Rise and Equifax collaborate! Crown Square’s new pocket park under construction.
Rise has played a crucial role in the ongoing revitalization of the Old North St. Louis neighborhood. This development consists of the complete historic rehabilitation of 13 buildings on the two former pedestrian mall blocks, coupled with fourteen residential buildings adjacent to the mall area. It includes 80 green built” mixed-income residential rental spaces (on and off the former pedestrian mall), comprised of lofts, apartments, and live/work spaces.
One of the priority goals was to fill in vacant lots between the remaining historic buildings.
The redevelopment of the former 14th Street pedestrian mall in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood is now called Crown Square.
A new Crown Square Pocket Park is under construction right now and is the result of multiple collaborators.
Through Equifax funding, student apprentices from St. Louis Artworks spent the summer of 2013 working with a landscape architect to design a pocket park for the space that adjoins the Artworks office. Ylan Vo and Deborah Wheeler at Artworks were co-teachers during the 2013 summer and created a curriculum for these apprentices teaching design for the park and an additional park for the neighborhood of Old North. The final student design was approved by Old North Restoration Group and Rise. Enter Rebuilding Together. Last summer, Rebuilding Together, along with Scottrade and Equifax volunteers, brought another student-designed park to project across from Crown Candy Kitchen to provide residents, shoppers, patrons of Crown Candy and visitors of Old North a place to enjoy themselves. This spring Rebuilding Together, along with Scottrade and Equifax volunteers, will bring the Pocket Park alive. This multi-faceted highly collaborative project is exactly what Equifax seeks from its funding with the hope that the added community value benefits many and that there are many more projects such as these on the way!
