
it the drive innovation district and so
as you can see looking containers
already being fabricated bottom right is
bathroom stalls left
that's the flagship restaurant in the
middle right so that was the first phase
of my life and when I say first phase
that took like four and a half years to
do all of that and so once I finished
all those things I started to realize
okay I'm teaching more now I'm really
starting to understand what I'm good at
what I'm interested in and this is how I
came across the sticker students project
with the graham foundation and the port
is extremely important and a lot of
people's families not just the black
community but I only speak from it from
a black person because that's what I am
and in Chicago you hang out on the porch
is what you do summertime you're outside
you're having fun you're watching the
cars go by when people go on prom
everybody is out watching it it's a true
community or against it endeavor and
right so the porch this community the
porch is surveillance the porch is
performance the porch is power right
there's a literal hierarchy that happens
when you spend time reporting at the
bottom of a porch it's an extension of
the home so if you're someone who your
interior space is extremely finite the
porch becomes extension and allowed you
to elongate that right make it bigger so
this is a historic photo of Chicago's
South Side
I showed this image because it gives you
an idea of why the porch is so important
so these units that you see aren't
actually single-family homes these are
what's called kitchen X kitchen X that
means that you have an entire family in
a single room so you have four rooms and
the apartment you have four families in
the apartment right now adays we call
that communal living now what it was
called in the past and this was because
of restricting zoning laws restricting
housing black people weren't allowed to
live anywhere but the south side of
Chicago and it was first settled through
legislation they were able to move
around besides that but the moment black
people would move to a newer to a new
neighborhood housing values would drop
white flight what happened people will
move away and so this is what one of
those kitchen X look like right so if
you can imagine putting your whole
family into a room like this and if you
have three or four families you all
share the same single restaurant but
it's the way did it work
I didn't have a choice and so you hung
out there like not on the porch this is
what you do I mean you need space ac
wasn't the thing back then passive
cooling was the things so you open
windows he can't open the window you sat
outside because it gets pretty hot in
Chicago during the summertime you get
like 90% humidity and look around a
hundred degrees yeah the heat Strokes
every year people think they think
Chicago they think cold if you're from
Chicago you think excruciating heat and
frigid cold you think both polar
opposites you get them all like it's a
really bizarre place and so these just
and so part of my research allowed me to
go to five cities tracing the great
migration through the porch so Atlanta
Houston Washington DC Chicago Detroit
right so it's able to visit these cities
and then look at the porch and all this
machinations in bursts locations if you
go what type of construction methods
went on from one location to the other
what's up no patterns how important is
it to these people who live there
and you start to find links between the
location of where people were during the
first migration the Second Great
Migration and then now where people are
actually moving from the north back to
the south so a lot of the black
population to move north are actually
moving back to southern cities because
of the cost of living so they call this
sort of a third migration or we migrated
back to these historic locations and so
I got this offer to do an art
installation at Brooklyn Center and
because I'm an architect architects for
the most part of dorks so yes I am a
dork I was really fascinated by John
Hendricks non-square project there's
something I do when I was in school I
don't know if they still do the nice
girl project now you guys probably like
I don't know what the hell that is but
it's like super conceptual here's a kit
of parts here's nine blocks figure out
how to make space look those right so I
took that as a means to delve into the
porch through the use of scaffolding and
what I want to do was is I wanted to
show off the importance of the chair
that sits on the porch so I went to some
historic black neighborhoods in Miami
the top is open locker and then there's
Liberty City and Little Haiti and then
Coconut Grove in South Miami and so I
went to these look
and I asked people if I could use their
chairs for an exhibition like so in
essence they would also be a part of the
exhibition rights all right you couldn't
go to this or you don't want to go to
this or this is nothing you're
interested in just loan me your chair go
to be an exhibition I will give you the
chair back and again I'm very lucky that
I have the face of somebody to say yeah
sure you don't creep me out asking me
for my chair so they did and I was able
to put the chair into the exhibition and
so this is this is the layout of the
fourth floor of Brooklyn city centre and
so um I'm not sure how many be able to
relate to this maybe you will because
this is maybe this is a southern thing
how many of you have furniture and maybe
a grandparents house it has plastic that
you're not allowed to sit on right
exactly right it's like this is the nice
furniture you cannot sit on this I
worked really hard for this ghost on the
porch I'll go sit outside like don't sit
here and so that was my childhood
growing up but I'll go to my granny's
house
I knew you know you can't sit there like
and it has plastic so you think I should
