Arches & Access Unites People & Park

Arches & Access
Arches & Access parade kick off

Showcasing the cherished connections between Druid Hill Park and surrounding neighborhoods, the Arches & Access project illuminated and activated the historic Druid Hill Park Gate at Madison Avenue, Druid Hill Park, and the Rawlings Conservatory with colorful lights, a community parade, and a public party. On the evening of November 3rd, 2019, over three hundred residents, artists, and performers transformed Madison Avenue at Druid Park Lake Drive into a spectacular, roving block party. Neighbors collectively created a place to march, dance, and perform in celebration of our West Baltimore communities united in green space and creating safe streets for people.

Arches & Access light art

Arches & Access was a Neighborhood Lights Project presented as part of the Brilliant Baltimore / Light City festival of light and literature. The event was led by Reservoir Hill artist Jessy DeSantis, Reservoir Hill advocate Courtney Bettle, and Auchentoroly Terrace public artist Graham Coreil-Allen with major support from the Reservoir Hill Improvement Council, a grant from Baltimore Heritage, and volunteers from Beth Am Synagogue’s IFO organization. The Reservoir Hill mothers Bettle and DeSantis took inspiration from DeSantis’ colorful painting of the Arches when they came up with the idea of creating a light art project in early 2019. Later the two reached out to Coreil-Allen of Graham Projects to help realize the light art. Collectively they expanded the vision to include solar powered lights leading into the park, activated by a joyful community parade showing what life could be like without highways hindering pedestrian access to Druid Hill Park.

Arches & Access sidewalk lights
Arches & Access Catrin & Catrina parade puppets
Arches & Access Twilighters Marching Band at Rawlings Conservatory
Arches & Access dance party

Graham Projects is honored to have been apart of creating Arches & Access and look forward to working again with our community partners on making this light art and parade an annual success.

Arches & Access organizers

Click for more pictures and to read the full story of the Arches & Access project at the TAP Druid Hill website.

Arches & Access

Arches & Access
Arches & Access

Graham Projects is excited to be collaborating with Reservoir Hill artists and organizers Jessy DeSantis, Courtney Bettle, and Kate Jennings on Arches & Access. Showcasing the cherished connections between the Reservoir Hill and Druid Hill Park, Arches & Access project will illuminate and activate the landmark Druid Hill Park Gate at Madison Avenue with colorful lights, a community parade, and public walking tour. The Neighborhood Lights Project is presented as part of the Brilliant Baltimore festival of light and literature.

Arches & Access Reservoir Hill Neighborhood Lights Parade

Reservoir Hill is hosting a family-friendly light parade in conjunction with Brilliant Baltimore’s Neighborhood Lights program. Come celebrate the community connections between our park and surrounding neighborhoods! All are invited to activate the Arches & Access light art with a community parade on Sunday, November 3rd, 5:30-9pm. The family-friendly walk will feature youth-made lanterns and marching band. Come ready to impress with glow sticks, lights, and lanterns as we parade through the arches into Druid Hill Park following an illuminated pathway ending at a colorfully lit Rawlings Conservatory. There neighbors will mingle while enjoying light refreshments, including hot cocoa, music, a photo booth, and food truck.

Sunday, November 3rd, 5:30-9pm

Parade’s starting point:
Druid Hill Park Gate at Madison Avenue
2600 Madison Ave, Baltimore, MD 21217

Parade’s ending point:
Rawlings Conservatory
3100 Swann Dr, Baltimore, MD 21217

Stay tuned for kid’s lantern workshops to-be-announced.

Find out more and learn about volunteer opportunities: tapdruidhill.org/archesandaccess

Share on social media with our facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/523199925113772/

Arches & Access Evening Wander Druid Hill Park Walking Tour

Friday, November 8, 7-9pm

Meet at Madison Avenue Gate:
2600 Madison Ave, Baltimore, MD 21217

Tour is free and open to the public, but space is limited. Email cardinalspace@gmail.com to reserve your spot. Dress in warm clothes, bring a flashlight, wear comfortable shoes, and be prepared to walk or roll 1.5 miles.

The Arches & Access Evening Wander will explore monuments to community connectivity and a riptide of traffic priorities between the Druid Hill Park Gate and the Jones Falls Expressway. The 90 minute tour will focus on the history of the park, the challenging impacts of surrounding highways on local neighborhoods, engineering behind the ongoing reservoir construction, and efforts to better TAP Druid Hill through participatory transportation planning.

