Spence neighbourhood students pitch field of dreams to mayor

Spence neighbourhood students went to City Hall Monday to school local officials on green space at SherbrookStreet and Cumberland Avenue.

About 30 middle-school students met with Mayor Brian Bowman andinnovation committee chairCoun. Cindy Gilroy(Daniel McIntyre)to pitch their plan to reinvigorate a local park.

"The first thing I noticed is that it was really busy," said 15-year-oldMayumiMartin, a student at nearby Hugh John Macdonald School.

"How should we build around that?" she said.

Winnipeg School Division students from several neighbouring schools participated in a two-day crash-course in landscape architecture. The students visited the site and brainstormed ways to generate community and create a gathering place at the outskirts of the downtown core.

"We wanted to include public art and [bring] the community in together in the space," Martin told CBC's Information Radio.

Rachelle Kirouac, a landscape architectural intern at HTFC Planning & Design and project co-ordinatorfor the Youth Studio 2018 project,challenged the students to apply what they had learned to devise their own designs.

Students presented the results to elected city officials for their approval, as the youth learned about the ins and outs of council.

The final design which was revealed Monday will become a temporary instalment. It pulls together the students'individual ideas for a meeting space,Kirouacsaid, complete with benches and a reflection of the neighbourhood's cultural mosaic. The young designers considered how food security, public art, cultural diversity and accessibility all come in to play.

Students and families are invited to help put their ideas into action at the end of the month, though permits and donations are still pending.

Kirouac targeted students in hopes of empowering them to create change.

"It was really important for us to look at this young generation as the next generation of urban designers, landscape architects and community leaders," she said.

Residents can expect the rejuvenated public space to crop up by June 23.