be arrested on it because there's
clearly a film in between my body and
the cushions so about drop food it's on
plastic if I'm sweaty it's on plastic if
I'm dirty from being outside I'm on the
plastic I'm not in the fibers of the cut
of the of the couch so just it doesn't
make sense but that was sort of the the
genesis of the project and so I got
these exercise balls like the yoga balls
and everybody uses and I wrap those in
plastic right so our Raptors like you're
supposed to sit on it but you can't sit
on it and so I wrapped them and I put
them inside of the scaffolding to
signify the couch they were not allowed
to sit on which forces you to hang out
on the periphery of the of the
scaffolding that's there were two
structure side by side so again nine
square proposal you've seen him plan how
do we create space through the through
the use of these orbs give that idea of
scale so it's double height so people
were not allowed to actually go up to
the second level the people part of the
show were I was they weren't liability
issues those types of things so this is
me and my team starting to put stuff
together
and then we create a porch right so we
got a very good view out to Brooklyn
Center and our deal was like how do we
create this moment that everybody wants
to sit and hang out in and god damn did
it work like that wasn't that was the
hangout spot like everybody found
himself there they moved the location of
the bar because everybody was hanging
out over there instead the bar was on
the opposite side of the exhibition when
they realized everybody was hangover
instead they moved the bar to the other
side because that's really what it did
in the top right one of the performers
is like I really want to do my set on
top of this I cannot please do it here
how did he come at said can he do it was
I was like yeah but if you fall it's not my fault
like I'm not I'm not dealing with that
but go for it and so all the chairs you
see are the chairs from those various
neighborhoods and they also there they
loved it so much like you do one outside
on the patio also which again architects
in the room you know there's certain
height height limits we have before we
have to go and get approvals through the
building department and things like that
so we kind of just skipped a lot of
rules don't do what I do
I don't follow a lot of rules sometimes
you should in fact follow rules I was
fortunate to be able to do this without
it and then again it worked
so people were outside sitting there all
the time the problem is over the course
of the installation was up about two
months all of the pink balls just aren't
disappeared we would get drunk and they
would take the silver ball so at a
certain point just became just a
scaffolding in the chairs and that was
at least they didn't steal the chairs I
can go give these back and so that was
the first part of the sacred suit the
second part of sacred stoops was our
gallery there saw that installation and
and asked me to do exhibition design for
another exhibition they had at Emerson
doors gallery and so it's going to be
for this all-women's convening and the
idea was to have stairs that can be
multifunctional so again extension of
the porch how do I create this
disempowerment and so I started out what
this drawing I just like what a support
supposed to do and so it's like you sit
you stand you dance how do I make this
thing work and so I came up with this
explodable stair right so it's a
sleeping nook it's a library it's a
beacon signage model stand podium all
based off the necessary
that the exhibition required and so
started doing study models just like how
does this thing work well how can we
reposition the stare how can it work
together and then we started building
the thing right so my team we were out
we had to would we seen seen a lot of
stuff we go to all together that's the
full stare on the left and then that's
when it's pulled apart doing this
various usage and that was the first
phase and then the second phase was us
cladding it in a shiny of what is the
word vinyl that allowed us to have it
within the space and that's top lip you
can see they started to use it for
performances and conversations and
whatnot it's pretty cool inside of the
space and so that was the porch project
and then that gets me into what's going
on now which is the Delray Beach
proposal so we've talked about how to
change a narrative with the city
opa-locka we've talked about explaining
a narrative to a large group of people
the porch and now we're going to get
into creating a narrative for a location
and that still ray beach and so Delray
Beach is in West Palm Beach Florida it's
like an hour north of Miami it was
actually incorporated one year after
opa-locka
so he's absolutely old and it's a
location that was settled by a very
large Bahamian population so I don't
think you all know but Bohemians are
some of the key people to help build
South Florida they were brought in from
very from the Bahamas and they did a lot
of the building and in this area of
Delray they were forced to live on one
side of town calls to West settlers
district and they run allowed to cross
into the white side of town even though
they wrote the labor force they weren't
allowed to go to the beach except for
certain times on certain days they
couldn't go at all it became extremely
isolating and then a hurricane came
through and wiped out quite a bit of the
area in 1947 and so when that happened
had to rebuild and we start to rebuild
you have one of their earliest high
schools in South Florida that was
predominantly black we're all black at
the time no this is still during
segregation and
a woman came to opa-locka saw the work
that was done there reached out to me
via email and said hey sergeant
opa-locka
super interesting you think you can pull
this off again in delray I was like I