The tour is presented as part of the Hidden Paths exhibit at Cardinal Space. https://www.cardinalspace.com/hidden-paths

Share on social media with our facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2094358137335298/

The Forthcoming Reality of Holly Whyte Way

6-1/2 Avenue Crosswalk

6-1/2 Avenue Crosswalk
Image courtesy of NYC DOT via The New York Observer.

Only six months after the Arcade Parade, Holly Whyte Way is officially becoming a reality! This week the New York City DOT announced its proposal to connect the privately-owned public plazas and arcades that run from 51st to 57th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. Since then, Community Board 5′ Transportation Committee has approved the plans for crosswalks, stop signs and warning markers that will alert motorists to yield to pedestrians moving along what will be soon be officially known as 6½ Avenue. Needless to say, Friends of Privately Owned Public Space is celebrating. Special thanks to Matt Chaban for his wall-to wall coverage of the development. More details below…

Arcade Parade patch

Meet Me on 6½th Avenue: DOT Planning Public Promenade Through Middle of Midtown Towers / Matt Chaban, NY Observer, 3.26.12

Arcade Parade a Wandering Success

The Arcade Parade celebration of Midtown privately owned public spaces, October 2011, New York, NY. 1.5 hours, uniform, maps, performers, public spaces, participants. Combination view.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Arcade Parade on Saturday, October 15th. Together the F-POPS team, Hungry March Band, and over one hundred people festively wandered through Midtown’s largest network of privately owned public spaces. Under LeWitt stripes waving, the Arcade Parade fomented the Social Life of these Small Urban Spaces through festive music, critical observation, site specific play and interventionist sound. Through blocks played and plazas performed, Holly Whyte Way is cemented as path and place.

More pictures and info about Friends of Privately Owned Public Space at f-pops.org.

Special thanks to the 27 backers on kickstarter and the many other volunteers and supporters who helped make the Arcade Parade possible.

Organizers: Brian Nesin, David Gryder, Graham Coreil-Allen, Christina Kelly, Elena Volkova. Performers: The Hungry March Band, the children on scooters, Simone and Claire Ghetti

The Arcade Parade / 10.15.11 / 11am / Midtown-NYC [updated]

Arcade Parade flyer

Arcade Parade flyer
Join us on Facebook and visit our KICKSTARTER page to help make this parade a success!

Download your own Holly Whyte Way SELF-GUIDED TOUR here.

Arcade Parade
Holly Whyte Way Dedication
October 15, 2011, 11am-12:30pm
Starting at AXA Plaza
151 West 51st St, New York, 10019

Join us in Midtown New York on Saturday, October 15th for the Arcade Parade, a free pedestrian tour through a series of little-known shortcuts composed of privately owned public spaces. Between 51st and 57th Streets and 6th and 7th Avenues, there exists an exciting, if unfinished, network of privately owned public spaces (POPS) provided by developers in exchange for additional floor area within the buildings above. Friends of Privately Owned Public Space (F-POPS), in conjunction with the West 54th/55th Street Block Association, and openhousenewyork, is promoting the individual spaces along the parade route as a single entity called Holly Whyte Way. William “Holly” Whyte was an influential urbanist whose books and films championed the substance of successful public space. In addition to enlivening these midtown arcades, F-POPS also seeks to increase their visibility and accessibility by connecting the spaces along the parade route with crosswalks. The proposal for crosswalks has been approved by the Community Board and is now being studied by the NYC Department of Transportation. The Arcade Parade will mark the dedication of Holly Whyte Way through a series of festive events along the nine-block parade route, including presentations of architecture and history by architects Brian Nesin and David Grider, episodes of play from artists Graham Coreil-Allen and Christina Kelly, a moment of site-specific sound by Simone and Claire Ghetti, and raucous music by the Hungry March Band!

Friends of Privately Owned Public Space is an organization dedicated to the celebration and improvement of New York City’s eighty-two acres of POPS. A collaborative of architects, artists, and community leaders concerned with the civic realm, F-POPS seeks to raise public awareness of the existence and purpose of these unique spaces.

f-pops.org / ohny.org / grahamprojects.com

Holly Whyte Way map

Arcade Parade patch