Seventh-Grader Coleman Simmons Designs BLM Center for Childhood Equality with CRTKL

Announcement | January 29, 2021

 

This winter break, seventh-grader Coleman Simmons designed the first of its kind: a Black Lives Matter community center for school-age children and young adults in Portland, Oregon. The design features a wide variety of activity spaces: from a computer lab to a full sporting field, the BLM Center is a place where kids can feel safe—no matter who they are or where they come from.

But let’s back up a bit. A week before joining the Hip Hop Architecture camp, a program that would allow him to eventually collaborate with CRTKL to bring this dream to life, Coleman attended his first Black Lives Matter rally. After the demonstration, an African American man pulled up next to the Simmons family in his car.

“God bless you. God bless your soul. You don’t know how much this means to me,” he said.

From there, Coleman knew he wanted to do anything he could to ensure equality and create a space that everyone could enjoy. He knew many kids who didn’t have a place to go after school, and he wanted to use his inclination towards creativity to make the difference he wished to see.

A week later, he attended the 2020 Virtual Hip Hop Architecture Camp via Zoom. The camp secured laptops and free software tools for students to create a design with the mission to create more just cities. After his vision for the BLM Center placed in the top ten of over 600 participants, Coleman won the opportunity to work with CallisonRTKL’s Orlando Orozco (Associate, Experience Simulation Lead/Design Technology Specialist) and Diane Moore (Designer, Shopping/Entertainment Districts) to help further develop the idea and bring a full rendering to life.

“Although I have worked on other community efforts during my tenure at CRTKL, Hip Hop Architecture Camp uniquely outreaches to under-represented youth potentially making a difference in their career aspirations. Through the winter internship program, we were able to inform and influence future practitioners of architecture by sharing the advanced digital tools and visualization abilities at our fingertips, while directly advancing their own vision on the projects they thoughtfully developed during the summer,” says Orlando.

Coleman had a few main goals for the space: a place where local youth can feel safe after school, somewhere to play sports, career training services, college admission assistance, and homework and test preparation. But he knew that, more than any of those things, he wanted his community center to stand for racial justice.

“The BLM Center helps to promote equality [by] informing kids and adults about racism,” Coleman begins. “[The Center would also feature] many amazing BLM activists and [serve as a safe space to] plan rallies for the Black Lives Matter cause.”

In their plan, Coleman, Orlando, and Diane thought through the many steps of place-making for the Center: from fundraising ideas to the type of staff necessary to keep operations running—even differentiating them by volunteer and pay status. Every detail down to the location was chosen carefully—with the team landing on Luuwit View Park in Portland, Oregon thanks to its proximity to schools, parks, and existing community centers.

“My favorite part of the BLM center has to be the basketball court– not only because I love the design on the interior and exterior– but I love the sport itself,” he said. When asked about the design’s signature red and black coloring, he attributed the theme to his team: the Portland Trailblazers.

Once he saw the final render, Coleman was amazed with the results:

“[The renderings] made me so happy to see [the Center] and how much progress it has made. It was definitely more than I expected, and I am thankful for that.”