have no idea but I'm willing to try and
so say all right here's money here are
some projects what do you want to do and
so we put in for this porch grant so see
extension porch to hear through the
community revitalization grant fund by
the Community Foundation of West Palm
Beach and so we said we want to find
five houses within the district and we
want to renovate and beautify their
porches because a lot of people use this
a lot of people use the the area they
sit there and so when we had the funders
come in and interview us we had tons of
people from the neighborhood to come in
and every single person had a story
about what their porch meant to them but
they were sitting watching their friends
their grumbles might be outside my
favorite story was the grandmother who
was on her porch with rocks and throw
them at people because she was a bit
senile at the time so she felt as though
you're coming into my personal space and
it was safety so her being elevated from
everyone else allow her the ability to
protect her property he should have that
might throw rocks at individuals um my
own personal story to my porch is
whenever there's whenever there's like
prom or anything everybody's outside so
I love normally I'll show a video of my
nephew and he's he's like on the porch
he has on this full tuxedo with a red
carpet going down the stairs and he's
dancing everybody's outside but it's too
technical for the for the presentation
so I'll just take it out but it's
something I like like that's the porch
is so important to our families I was
actually arrested off of my porch when I
was 16 for a mistaken identity
apparently someone who looked like me
committed a crime and so the police came
and I walked off of my porch as if I had
just stayed there by Chicago law they
would have had to talk to my parents
first but because I didn't know I've
moved myself from this safety and then
went out to the public sidewalk in a
moment that happened they put me in
handcuffs and I'm laughing the whole
time like this has to be some sort of
big elaborate joke I don't know what's
going on my mom's his
what's going on I'm like ma this this
has to be a joke like come on now why
would I be getting arrested right this
will be fine I have been to jail for
four and a half hours because of that
and the four and a half hours were spent
in an adult cell not in the juvenile
cell as I was supposed to because I was
only 16 and they waited until like three
hours and thirty minutes to ask me my
shoe size and then what they realized I
was four sizes smaller than the person
who said their shoes got stolen they're
like okay you can go
like you wouldn't think to ask me this
on my porch as opposed to waiting four
hours later but that's just what
happened right so like it just has his
own personal connection and then for a
while my nephew who was there who saw
this will see the police and he goes
there's my uncle like I'm right here
kids like it's not it's not issues like
that's not what's going on but these are
some of the housing topologies in the
area that we're doing the porch
interventions on so you can see you see
tons of chairs out there like they use
these spaces currently but there's with
a bit more infrastructure a bit more TLC
they become better spaces here's another
one and so we found these specific homes
based off of the block leaders in the
neighborhood so their array is a elderly
community for the most part a lot of
people are from there but they're much
older and they really do police their
neighborhood so a lot of the block
captains
we pick them out because they're so
important to the community that's like
alright you've done all this work by
making sure it's clean and it's safe how
can we help you how can we repay you
and so we found the ones that we think
need the most work and so we're doing
interventions at their homes but the
other thing we're doing is is we're
having a design competition for our
students and you were suing Miami where
they're gonna design chairs and the
chairs will find itself on say anyone's
porch who also wants to be seen as a
link to the project right so you have
these chairs I've become a signifier in
addition to the porches at certain
locations I'd like to show this one
because this person is an entrepreneur
they cut hair on their porch totally
illegal in the city of Delray Beach but
who cares it's also not even his home he
rents there so we have to convince the
home owner to let us do a porch
intervention there so that he could
continue to you legally cut hair on the
porch but it is going to do it so it
just seems fun to me
we had s so that's another one of the
homes and so we're time to figure out
these geometries that work with the
houses that clearly show that something
different that's going on right so like
it's there's an extension it's a porch
but it's also covered it's something
that that shows that this is an
important location within the area and
so we're experimenting with different
cladding materials try to figure out
which one we want to do we're talking to
contractors now we have roughly twelve
to fifteen thousand for each house so
some of this can be done through in-kind
donation we're finding local laborers in
the area that we can leverage their
their skillset what type of local
building materials can be used can be
employ this is extremely speculative at
the moment but we're currently in the
midst of making all of this come to
country fortune and we tried to choose
four distinctly different housing
topologies so we can find different ways
to do interventions at each one of those
different houses so next thing we're
working on up there is a master plan so
this a here is a historic church of
Mount Baptist in Delray Beach off of
fourth Street and they own all of those
parcels that are highlighted and they've
tasked me with creating a master plan
