In Upper Falls, alongside the railroad tracks, behind the Clarks headquarters on Oak St there is a very large empty building. The building is one floor, roughly 300 feet x 300 feet (i.e. football field length and width. It looks it has a concrete floor and is maybe 30 or 40 feet high. It’s totally empty except for two rows of support columns which sorts of breaks the internal space into thirds.
Now imagine that we had the use of the building for a weekend to hold some kind of fun community event. What would you do with it?
A few suggestions so far:
* A Rollerskating Rink
* The Upper Falls Remote Control Anything Festival – invite everyone who has toy remote control planes, cars, trucks, animals, robots. Invite all the eastern Mass schools who have robotic clubs and fill the place with moving, spinning, flying crawling machines.
* A Flea Market
* Indoors Farmers Market
* Superballs – a vague idea that involved large numbers of bouncing super balls
Laser tag!
Next home for the Museum of Bad Art where all the gross and wretched art from around the World would be featured. This would really put Upper Falls on the map. We could market this, the Greenway and Hemlock Gorge as a great, interconnected addition to the Freedom Trail and Faneuil Market
paintball arenafest
I’ll bring King Pong
http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/features/x1272825348/Giant-video-game-played-on-Newtons-Echo-Bridge#axzz1nLM1QrZf
Indoor chalk art festival!
@Jim Walker – Oooh I like that one!
… or maybe chalk artists on rollerskates with lasers and paint guns.
indoor traffic garden, with roundabouts, Y and T intersections, and trikes (as cars) and bikes.
@ad – my 9 year old daughter just said she would DEFINITELY want to go to that. How would you make the roads, roundabouts, etc?
Village 14 World Headquarters (and think tank)!
I think Village 14 is already serving quite nicely as the Big Empty Space Festival’s think tank.
From Jim Lerner:
How about a fair for local businesses, where they can sell or pitch their wares and services.
Free food samples, lunch for sale. Invite all the local restaurants, Baza, Whole Foods, Waban Market to come.
In another corner, just stuff for kids. Toys, nursery schools, music lessons.
In another corner, sports stuff. EMS, Ski & Tennis, Intl. Bike, Charles River Wheelmen, Crack ‘o Dawn bikers, AMC
In another corner, media (NewTV, Tab, Patch, Library, Newton Camera Club) not just selling their stuff, but recruiting, interviewing, showing off.
In another corner, technology.
In another corner, home services. Organizers, cleaners, shoppers, home health care.
Culture: museums, theaters, clubs, etc. could exhibit and entertain.
Just a few half-baked ideas…
There has to be a costume parade. With bikes. And floats.
From Bob Jackson:
My vote would be for a production of West Side Story.
That’s clearly enough space to break some substaintial Guinness World Record. We have what it takes to break the record for most city officials in one room (saving the area councils as backup).
Then we could ask Nabisco to help us build the world’s largest Fig Newton
I contacted the property owner and unfortunately they were very clear that they have no interest in this idea …. now what other Big Empty Spaces do we have around here?
A nice safe family fun/recreation area. Ex. Bowling, arcades, roller skating,
indoor tennis, pool area, indoor play area.
Back in 2012 the property owner had no interest in any of our ideas … but I couldn’t resist posting one more.