Problem: a couple of badly sited Hydro boxes in front of Elsie Roy School near the Roundhouse.
Scot Hein, head of the Urban Design Studio at City Hall, along with his assistant Phil Scott, came up with an elegant solution. How about a screen made up of images drawn by the students themselves, of themselves?
Other problem: no money. But they got the buy-in from principal Isabel Grant and, better yet, School Board shop manager Walter Adolph, who fabricated the screen in house.
Result:
The Concord project is often criticized for having a relentless sterility, albeit a very well designed sterility. Here’s a fine example of how time and personal touches take care of that.
Although the screen is lively, it still equates to a solid wall – which could provide a hiding spot for homeless people to take shelter or drug addicts to shoot up.
Screening through shrubs, bushes or the same student images sited closer to the actual hydro boxes would allow sightlines through and beyond and would be preferrable.