for them so they can figure out how to
develop all of their properties there
and so one of the things that we're able
to do was every last Friday of the month
there's a market for people in the area
and we figure I can we create a public
porch for this area so people can come
and congregate have fun and we'll use a
shipping container to do that and so
again they gave me free reign as I would
I want to design and came up with this
idea for a container that all of the
walls could open up and if it can become
a completely covered area and people can
do whatever they want to do within the
space all right so it's performance its
play it's fun it's a market there's so
many different things that they can do
and could generate for the people in the
area and so we sought to fabricate the
thing right so you see it there it's a
standard eight foot by twenty foot
container
the walls are mechanized so you push a
button and everything goes up it was a
bit difficult working with the
contractor but as most architects in
here know that's typically how projects
work and fortunately we were able to get
everything done only six months behind
schedule so it looks like and so that's
it close in the top right right this
jewel box and then when it's open it
becomes the spectacle that it's supposed
to be with the LED lights and things
like that and so that's the final image
of what the thing completely done so we
got installed a couple weeks ago
so once the end of the month happens and
we have the first market I'll be able to
have photographs of it actually serving
its purpose as opposed to when we had
people that were around site you wanted
to take some photographs inside of here
so we can just show what the thing looks
like that's the presentation thank you
thanks Germane that was that was awesome
very cool very cool look at the work I
was curious as you were talking about
the projects about the different kinds
of actors around around each project so
there's investors there's you know
people in the community who were
actually going to be whose lives might
be affected by the project and then
there's people actually helping with the
press there's people and then there's
you yep you know so I wonder what you
know who's who do you see as being the
the catalyst besides yourself of course
but which of course you're the catalyst
to it all but like who do you see as
being the most like excited or
enthusiastic or like where does the next
gear in the whole system turn sure um I
don't think I'm the catalyst I think I
think I'm a conduit right so to help
bring this bring have a certain set of
skills that schools of architecture have
taught me and so I'm able to use those
skills in the productive way
I think the best thing about
architecture education is the teachers
how to problem-solve and you can do that
in a multitude of ways like I didn't
mention that now I sit on the city of
opa-locka splaining the Zoning Board so
I'm able to implement changes at a
policy level which has a way bigger
impact than architectural proposals I'm
doing right so I think the catalyst in
these projects are the people in the
community people that care because those
community members they come out in full
force they go to meetings after being at
work for 9 10 hours straight they always
show up and they're the ones that that
fight for stuff because I really don't
have the the world with all to sit
through other community meetings with
the commissioners I know they're all
lying like I know how politics work my
mom never want me to be an architect she
wanted me to be a lawyer a politician
it's like lady you're nuts I love
architecture if that's gonna happen but
you know you don't fight back with your
mother so you just do everything that
they tell you so I will go to all these
things to become a lawyer knowing back
in the line I'm just gonna be an
architect anyway so whatever but it
helped me because we're not going to
these spaces I understand how they think
I understand how to talk to them on
their level I'm not very quickly you're
full of it like this is just BS but
community members will come out every
single time they push back they fight
they hold them accountable and then they
come back to me I hold me accountable
well you said you wanted to do this do
you actually want to do it or it's just
lip service to which I'd have to decide
all right if I do this me doubt to stay
in Miami for two more years I'm I always
tell Kathy yeah I'm leaving next year
I'm out of here
like I'm done this part takes a lot of
time even if nobody ever told me that
doing this type of work would be so
impactful but also take so much
investment I'm a mental standpoint like
you get Bateen and every year I'd still
be there in the CV but I thought you
were leaving I thought you were leaving
I was like well this community members
say that I said I was gonna do this so
I'd have to do it this means I'll do it
so I have to do it and it's gotten to a
point where I've learned that fact
because I was given this set of skills
through schools of architecture that is
my duty to do the thing that I'm to do
the things that I'm doing but I think
without them it's completely impossible
because otherwise Who am I doing it for
right
hi um that was a really amazing
presentation um I took a lot from that
especially as a student who sees
designing for locals as being a very
important part of what we do and I guess
my question is just what's your advice
on getting into the mindset of the
community and how do we put ourselves in
the space of the locals so that we can
actually better design for them and then
what what has been the biggest thing
that you've learned from doing all of
these things so at my undergrad I never
had a single project like this so I had
no idea this is where my career
trajectory which would end up I didn't
learn about community oriented
