Today, about 90 people gave up part of their Saturday morning or afternoon to delve into the world of ‘what’s possible’ for the Hunter Tree Farm at today’s Hunter Farm Gathering Place Community Kick-Off Meeting and Workshop. The morning started off with a presentation describing the project and the criteria which the project must be shaped around given challenges from the site’s zoning and the needs of the Hunter family. After a brief description of these criteria, Milenko Matanovic with the Pomegranate Center led the community through a brainstorming exercise to identify the community’s dreams for the site. (UPDATE) The community came up with 68 unique ideas for the site, which you can download and read HERE (.PDF)!
At noon, the group moved from a community discussion to a visual collaboration where those gifted in design built off the community’s ideas to flush out realistic possibilities. In describing this phase of the workshop, Milenko requested that the community works together like a visual jazz band. About 30 people broke into 4 design groups to interpret the community-developed themes into concepts. Periodically, Milenko would have each group present their design so that other groups could steal the best ideas and build upon each other’s great ideas. From this process, 4 unique concepts were developed comprised of several shared themes. Some of these themes (this is not a conclusive list) included modular and movable benches or tables , space for performances, and enhancing existing features and structures on site.
Over the next several weeks, the design will continue to be refined given the needs of the Hunter family, permitting requirements, budget limitations, and constructability. Due to the extremely rapid schedule associated with this project, a final design will be presented to the community on Wednesday, July 13th from 7pm – 9pm. If you weren’t able to make today’s kick-off meeting, there’s still time for you to have your ideas heard. You can still email » your ideas to the design team (provide sketches and photos if you can) AND complete the Community Treasures Survey!
Thanks to all that made it out today! A special thank you also goes to the Pomegranate Center and Tully’s Coffee, for whom this event couldn’t have been possible without. Most importantly though, another BIG thank you must also go to the Hunter Family for their graciousness in allowed the community to pursue this public gathering place on their private property.