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In St. Louis, Students Design TOD with Hip-Hop Influences

At a recent reception, Metro Transit in St. Louis and the St. Louis County Library recognized students ages 11-14 who participated in a week-long “Hip-Hop Architecture Camp” and their ideas about how TOD should look around a ­public transit facility in north St. Louis County.

The camp, attended by more than 30 young people, brought together architecture, hip-hop and urban planning to encourage creativity and to introduce young people to the field of architecture. The event at Metro’s North County Transit Center included a display of the six urban planning 3-D models the students created at camp, showing ideas for an ideal community around Metro’s North Hanley Transit Center.

“We put in places that we think will help our community, like a homeless shelter, hospitals where people can get healthcare for free and a school from pre-K to college, because so many can’t afford to go to school,” said 13-year-old K­risten, one of the Hip-Hop Architecture Camp participants. She said her group’s ideal community also included a park where it would be safe to play without fear of being kidnapped and various stores, including ones that would offer healthy food options.


Participants in St. Louis’ Hip-Hop Architecture Camp display 3-D models of TOD they would like to see around a St. Louis Metro transit center.

Each of the 3-D models created by the campers addressed such issues as access to quality food, housing, healthcare, education and greenspace.

Jessica Mefford-Miller, executive director of Metro Transit, said she liked the way the camp participants immersed themselves in their creative projects. “Art, music and architecture and the way we plan and design our communities really can change lives,” she said.

Kristen Sorth, director of the St. Louis County Library, said, “The youth who participated in the camp were asked to create a vision of their perfect community and that’s what you see before you. I think you’ll agree these are some pretty fun communities that they’ve designed.”

The reception also included the debut of a music video campers created with the help of St. Louis rapper and producer Chingy and others. The music video, which is posted on YouTube, features original raps written and performed by the campers that convey their feelings about the St. Louis community based on their life experiences. Themes included homelessness, pervasive violence and a hope for change and prosperity.

Architect Michael Ford founded the Hip-Hop Architecture Camp in 2017 in Madison, WI, to attract young, diverse talent to careers in architecture, and he has since grown the program to approximately 30 camps nationwide.
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