The Pittsfield Community Design Center is holding an open house holiday party in its new downtown headquarters today. The volunteer-driven project is aimed at bringing a human touch to the design of Berkshire County’s urban hub and largest community. Nicholas Russo is the lead organizer behind the center. An outspoken advocate for pedestrian-focused street design and the expansion of bike lanes and other non-automotive means of traversing Pittsfield, his day job is as a Senior Transportation Planner for the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. The event at 429 North Street kicks off at 4. Russo spoke with WAMC.
RUSSO: The design center is going to be an urban room, we're calling it, which is based on a model that's being used in other parts of New England as well. There's one in Troy, there's a few that are going to come up in Taunton and Worcester, and there's some in Cambridge. So it's kind of this, what you might think of as a third space, somewhere for people in the community to gather, to talk about ideas on how to make the city better from a public space standpoint, like how to make our streets safer, how to make our public parks and plazas more inviting, and kind of like “activated” with stuff going on in them, how to attract people to do things downtown, bring some more spontaneity and whimsy to our public spaces and make it more people friendly.
WAMC: What's a good example of a person friendly kind of project that center might take on?
So, we're hoping to contribute to things in the public space, like activities to do say, during, like a First Friday or Third Thursday, for instance. Could we put out some activities for kids to do, like giant lawn games, or places to sit, or things to borrow, like a library of, say, lawn games, or volleyball, that kind of stuff, to make it more interesting and inviting for families to come and hang out in our public spaces. We want to do more interactive activities, like walking tours and cycling groups to go around the city and to get people out into the world and see what it's like to walk through different parts of Pittsfield- Kind of like a hike, but through a city instead of through a forest. Or taking a group bike ride to try out some of our new bike lanes or see where more places could get connected by bike routes. So, I just want to make this kind of a headquarters to host those sorts of those exercises and activities to get more people just kind of get an extra push to come out into Pittsfield and to see what we're capable of and what we already have going on.
Now. You mentioned the word headquarters- There's, of course, a physical space attached to the center, not just theoretically, but in the flesh, so to speak. Tell us about the center- Where is it? What is it going to offer folks? Break it down for us.
The community design center is really meant to be that sort of physical space to host these initiatives, and right now it's at 429. North Street. It's a real place here in downtown Pittsfield. We just opened it up back in the beginning of November, and right now it's just sort of still getting filled in with furniture and stuff to work with. The idea is to have a place for people to gather to sit around a table, talk about ideas to keep making downtown better, about how to improve a problem in someone's neighborhood, say, or even just have like a block party, or just somewhere to bring people together. Also, it's not a government building, and it's not someone's private home or business. It's like a third sort of neutral space that I hope people can utilize to sort of get on an equal playing field, level playing field. Just sit around a table, sit on some couches, hang out, draw stuff out, write things out, play physically with things, like say, Lego blocks or drawing on a map or building blocks, actually talking stuff and feeling stuff out to keep moving forward on things.
Break down the background for this- Is this nonprofit, is it a governmental entity, where's the funding come from? Give us the background.
Right now, it's kind of just an ad hoc volunteer group that I'm sort of springboarding here. We received a grant from MassDevelopment as part of the TDI, Transportive Development Initiative, in downtown Pittsfield, and that is being, you know, financially stewarded by the Downtown Pittsfield Cultural Association. So, they're our fiscal sponsor for this for this grant that they're helping to oversee. So, that grant is helping to cover the rent and insurance for the space for at least six months, as well as any other kind of incidental expenses for furniture or internet supplies for events to our discretion. So right now, there's no sort of governmental attachment to this. It's just a citizens’ volunteer group that's being sort of fiscally overseen by the Downtown Pittsfield Cultural Association as the actual nonprofit sponsor for our grant. And the goal was to kind of become more self-sustaining through applying for further grants, getting our own nonprofit designation, getting donations, getting any kind of underwriting from other philanthropic groups in the Berkshires. That's kind of the roadmap from here,
And you're currently fundraising for the center. Tell us about this- What is your goal and what will those funds go toward?
Our goal right now is to raise $2,024 by the start of 2024. So, it might be a little ambitious, but that's where we want to start off to help us become that self-sustaining group once the grant runs through. So, I'm hoping that this money would go towards – well, I'm planning for this money to go towards – kind of a workshop space to start off with doing some physical projects and activities through the design center, getting people hands-on to build stuff to play with and to bring to events around downtown. Say, like, a new bench to put at a bus stop, or a planter to decorate a corner or to bring to an activity on the sidewalk. Maybe some Adirondack chairs that people can paint as a community project to put out and places have places to sit in their neighborhood. I love actually the project that's kind of going right now through Lindsey Marion, who's doing a sled library that they want to put out at Clapp Park, so kids can sled. Just like a wooden box to put plastic sleds in for kids to take when they come to the park. And that's- I love that idea, and I would love to see more of them and help out with that if we could, or kind of take that as an inspiration and do more community projects like that. So, the workshop would have tools, supplies, paint, workbench, stuff like that. So, that's what I want the funding to go towards and help to get us off the ground on that.
Walk us through your sense of a timeline here. When will folks start to see the work of the Center out in public? And can you sum up for us what you hope the, your most optimistic outcome for the Center could be?
Well, I will say we're already are out in the public. We did our day of remembrance walk about a month ago to city hall, where we displayed a ghost bike to remember people who were killed while riding a bike, and also, a display of shoes to remember pedestrians who were killed by walking this year in Pittsfield. We've also had a couple of social bike rides, like the brews crews ride I called it back in the summer with Hot Plate [Brewing Co.]. We had a movie night about a year ago as part of our first kickoff activity as a pop-up at the Berkshire Athenaeum. And the timeline going forward would be to get those more regularly occurring, a monthly basis of doing movie nights or walks or bike rides, or talks with people involved with the community or working for the city, or technical experts who want to provide any sort of guidance on projects we're doing. Shorter term, the timeline would be to finish this fundraiser by the end of the year, begin buying supplies from the funds that we do raise and start building out the space over the winter. By springtime, have an idea for what pilot project we want to try out, like say, the bench or the planter or something like that just to do a proof of concept. And yeah, roll it out and try it out in the springtime, say, in time for Third Thursday or First Friday, once those start up in the warm weather again.
And for those grand ambitions for the project- Why is this important to Pittsfield? And what do you think its potential is?
I think bringing more human touch to a city like Pittsfield is always going to be important, to let people know and remind us that the city is made up the people who live in it. I want people to be out gathering together in the city, not just online like on Facebook or email. I want us to be out together, bumping into each other walking on the street. When I'm out, I can't go out once without seeing a familiar face somewhere around downtown. That's why I love it. So, I want more people to have those opportunities to be drawn out to the downtown area. I think the more people we have in downtown – and not just downtown, in Tyler Street in the neighborhoods – I think that's all the better, the more people can get out and enjoying our streets, our public spaces, on their bikes, on their feet, taking buses, all modes of transportation. I just want our streets and our public spaces and our neighborhoods to be more friendly and inviting for people to spend time out in them and to have more opportunities for people to cross paths and to share ideas and meet each other. That's what it's all about.
