Calling
all design professionals: The design community is invited to step
up to an exciting challenge, a charette to benefit
Rocketown, a Nashville youth community
center.
On
November 15, 2010, design professionals from the Mid-Tennessee area
and from across the country will meet to tackle conceptual design
for a large community service project, a Decorative Concrete
Makeover for youth hotspot Rocketown. Housed in a
former engine shop, Rocketown includes over 30,000 square feet of
concrete floors, as well as many concrete walls, all of it ripe for
improvement by designers.
"We
need creative people who care about this city and its youth to come
down on Nov. 15 and join the charette," explains Bent
Mikkelsen, publisher
of Concrete Decor magazine and
producer
of the
2011 Concrete Decor Show & Spring Training, which
is sponsoring
the project. A charette is an old
architectural tradition, an all-out joint effort to accomplish a
great task. The concrete makeover charette will bring
together local professionals to conceive and create designs for
dyeing, staining, stenciling, grinding, polishing, and otherwise
beautifying the concrete surfaces of the facility. The wide range
of spaces and uses offer many opportunities for creativity and
vision.
Some of
the nation's foremost decorative concrete experts will be on hand
on Nov. 15 to consult and collaborate. They will then
carry forward the design ideas and prepare them for
execution. Actual decorative work will be performed
in a series of hands-on workshops during the show, which comes to
the Nashville Convention Center March 15-18,
2011. Show
attendees will learn exciting new decorative techniques while
transforming Rocketown. Materials will be donated by
show exhibitors and local concrete-related
businesses.
Enabling
designers, instructors, attendees and exhibitors to pitch in and
give back as a community is part of the show's commitment to the
city that's hosting it. "The Concrete Decor Show is
about community," stated Bent Mikkelsen, "not just the decorative
concrete community, but the Nashville community that is hosting
us. We want to leave our host city a little bit
better than it was when we got here. This project
gives our community a chance to come together and reach out to
Nashville with a positive impact."
Rocketown,
founded in 1994 by singer/songwriter Michael W. Smith, gives teens
a positive alternative to the many negative pressures they face.
The first of its kind in the Southeast, Rocketown has grown into a
regional outreach as well as a model for faith-based relational
outreach across the country.
The new Rocketown building at 601 S. 4th Avenue, which the organization moved into August
1, 2010, includes an indoor skate park, skate
shop, coffee bar, music performance venue, music recording studio,
and dance studio/flex room, as well as offices and utility spaces.
Across the street their annex is being converted to offer auto and
bike repair classes, and transitional living for
teens.
"Rocketown
occupies a former industrial space," Mikkelsen explains, "and its
ordinary concrete floors and walls retain a cold, dreary
appearance. Decorative concrete will help beautify the space and
revitalize the neighborhood."
The
charette will kick off at Rocketown, 601 S. 4th
Avenue, Nashville, TN on Nov. 15, 2010 at 9:00 AM; doors open at
8:30. Continental breakfast and lunch will be
provided. Bring your favorite portable design tools
and your creative spark. To help plan meals and
refreshments, the show requests that you email aaron@chusid.com or
call 818-774-0003 if you plan to attend.
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