YAX In the News: This Toronto Star article highlights our "pipelet parklet" made of pipes and reclaimed wood currently built by our Advanced Architecture Firm students. The parklet was installed in the Mission outside John O'Connell High School in 2017.

Huge thanks to everyone who made this parklet possible: our Architecture Firm youth architects; Kali Gordon and Craig Hollow, former YAX Architecture faculty artists; Chris Wood, YAX Construction Adjunct Faculty from John O'Connell High School; Robin Abad Ocubillo, YAX Board Member and Urban Designer with the San Francisco Planning Department; and John Francis, manager of the San Francisco parklet program.

Read the article

“In the Mission neighbourhood of San Francisco lies a tiny oasis made of bent pipes and reclaimed wood — complete with benches for weary pedestrians and plants that give the sidewalk a pop of green. It’s squeezed into two former parking spots.

The “Pipelet parklet,” across from a high school, was designed and built by students through the non-profit Youth Art Exchange and installed in late 2017. It’s one of 59 “parklets” across the Northern California city, the result of a push to turn street parking into micro parks.

The Mission’s Pipelet Parklet cost about $35,000, said Reed Davaz McGowan, executive director at Youth Art Exchange, and was funded by corporate sponsors and grants. It’s one of three the non-profit organization has worked on, providing high school students with an opportunity to leave their mark on their communities.

“We tend to work in neighbourhoods that are not the most well known parts of San Francisco and so otherwise might not able to get the glory of having a parklet,” said Davaz McGowan.

“We see them as opportunities to create gathering spaces, community spaces, cultural spaces.””

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