THE LIVING LOT
Interface Studio LLC is a full-service urban design company founded in 2004 by Scott Page. As a veteran of a large, multi-disciplinary firm, Scott established Interface Studio to pursue high planning and design quality and a close working relationship with clients. Today, their growing practice works collaboratively on a diverse mix of projects across the country ranging from a city-wide housing strategy for Rochester, New York to a master plan for Paterson’s downtown in New Jersey. Interface Studio has worked extensively in dense, mixed-use urban places with a unique sense of optimism and innovation. Their work is calibrated toward implementation with both pragmatic and creative strategies that set a realistic agenda for change guided by local voices. The Studio’s plans have been recognized with state and national awards and have received both local and national media coverage through the Philadelphia Weekly, Philadelphia Inquirer, Plan Philly, Salon Magazine and Planetizen.
Why were you interested in participating in The Putting Lot? Does it relate to work you’ve done in the past?
After including recommendations in nearly every project regarding the creative temporary reuse of vacant lots, we were very excited by the chance to participate in the actual transformation of one. We also welcomed the opportunity to be temporarily pulled away from our map-making and other assorted computering to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty constructing bird houses, modular native grass tiles, “chia cube gabions,” and other miscellaneous elements. As a studio with interest and experience in creative arts beyond the scope of our typical endeavors as an urban planning and design firm, Interface likes to get crafty with its ideas every now and then.
What is the inspiration for your design? How does it relate to urban sustainability?
The conceptual intent of our proposal, The Living Lot, is to transform a portion of the Putting Lot into a hybrid landscape merging material elements typically found in gritty industrial districts with a wilder, more natural habitat. In addition to providing a challenging and informative course for human visitors, the course design intends to attract a wilder range of visitors: small mammals, birds, butterflies, and other urban wildlife. The concept also intends to use this course as a catalytic opportunity to breathe life into other vacant lots and slack spaces in the immediate neighborhood and beyond through the use of guerilla gardening tactics. Our proposal included the suggestion that we be assigned the ninth hole in the course; upon completing the hole, patrons will exchange their golf balls for seed bombs (through the use of some yet-to-be-conceived-of contraption which we have lovingly named “DA BOMB!”), which they are free to throw anywhere they’d like to see a small patch of native wildflowers and grasses sprout up in a few weeks.
Instead of a grass “green” putting surface (which would likely be difficult to maintain under high foot traffic) or an Astroturf “green” (which would likely be manufactured using chemicals and processes harmful to the environment and would have very little use value when the Putting Lot is deconstructed) the Living Lot features a burlap fabric “green.” “No-mow” grass, which requires very little water and does not require mowing (obviously), will be used to create the “rough” areas along the edges of the intended putting route. This grass will be grown in advance on modular tiles made of re-purposed cardboard egg crates and transported to the site for installation.
Repurposed cyclone fencing will provide the structural integrity for a series of “chia cube gabions.” The gabions create a growing surface for native grasses, as well as a superficial base for vertical supports for birdhouses and hummingbird feeders made out of recycled materials and found objects. Recycled material will also constitute gabion cores, providing them with enough weight to ensure stability. Discarded car tires echoing the visual language of the Putting Lot’s neighborhood context will be filled with “papercrete” (d.i.y. green concrete) to provide base support for wildflower planters and additional vertical supports for aerial habitats. In the spirit of the “leave no trace” concept, the use of chia cube gabions and tire planters allows for easily deconstructed vertical structures without disturbing the site.
The course will also be punctuated with a series of coffee-can sized holes constituting an additional hazard for Putting Lot patrons. If a player’s ball falls into one of these “pitfalls,” they will be penalized an extra stroke. The “pitfalls” are also an opportunity to increase awareness and/or incite interest in various topics of sustainability: each hole will be accompanied by a small placard featuring a surprising green fact.
All plantings, as well as the seeds in the seed bombs, will consist of New York native flowering plants and grasses including Black Eyed Susan, Joe Pye Weed, Scented Goldenrod, Partridge Pea, Butterfly Milkweed, Switch Grass, and Little Blue Stem. These plants will create a xeriscape: a native planting scheme specific to New York’s climate requiring very little watering.
What else would you like to see in an empty space in the city?
We’d like to see empty lots having uses beyond being landfills. Empty space as putting lots, empty space as organizing techniques, empty space as grounds for fostering interaction and incubating ideas.
Do you have any childhood memories or good stories about miniature golf?
Although Leah and Ashley grew up playing miniature golf 1,600 miles away from each other, never having the opportunity to face off on the Astroturf battlefield, Ashley is confident that she would “beat Leah’s butt on the putt.” Leah claims Ashley “could never provoke a lower stroke than her own score, for shore.” Thankfully, the opening of the Putting Lot promises to resolve this escalating intra-Interface Studio intimidation.
What do you hope to see at The Putting Lot this summer?
In addition to scores of putt putt patrons, we hope that our hole successfully attracts local wildlife and helps to hybridize the gritty hardscape with natural habitats. And we hope there will be pudding pops.