Cleveland, Ohio has seen a steady decline in the amount of people living there in the past decade. Caused by the deindustrialization of factories, people moving out of Cleveland have left pockets of abandoned buildings and vacant land. The vacant land and buildings are looked as eyesores by neighborhood residents and as liabilities to city officials. But to Terry Schwarz, an urban planner working in the Graduate Architecture program at Kent State, these abandoned areas are seen as potential for community and creative growth. Her solution to the problem, use the space as temporary installations for art exhibitions and community enhancing activities. The temporary use of space in urban areas has the challenge of enlivening a space in a temporary amount of time and show the land’s true value to a community.

One problem Cleveland is facing is the high foreclosure rates and number of houses that are demolished annually. Cleveland annually demolished 1,000 abandoned houses while currently having as much as 120 acres of additional vacant land. Terry recognized this growing problem and decided to do something about it. Terry defined the solution as bringing order to chaos, creating a setting rather than having a void. And on this premise, Pop-up city was born.

The problems and solutions Terry Schwarz is dealing with is not specific to Cleveland, Ohio. In Philadelphia there are an estimated 26,000 vacant homes, and 1,000 homes are annually destroyed by the city because they can’t be salvaged. And increasing those numbers is the amount of industrial and commercial sites that are abandoned throughout the city. Yet these commercial sites and homes become prime targets for commercial businesses that want to buy cheap land in hopes of increasing profit when the value of the property increases. Although the property values increase, they sometimes increase enough to make long time residents move because they can no longer afford their homes. 

Instead of encouraging this gentrification process, Pop-up City Cleveland aims at bringing together people to interact with the environment and creating a sense of community. And the people of the community benefit even if it is only for a temporary amount of time. 

The first project Terry and Pop-up City tackled in a project titled Leap Night. The Pop-up City event created an illuminated ice pool, snowboarding ramp, ice skating rink, ice sculptures and bonfires in hopes of enticing people to experience the forgotten site along the riverbank. The exhibition created what Terry considers “social capital”, social interactions that are of value and worth, not only to the space, but among the participants. 

Another project Terry Schwartz and Pop-up City worked on the Bridge Mix which decorated a pedestrian bridge dividing two economically different parts of the city. The objective of this project was to create a space that felt more like a living room, to make it cozy and homelike for one night. The event showcased dancers and storytellers, and decked out the bridge in comfy chairs and a couch. Part of the challenge with this project was to create for an integrated crowd that was in a racially tense part of the city.

The Bridge Project is the largest project Pop-up city has worked on to date, taking a vacant bridge and turning it into a an exhibition space for the people of Cleveland to walk through and experience. The goal of the Bridge project was to create on a small scale intimate spaces for urban experiences but in a large infrastructure. The urban hammock was one concept created as a space for visitors to interact with the urban environment of the bridge. The hammocks would attach to the bridge having a safety net connected underneath but provide the visitors with a full view of the city. Benches were also places along the pathway for visitors to sit and enjoy the view. There was a picnic plinth assembled to look over the city, which was also mobile to the visitors could choose where to sit and have a picnic while enjoying the scenic view. Lighting was installed in dark spots for better visibility, and there were programs and performances as well as interactive art exhibitions. The planning for the event took over a year and involved kids, high school and college aged students, and they provided help with the designing as well as the building.

Philadelphia could take a lesson from Terry Schwarz and Pop-up city. With the sites in our neighborhoods we could be creating fun temporary sites that benefits the entire community and not just profiting big commercial builders. Not only will it create social capital, interactions that are of value and worth, but could also bring in revenue to the city and of course would make Philadelphia a more exciting place to live.