architecture and I had my first
internship in Cape Town South Africa and
my boss was doing these super super rich
fancy houses and the suburbs in the
suburbs of Cape Town like how's that
cost no less than at 1.2 million dollars
like super expensive and then he's like
I remember one entirely Janelle like
where's Kylie Jo it's a Township he's
like this is actually I'm more
interested in these projects allowed me
to do this stuff for free and so we go
into these neighborhoods in places where
they didn't have running water it didn't
have infrastructure and we do design
interventions and we do work and when I
was like holy hell
architecture can do this like I had no
idea it absolutely blew my mind this was
in between undergrad and graduate school
and then when I was in graduate school I
was fortunate enough to have a professor
and that's Jennifer bono who was
mentioned before who became my mentor
because she went to Auburn University
and she was a part of the rural studio
where they do a lot of work like this
understand mockney all right I'll say
wait a minute there's other location to
do this also like architecture can be
this impact book we'd be this powerful
and if she took me to Alabama to go see
the work but I said and when I got my
godson opa-locka I was like all right
I'm in this I'm fully invested and yet I
still wanted to use my expertise as a
designer and so I didn't listen and they
would say we want this we want to
partner like you don't really want to
park that I can give you all these
better things because this is a skill
set I have like I allow me to show you
the beautiful things I can give you and
it was at that moment I learned if you
want to do this stuff
my way you have to shut up and you have
to remove the architectural Savior ISM
that's it just has been completely
removed from the scenario because you
want to learn very quickly that the
things you might think or the things you
might prescribe are not the things
that's necessary yeah a complete
different priorities at the same time is
your job to educate them on the things
that they could potentially have because
some of them don't know and so it was a
fine line of negotiation between I know
this is what you want but here is the
potential for what you could have and
then once you get information you take a
step back it's alright you choose if you
still choose option a we go top today if
you choose option B I'll show you the
benefits for option B instead and so
some of the latter stuff in their
project like the container like the farm
those are all things that they did not
want a beginning but once they started
to become more involved in the project
and develop trust a lot of it is trust
and you've come in through on the
promises that you that you give then you
get through the really fun stuff and say
alright cool like I've earned your trust
now I can do these things but if you go
into it as an expert who isn't willing
to listen to people you put your ideas
on other individuals you're not there
you're not in the trenches with them
they don't care they don't believe you
it won't last
it'll get built gonna be destroyed
let me add my thanks as well and my
question is really a follow-up I was
curious how this comes into your
teaching how all this work that you're
doing is affects what you doing dude you
so I'm I was recently appointed
assistant professor and so with that I'm
able to do my own upper-level studios
and seminars and whatnot and I thought
was going to be difficult to get it into
into my courses like how do I get this
porch research into their students
probably don't want to deal with like
why's a porch generator of a studio but
I learned actually receptive so right
now I have a studio that's running where
we're living at the porch and multiple
scales a one to one porch which is off
of a shotgun home so a public plaza at
miami-dade County right which he still
has properties and operates as a porch
and so we're doing these things at
various scales and they're all super
excited about it and I find ways to keep
them engaged so right now I'm using
augmented reality as a way to keep them
engaged to the port's and so we're doing
that with these magically super
high-tech $3,000 headsets that they're
like super super into but additionally
because so many of these things have
money behind them every student wants to
build something before they graduate and
so it's super easy to say take my studio
during the presentation that you say and
we're gonna build it right so you do
that they're like alright I'm in let's
do it like let's go and then they always
changed in my half window man why do I
sign up for this like I actually have to
build it but the way it starts is like
it's it's extremely extreme easy and
I've been very fortunate and blessed to
be able to continue to get grants after
grants out the grants to allow me to do
this type of work obviously with our
current little condition that if it's a
hotbed topics like nobody wants to be
left out in the cold
so everybody wants to give you money so
right now it's like alright here's
10,000 here's fifty five here's eight go
wild and I tell my students look I don't
really need this I have my salary and I
have my professional projects like a
house I didn't show these types of
things that pay me this type of research
stuff I'll pay you so all of my students
that work on their projects they always
get paid as well right so it's paid
internships only because I was that I
did the unpaid internship not a fan
I get it and so that's how I'm able to
get it put in this video so I typically
have a waiting list of students to get
in to get into my studio
um I was wondering how you when you
build your projects and when you think
of your projects how do you work on not
pushing out the people that are already
living in the area okay great question
