Representing Glass House Collective, Nicole Lewis presented the history of the organization along with bright photographs, giving complete context for the work here over the last seven years. “I thought the questions at the end revealed the power of what we are able to accomplish by thinking outside of the box and relying on the strengths and specialties of a wide range of partner organizations,” Nicole said.

Josiah Golson, artist and founder of 800 Collective, represented the work of Glass House Collective in contracting with him to present meaningful, playful interaction with ideas and potential neighbors wish to see happen at the intersection of Dodson Ave. and Glass St.

Nicole recalls a lot of open curiosity about the simple, yet game-changing concept of funding neighbors to host dinners for their immediate neighbors, in order to gather input and discuss possibilities in a less formal atmosphere.

“It seemed to make sense to people there who have really struggled with authentic neighborhood input collection–oh yes, of course! It seems so obvious, but sometimes the simple ideas get overlooked. As one of the leaders here myself, it was meaningful to have the chance to be honest about our own ongoing challenges, and our tenacity to try what really connects people to people,”  Nicole said.

Panelists included:

Bert Kuyrkendall, P.E., Senior Transportation Engineer (Gresham, Smith and Partners)

Blythe Bailey, AIA, Administrator (Chattanooga Department of Transportation)

Nicole Lewis, Manager of Community Relations (Glass House Collective)

Josiah Golson, Artist (Glass House Collective)

Greg Heath, DHSc, MPH, Guerry Professor of Exercise Science, Health and Human Performance (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga)

About Intersections 2018 Conference (from SGA’s website):

Building on the momentum from Street Lights, our first Complete Streets conference in November 2016, Intersections will take our implementation and equity work to the next level. But how can arts and culture help us get there?

This year, Smart Growth America’s arts & culture team has partnered with the National Complete Streets Coalition to produce Intersections. At SGA, we believe that everyone in America—no matter their age, ability, income, or race—deserves the option to live somewhere affordable, convenient, beautiful, and safe. SGA’s arts & culture team funds pilot projects, supports local and regional partners, and conducts research that shows that art and culture play a crucial role in supporting this vision by providing an organizing force for residents, business owners, and other stakeholders to work towards strengthening neighborhoods, by revealing the authentic character of communities, and by connecting citizens with decision makers to collectively pursue smart, equitable policies and projects.

It’s important to note that these young musicians and visual artists have a trust friendship with Rondell Crier of Studio Everything that has served as a solid foundation for the experimentation and self-initiated steps this talented crew now feels free and confident to orchestrate on their own. We’ve been so pleased to find out, be invited to join the party, and celebrate their young energy along the way.

(Photos by Olga de Klein)

Through a generous grant from the Lillian Colby Foundation we were able to commission Rondell Crier and his apprentices at Studio Everything to create custom signage and furniture for our new space. They crafted a gorgeous conference table, custom shelving, desk modifications, and the new sign to hang out front, clearly letting neighbors know where to stop by and gather to discuss the health and progress along Glass Street.

In partnership with the building’s owner, we plan to activate the space for a three-year period, recruit a new quality tenant, and restart the process in another vacant building. If the opportunity arises to purchase our own building, we have the flexibility to speed up the process, as long as another quality tenant is able to take over our lease.  The property owner contributed $15,000 to this project. Through grant funds from the Educational Foundation of America, Lyndhurst Foundation, and Lillian Colby Foundation, GHC contributed $35,000 and received another $15,000-$20,000 in donated services through contracting and design discounts, and volunteer hours and Lowe’s Grant support from Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga.

This model is intentional. We want to demonstrate real investment into the community, and intend that the progress we work toward is equitable and open to all local business owners working to inspire the continued growth of pride and confidence in the area.

To that end we have designed this space to be used by our neighbors, and look forward to hosting community meetings and other gatherings here. We invite you to join us the first Monday evening of every month for our Good Neighbor Network meetings, where business owners, nonprofit partners, and neighbors come together to share a meal, voice their concerns, and come up with ideas for ways to improve their neighborhood.

Our new office space looks incredible. Glass House Collective is now in a better position to achieve our Business Development Mission to improve local business viability. As we host more events and invite more business owners to visit us, we showcase the potential of the vacant and underutilized buildings along Glass Street.

As we increase foot traffic in the neighborhood, we celebrate the distinctiveness of this historic area and remind people that it is worthy of investment. When GHC is ready to move on to a new space, a new tenant will occupy the office, and the vibrancy of East Chattanooga will continue to grow. We have learned that good partnerships are essential, renovation costs are always higher and the timeline is always slower than expected, and while it is worthwhile to hire locally based sub-contractors, and innovate a process with a commercial space we do not own ourselves, these factors have presented communication and progress challenges that take time, tenacity, and patience on all sides.

We are planning to ramp up our business development efforts along Glass Street. In an effort to maintain affordability in the neighborhood, GHC has decided to pursue ownership of a building, land, or both. We are in the process of making a donation request to the city and county for a building that they own on Glass Street. If we are granted the property, we plan to explore the option of co-ownership with Studio Everything, and recruit tenants to rent out the remaining space. This renovation process has given us the knowledge and the confidence to take on a new role on Glass Street.

