Background

There are few things that feel more Kentucky than basketball, and this proposed project seeks to join two seemingly unrelated ideas: college basketball brackets and downtown revitalization. The Winchester Placemaking/Urbanist Bracket is modeled after the college basketball bracket where eight potential placemaking projects which can be implemented for under $5,000 will be placed in a bracket where the public can vote weekly on which project they would like to see move forward. It is then anticipated that the chosen project would be implemented during the summer of 2019. It is also anticipated that funds to pay for the installation for the chosen $5,000 project will come from a ‘What’s Your Ambition’ grant from the Greater Clark Foundation. 

About

The eight projects chosen for the bracket were intended to be able to be installed for under $5,000 and within a couple of months of being chosen. Therefore the projects will be specified by the time the bracket begins allowing people to vote on specific projects rather than concepts, though the logistics of installing some of the projects may take place after voting concludes. Identified projects are intended to be located within the public realm in downtown Winchester in an effort to support the future HighSide Linear Park and get people to start thinking about the space differently while seeing tangible projects being installed in downtown, even if they are temporary. Each of the projects will require the support of partners, whether that be the City of Winchester, the local Department of Transportation or local business owners. 

Outcomes

As part of this project we designed and built voting boxes that were temporarily installed in downtown Winchester. Voting for the preferred projects was accomplished through donations. Each box was marked with the potential projects, and people voted by donating hygiene items into the associated boxes. The Rowland Arts Teen Center, located in downtown Winchester, received all of the donated hygiene items and managed the day-to-day operations of the voting boxes. Following three weeks of voting the winning project was a shade canopy on the Highside in downtown Winchester. The shade canopy, designed out of brightly colored fringed pennants, was installed during the summer of 2020. While intended to be temporary, the shade canopy caused some passionate conversations about downtown and drew people's attention to the pedestrian experience in downtown Winchester.