Dear Mom,
The entrance to the Park Avenue Armory museum
As you know, I decided to go to New York at the last minute for New Year’s Eve. I apologize, by the way, that I didn’t make it back in time for our annual New Year’s Day feast.
While I was in New York, some of my friends wanted to get “cultured” so we went to the Park Avenue Armory – an old military training facility. This space is now no longer used for military purposes, and the owners were forced to find a new use for this open space. They decided to open an interactive museum that both preserved the history of the building and could also be used for community building.
What I saw in the museum was inspiring. We walked into a building as prestigious as some of the best buildings in New York – the attention to detail, the pictures on the walls, and the high ceilings all told a story of a place that was once worthy of some of our county’s greatest soldiers.
In the old training room, bigger than a football stadium, stood the new exhibit – a giant swing set.
I’ll do my best to describe it to you. In the middle of the room was a white sheet that was pulled up and down by strings, and these strings were connected to swings that anyone could jump on. As you would swing, you would pull the curtain up and down. And, with more than fifty swings all connected to one curtain, the sheet was in constant motion – almost like a flag blowing in the wind or a giant wave that could never crash on shore.
The view from the second floor
It is a simple idea that was intrinsically designed by a collaborative group of artist, designers, engineers, and architects.
Looking back at some of the challenges we have worked on and some of the challenges Detroit is facing, I finally understood why this exhibit is truly inspiring. The Park Avenue Armory found a way to repurpose a space in way that brought together all age groups in the community while providing a profit for the museum.
Detroit should learn from this example. There is no shortage of open space here and there is no reason for us not to come together to repurpose vacant lots, abandoned buildings, and empty warehouses.
If one city can do it, then so can we.