The 18th Street Park Project

The 18th Street Park Project is an effort to bring the families and residents of the West Side together to make a permanent piece of art reflecting the diversity, energy and promise of the area. There has been a targeted effort to involve residents within three blocks of the park with the project. Individuals from throughout the City of Buffalo are invited to participate.

Located on a city corner, adjacent to Urban Roots Community Garden Center, the park will act as a connection between the neighborhood and the garden center. Native plants are incorporated in the design, areas for leisure and rest are incorporated.

A committee of resident volunteers have been working with UB students and the artist team to design the park and the wall which features ceramic tiles created by children who live on the west side. The West Side Community Collaborative with the Greening Collaborative, Pilgrim St. Luke’s West Side Empowered Blocks, and Urban Roots Community Garden Center are providing coordination and outreach assistance.

The Artist Team

The 18th Street Park Project will bring the artistic experience of mosaic artist and sculptor, Nancy Gabriel; fiber artist/painter and teaching artist, Cynnie Gaasch; and Architect and University at Buffalo Professor, Brad Wales together to work with the West Side Community and Architecture students at UB in order to make a permanent piece of public art. Gabriel and Wales have worked together previously on “Small Built Works” projects with community members and UB students in Allentown, the Elmwood area, and Connecticut Street. These projects won the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards Grand Prize in 2005. Gaasch has worked with children in schools and community centers throughout Buffalo and Western New York on murals and quilts for permanent installation.

Make a Tile Kids Workshop

In addition to the UB students’ designs for the park, local artists Nancy Gabriel and Cynnie Gaasch will be working with children in the immediate neighborhood to create mosaic tiles for the low wall features, with the assistance of two youth apprentices, with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts.

The Neighborhood

The neighborhood surrounding the 18th/Rhode Island Park encompasses one of the most diverse neighborhoods of the City. Immigrants and long time residents of many cultures coexist, and rarely have the opportunity to work on projects such as this together. Resident populations include Somali, Sudanese and Arabian immigrants, African Americans, Hispanics, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Caucasians. The neighborhood is historically working class, immigrant in population. A generation ago the immigrants were Italian and Irish. Many of these immigrant senior citizens still live in their original homes.

Incorporating Children

18th Street Park Mosaic Park Project will provide an opportunity for the children in the neighborhood immediately surrounding the park at 18th and Rhode Island Streets and the greater West Side to collaboratively make a permanent piece of public art that they can look at and live with every day.

The Planter Project – to be placed on corners of Rhode Isllnd and Massachusetts

The Planter design that was chosen incorporates the unique triangular street grid of the West Side neighborhood in its design. The form for the planter was designed by three UB students. The mold is being constructed and perfected by Brad Wales Architects, and the cement planters will be poured out of cement and planted by community members with the assistance of Brad Wales Architects.