As property owners, we will continue to spark positive change in East Chattanooga, and we hope to increase the sustainability of our organization through earned revenue. Another avenue we’re exploring to achieve our mission of business development is the formation of a Glass Street Business Association. We hope to help strengthen the existing businesses and grow the number of business owners, resulting in increased economic development and job opportunities for our neighbors. The first step in achieving these goals was to complete the renovation of our new space, bringing life to a formerly vacant building.

To transition, Nicole Lewis, GHC Community Relations Manager, led the group around the corner to our newly completed office space at 2513 N. Chamberlain Ave. to hear about the new renovation work there, at the formerly vacant commercial space. Addressing our collective residential improvement lens, Daniel Gamble introduced their Neighborhood Revitalization partnership with us through Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga, and shared a video clip of a recent dramatic home rehab project over on Stuart Street.

Finally, the group wandered down the street to meet Rondell Crier at Studio Everything. The group enjoyed a quick stop by Gloria Coleman’s shop, Designs by Gloria, along the way– having just listened to Nicole Lewis share Gloria’s story about finding a connection through Good Neighbor Network and Habitat volunteering to lease a space of her own from Tina Jones, owner of Ashanti’s Hair Designs.

At Studio Everything, Rondell shared photos and real life examples of the artistic pieces he creates in the studio, along with his model for how to accomplish place-based work that stays relevant and flexible within an under-resourced community. Participants were invited to wander around the studio to see the work samples close up and engage with conversation and questions with Rondell about his open process, and his overarching belief that neighborhood work is always personal.

We deeply enjoyed our time together, and only wish there could have been a few more faces out in our neighborhood from the conference. For those who did attend, thank you for your thoughtful questions and engagement. Remember to keep in touch via our newsletter! It’s a great way to track the activity we sponsor and advocate. We were delighted to be able to participate in the rest of the Summit thanks to our conference registration costs being provided by our grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission.

While larger meetings were hosted by Councilwoman Coonrod, Orchard Knob Elementary Community School PTA, and The Recreation Centers. Smaller meetings were hosted by neighbors who hosted streetscaping feedback dinners in their own homes. These meetings engaged neighbors who wouldn’t normally go to a community meeting.

Glass House Collective had the opportunity to invest dollars in neighbors to host the streetscaping dinners, instigating a flow of welcome and pride through sharing hospitality with friends new and old. Over 50 neighbors participated in the dinners. Many of these neighbors had never previously engaged in traditional meetings and had no interest in doing so, but were grateful to be engaged in a non-traditional manner.

The artistic process for gathering feedback was created and facilitated by 800 Collective’s Josiah Golson and Mary Ann Twitty. Shawana Kendrick, who was an assistant facilitator in the 2014 community input sessions centered around the North Chamberlain and Glass St. intersection, was hired to help with facilitation of the larger meetings.

Stay tuned for their collected analysis of the shared space our neighbors would most care about. Our common public space comes alive only to the extent that we view it as a shared resource in which as many neighbors as possible participate, and understand the difference design makes for everybody.

On Saturday, March 3rd, friends and family members were invited to hike together on the Tennessee River Gorge Trust trails in honor of Ryan’s birthday (actually on March 4th), and to raise awareness about the Bridge program that Clark continues to build. It was absolutely gorgeous spring-like weather, with bright sunshine, and wildflowers peeping through.

Friends of Glass Street in attendance included Nicole Lewis, Olga De Klein, Cameron Williams, former neighbor TJ Mitchell, Annette Allen, and Whitni McDonald. Overall attendance was around 40 friends and family. It was wonderful to see so many wanting to help underwrite Clark’s continued efforts with Bridge. As Nicole says, “Ryan worked hard to connect kids to nature, so we were so that Clark could make use of camping equipment that has been donated to support some of our past collective endeavors with partners like Outdoor Chattanooga and the National Parks Service. The wilderness is healing. It opens up new worlds, Ryan helped stir that up, and now his spirit lives on.”

Reaching back across GHC’s six-year span of work instigating various projects around Glass Street, Beckett writes about the effectiveness of celebrating historic, cultural, and artistic assets as a way to inspire confidence and pride of place.

“Pop-Up Projects generated quite the buzz where exhibits were formed to further solidify the growth of the artistic community, as well as demonstrate the rich history, and flourishing transformation that is currently engulfing Glass Street.”

Read Beckett’s full article by clicking the image link below.

Glass House Collective surveyed neighbors back in 2014 and cleaner, safer, and more inviting were the top 3 adjectives that kept coming up. We had neighbors who were handicapped and elderly, but the roads were not ADA handicap accessible. We have tons of youth who couldn’t walk on the sidewalk together because it was so narrow, cars were driving fast and not slowing down. These were concerns to neighbors so they became concerns for us.

We received community input on how, where, and what should be designed at the corner of North Chamberlain and Glass Street.  ADA handicap accessible sidewalks, streetlights, curb bump outs, traffic calming trees were all installed based on the design the neighbors put in. We want to do the same down at the corner of Dodson and Glass Street.

What should the intersection look like? We have neighborhood run businesses like Ms. Tee’s BBQ and Soul Food and JJ’s Lounge, and a couple others, but the streetscpaing isn’t set up for them to receive the maximum amount of customers. The corner of Dodson Ave. and Glass St. sits on the Glass Farm, Avondale and Boyce Station marker, and we hope everybody can enjoy this area.

We need neighbors input on what should go there and how it should be designed. We look forward to seeing you next Thursday.