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Social Spaces is a community-focused initiative that creates dialogue, celebrates culture, and provides intentionally designed gathering spaces.
The Golden Triangle BID originally conceived Social Spaces in 2021 as temporary public space activations to transform Pennsylvania Avenue west of the White House by creating more intimate, human-scaled places in the form of public art installations. The public art installations aimed to bring people together in a safe and distanced manner along sidewalks and parks of the Golden Triangle.
Initial installations included Common Ground by Risa Puno, located at Murrow Park today, Circula by Tomek Rygalik and MERIDIAN by Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong – which are no longer on display.
Recently, the Golden Triangle expanded the concept of Social Spaces to create additional beautiful, sustainable, and culturally rich public spaces throughout the neighborhood. Colorful parklets, pocket parks, and additional furniture in parks across the Golden Triangle create new Social Spaces offering seating areas to relax and enjoy the outdoors and company of others while downtown.
A series of nine new Social Spaces rolling out in spring 2023 includes four parklets at I Street, M Street, N Street, and Pennsylvania Avenue, a pocket park at the Connecticut Avenue Overlook, and more seating areas at Farragut Square, Murrow Park, Monroe Park, and Longfellow Park.
The Golden Triangle BID’s expansion of Social Spaces is made possible thanks to funding through the DC Office of Planning’s Streets for People grant. Some Social Spaces are also supported through the DC Department of Transportation and other partners. Social Spaces are perfect places to bring your book, catch up with a friend over lunch or coffee, and even hold a small team meeting. Enjoy your time outdoors around the Golden Triangle!
No Longer on Display
By Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong Penn Ave Pocket Park (Pennsylvania Avenue, H and 19th Streets NW)
“My creative practice explores how we can share space together. Featuring a terraced pavilion and a floor mural, MERIDIAN aims to transform this park into a community site for sitting, reading, and socializing outdoors.” — Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong
“My creative practice explores how we can share space together. Featuring a terraced pavilion and a floor mural, MERIDIAN aims to transform this park into a community site for sitting, reading, and socializing outdoors.”
— Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong
Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong’s site-specific installation, MERIDIAN, draws inspiration from the celestial meridians, or the circular pathways, that run along the Earth from pole to pole. The colored patterns on the wood surfaces correspond to shadows that will be cast on these faces at solar noon on the first day of the year’s upcoming seasons: summer solstice, autumn equinox, and winter solstice. MERIDIAN aspires to create greater awareness of time and encourage moments of pause, reflection, and interaction between people and place.
Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong is a New York-based artist working at the intersection of art, architecture, and the public realm. Cheryl holds a BA in Art and Italian from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University GSAPP.
By Risa Puno Located at Murrow Park (Pennsylvania Avenue, H, and 18th Streets NW)
“I am interested in how interactivity and play help us understand how we relate to one another. I create disarmingly fun experiences allowing people to let down their boundaries and connect. By expressing my ideas through recognizable objects, like these brightly colored tables, I hope to encourage many levels of engagement.” — Risa Puno
“I am interested in how interactivity and play help us understand how we relate to one another. I create disarmingly fun experiences allowing people to let down their boundaries and connect. By expressing my ideas through recognizable objects, like these brightly colored tables, I hope to encourage many levels of engagement.”
— Risa Puno
Risa Puno’s Common Ground is an interactive installation that offers a site for community dialog and exchange. It features 25 connected picnic tables and benches, each with a different handmade mosaic pattern. It was originally commissioned by NYC Parks for Rufus King Park in Queens, and the mosaic designs are inspired by the neighborhood’s unique mix of immigrants and iconic architecture. The colorful patchwork aesthetic and interconnected structure are a celebration of harmony through diversity.
Risa Puno is a New York-based interactive sculpture and installation artist. She has exhibited at national and international venues. She studied art and medicine at Brown University and earned her MFA from New York University.
Courtesy of the Polish Cultural Institute New York and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland
By Tomek Rygalik Located at Murrow Park (Pennsylvania Avenue, H, and 18th Streets NW)
Designer Tomek Rygalik’s Circula is a site-specific design installation that is part of the ECO Solidarity initiative. The art stimulates solidarity through sustainable design that reduces social isolation and strengthens societal bonds. Crafted as a seating area, Circula provides a symbolic, functional space for dialogue, facilitates direct social interactions, and advocates for an ecological approach in two contrasting ways: one of the circular benches is made of recycled plastic, and the other is made of a naturally renewable resource – wood.
Tomek Rygalik is a lead designer at Studio Rygalik, educator with a Ph.D. in industrial design, curator, head of the Graduate Studies at the Design Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, founder of brad TRE Product; Cofounder of the interdisciplinary platform Design Nature and the Creative Campus Sobole.
