Myrtle Avenue Street Furniture Initiative: Community Design Workshop

The Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation, Pratt industrial design students, and the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership will hold a community design workshop tonight, Tuesday, November 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. in Pratt Institute’s Higgins Hall as part of the Myrtle Avenue Street Furniture Design Initiative. The workshop, during which designers will present preliminary concepts for seating, bike racks, tree guards, and other possible street elements, is open to the public and members of the community are encouraged to attend.

The workshop will:

• introduce the project: background, goals, process, and timeline
• share preliminary design concepts
• invite participants to join topic tables to discuss and/or sketch
  concrete elements (bike racks, benches, pavings, etc.) as well as
  general topics (identity, sense of place)

We also hope to gain more information about the reasons for why people
visit the avenue and what design issues would facilitate these visits.
Questions to think about before attending the workshop:

• Do you shop or dine on Myrtle? If so, what design elements would make this experience easier or more pleasurable?
• Do you park your bike on Myrtle? Where and why?
• What do you like about the avenue, and what street furniture items do you wish existed?
• 
  Aside from the goods and services, are there streetscape amenities
  along other commercial corridors that draw you to shop there?
• How are the current elements on the sidewalk spaces useful, or problematic?