Three Master of Architecture students put together a proposal for an urban park in downtown San Diego. The hipster type with a dog park, biergarten, concert venue, etc. Coming out of school, they decided to give themselves six-months to get it built. They raised $60,000 on Kickstarter in the first 30 days. This showed the city and private investors that the community was serious about having such a place in their city. The city had previously repossessed property around downtown that was going unused while waiting for larger developments to be designed and permitted.\u00a0RAD\u00a0LAB\u00a0convinced the city to lease them the land during the interim 2-years period.\u00a0RAD\u00a0LAB\u00a0then went to investors to raise funds and build out the temporary project, which was a huge success in the city. It took a lot of hustle and collaboration between the City of San Diego and private investors that Architect & Developer\u00a0RAD\u00a0LAB\u00a0mediated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sat down with Philip Auchettl of\u00a0RAD\u00a0LAB\u00a0who discussed his experience. \u201cWe were going to be a placeholder for future development. We used shipping containers so we could\u00a0pick everything up and move it to a new location. That way we could reactivate somewhere else when it came time to move. That was when people started to get excited. I think it made people in the community more open to the idea of it. Anything that is temporary, people seem willing to give it a go. Anytime people want to build a brick-and-mortar thing people line up with their pitchforks.\u201d5
RAD\u00a0LAB\u00a0was able to limit their initial costs by having each tenant purchase the container and pay for the renovation using\u00a0<\/strong>RAD\u00a0LAB\u2019s design. The tenant would then pay\u00a0RAD\u00a0LAB\u00a0for the lease of the space, and they would turn around and pay the city. At the same time, they would organize events, art shows, farmer\u2019s markets, etc. to bring in more people to the project and curate a public space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit (quartyardsd.com<\/a>) and read more from my interview with CEO Philip Auchettl and see more articles about\u00a0RAD\u00a0LAB\u00a0{here<\/a>}. See how they put Quartyard together from a thesis project to a real asset to San Diego at the video below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n