With so many parties involved in developing the future of Weinland Park, no formal proposals have considered the potential that art could bring to the economy and culture of the area.

Across the United States, previously industrial and low income areas have been given new identities and new self-sustaining economies. The Artist Village proposed for Weinland Park uses an economic model at the basis for its design and intends to make a smooth transition into a full capacity art colony, taking 5 to 10 years after initial construction is completed.

The artists’ colony is initially composed of efficient double apartments. Each sits atop a personal workspace and gallery on the ground level. The intention is to bring the positive public urban street
experience and an inconsequential layering of public, semi-public, and private spaces into a secure, maintained area to which all the resident artists belong, and by extension the residents of the greater community can enjoy.

Over time, as the village becomes more successful, it will attract more visitors from the neighborhood and beyond; it will attract more artists; and it will attract more financial supporters, thereby becoming self-sustaining. As money and demand increase, the architecture can grow and take shape with the ideas of the artists coming into the colony.