A climbable play structure at Bell Park by Miami-based architect Germane Barnes of Studio Barnes anchors a more extensive community-led effort to transform a 15-block stretch under the Pink Line train tracks. Designed in collaboration with Shawhin Roudbari, an assistant professor of environmental design at the University of Colorado Boulder, and Mas Context, a community-centric media company in Chicago, the structure and student-created modular wooden blocks for seating—collectively called <i>Block Party</i>—activate an existing concrete play lot owned and operated by the Westside Association for Community Action. Photo 6 of 10 in How One Community-Minded Designer Is Tapping the Potential of Chicago’s Vacant Lots

How One Community-Minded Designer Is Tapping the Potential of Chicago’s Vacant Lots

6 of 10

A climbable play structure at Bell Park by Miami-based architect Germane Barnes of Studio Barnes anchors a more extensive community-led effort to transform a 15-block stretch under the Pink Line train tracks. Designed in collaboration with Shawhin Roudbari, an assistant professor of environmental design at the University of Colorado Boulder, and Mas Context, a community-centric media company in Chicago, the structure and student-created modular wooden blocks for seating—collectively called Block Party—activate an existing concrete play lot owned and operated by the Westside Association for Community Action.