Bronx River Art Center students design greenway benches
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BY KYLE VUILLE
Teens and young adults at
the Bronx River Art Center
are fi nally seeing their park
bench designs come to life in
a literal, concrete sense.
Members of BRAC along
with other affi liates of the
project and a BRAC student
met outside of the McInnis
Cement Plant on Thursday,
November 21 at 50 Oak Point
Avenue to see fi rsthand two
of the three student designed
benches come to life.
Students in the Teen Project
Studio+2.0 class at BRAC
this semester had the chance
to apply their art techniques
and theory to product design
to create park benches that
are now in full scale with the
molds being fi lled with cement.
The TPS+2.0 class is a free
class offered every semester
for high school students meeting
twice a week at BRAC.
The program recently extended
its offering to young
adults from 18-26, that accounts
for the +2.0 in the title,
BRAC program director Gail
Nathan said.
Nathan said the opportunity
for the benches actually
Left to Right: Michele Brody, BRAC Education Manager, Gail Nathan, BRAC
Program Director and Fernanda Carvalho Santos, student at BRAC stand
in front of the “Loveseat” created by BRAC’s Teen Project Studio+2.0’s
students. Students at BRAC designed three unique park benches to be
installed at 50 Oak Point Ave. in the month of November.
Photo by Kyle Vuille/Schneps Media
started three years ago when
the ever evolving class was
concentrating on furniture
design.
The class created a prototype,
but there were no takers
when the prototype was
pitched to the Bronx River
Greenway team.
Nathan said in the past
year, she saw proposal requests
open up for park
benches and thus started the
current project with previously
involved students and
this semester’s pupils.
The present day students
took the original plans
and modifi ed them slightly,
which resulted in the ‘Legacy
Bench.’ Another bench has
taken shape in the form of a
piano and the third, taking
inspiration from the pebbles
and rocks of its future home
at the greenway.
Nathan explained the project
takes the students through
every step of the design process.
“We’ve really shown our
students, you can design, you
can fabricate, we have 3-D
printers for small scale prototypes,
then bring it to the fullscale,
and now we have a commission,”
Nathan said.
The three benches to be installed
along the Bronx River
behind the McInnis Cement
plant were commissioned for
$7,000 a piece.
The installment of the
benches was sponsored by
The Point, a community development
committee, that
operates out of Hunts Point.
McInnis Cement hired
The Point CDC to put out the
request for proposal and accepted
the students’ designs
just in the past year.
The only student from the
class present for the pouring
of the benches on Thursday
was 21-year-old Fernanda
Carvalho. Santos said she has
been involved in the project
since March.
“It was an interesting experience
and challenging
because it was my fi rst time
making something on the
bigger scale.” Santos said. “I
learned a lot about draft making
and architecture design
and used a 3-D printer for the
fi rst time.”
Everyone involved in the
project from the students to
affi liates at The Point CDC all
shared the same notion, they
hope to see the benches cherished
for years to come.
Nathan said painting the
benches is scheduled for the
spring after the concrete has
had time to cure during the
cold winter months.
For more information on
the TPS+2.0 program, visit
bronxriverart.org
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/bronxriverart.org