gentrification is like the the boogeyman
work right you hear it and you
immediately like oh wow like it's tough
but one thing the project has taught me
is you can't improve a neighborhood or
we develop a neighborhood without some
gentrification it's impossible
absolutely impossible if somebody tells
you can't they're lying teeth and I have
to learn that through practice but what
you want to mitigate is you want to
mitigate displacement all right you're
going to figure out a way to tick to
allow people to understand this is
what's happened in your neighborhood
here's how you can fight back and that's
what me beyond the planning zoning board
allows but in the end of the day some
people just want the money and you can't
tell somebody to not take the money
because it's theirs it's their property
and so that's the part of it and
everybody gets told it's the fact that
all you can do was empower and educate a
person on what's happening in their
community and the end of the day the
onus is on them to make decision and so
what we try to do is we try to like okay
here's what's happening Amazon's moving
in this is where they're moving to if I
were you I would not sell my property
this is what's happening this is what
restaurants moving in I would not sell
my property now if they choose to it is
what it is but we definitely do the
enough work to let them know what's
going on and the new project in Delray
Beach we know none of those many members
are moving because they've been there
forever they're not going anywhere
which is actually pretty awesome like
anytime development calms they call
Fight it tooth and nail like it's not
happening at all
and so with them say right next to him
jhemini moon is winning i finished class
at 6:00 I Drive all the way up an hour
and a half to do array I get there like
9 o'clock we have conversations we
talked they asked me how did you make it
up here don't you have somewhere to be
I'm like well you're lucky I don't have
kids I'm not married
so if that were not the case I probably
would not be here well fortunately for
you that's the condition so I can do
this type of labor now right and so
that's the way that I run my practice
and a lot of times the students my
employee I give
full project so sorry look this is the
container we need furniture for the
container that to your project and you
need to go to community meetings you
have to go talk to people find your way
to Delray Beach and then how will pop in
occasionally but there's other things
that's going on I got to write grants
have to do stuff first for studio so I
don't have the wherewithal to do all
those things and so now how do I empower
the people I employ it's also do things
as well
hi I was wondering how when when you're
giving these projects with their pretty
wide open program wise as to how you are
dressing the area how do you go about
choosing the programs which you want to
develop so um a lot of that actually
comes with the community members so as a
young lady asked me before about how do
I not push out people
it's that back and forth conversation
about the necessities for the area so
while the program might seem like it's
pretty broad and I are going to be
develop a neighborhood there's always
strategic things that they want it's
like we know we need somewhere for our
kids to play or we know we want
somewhere to sit down and eat and that
sort of immediately restricts the
programs where I hop it up on an
innovative way to deal with this so the
container the lesson for example to open
the open jewel box they told us we know
we need somewhere to store things we
know we want to have a farmers market
how can we do this that isn't just us
going to Costco and buying some of those
like 100 other tents to 10 by 10 all
white tents you find at tailgates right
there's like we could just go buy a
bunch of those and do it and we put them
up and we finish with it right as a well
what if we did this container instead it
made a bit more interesting you got to
get more people has a much longer
lifespan it's more aesthetically
pleasing it's something the other side
of town doesn't have the other side of
town being a more affluent out of town
find a way for them to come over because
that's a thing that attracts individuals
and they went for it
right and that's how they got built so a
lot of times it's being able to
understand alright this is the bare
necessities of what you want and now how
can I use the skill set I have to
elevate that a bit right or at the very
least just give you exactly what you're
asking for but if you can you always
going to see what can I do a much more
aesthetically pleasing version of it
instead and that's the toughest thing
like if you ever decide to do this type
of work please understand that is always
not going to be pretty just being honest
with you they're gonna be timing like oh
I do not want to photograph this thing
like it looks gross but then you
understand it's helping tons of people
like this is a patient having baby
showers and wedding rehearsals and
birthday parties and
and dance contest and it's helping tons
and tons of people and in today is just
a box and you're like the architecting
is that but I could it it's so much more
that was more interesting and
aesthetically pleasing and they don't
care is that we got what we want thank
you and then you have to check your ego
at the door all right fine I did
something good for the neighborhood just
what I wanted to do and then you find
ways to get the big project that allows
you the freedom to do the more fun stuff
because somebody might see how well you
execute something smaller and they give
you the opportunity to do something
bigger when it happens you have to nail
it but you have no choice if you nail it
you give more projects no more projects
and more projects oh thank you so much
for having me
