A year and a half ago, a group of students from the NewSchool of Architecture and Design wanted to set up a temporary park in a vacant lot in downtown San Diego's East Village. They broke ground on the project in October, and last week construction was well underway.
The students graduated last year and formed the company RAD Lab, which is building the temporary park at Park Boulevard and Market Street, along with other projects.
"We've got the coffee shop at the front that's just about ready, and we're hoping to get half of the plaza space, the coffee shop, and the dog park and food trucks in January. And then we're hoping to open up the rest of the beer garden in February," said Philip Auchettl, one of the original students and now RAD Lab's CEO.
The 30,000-square-foot lot containing the park is owned by the city of San Diego, which originally had redevelopment plans for it. But then the economy soured and the lot sat empty, so Auchettl and some classmates asked to lease it and build a park. They won approval from former Mayor Bob Filner, and while their idea could have died when he resigned, it didn't.
The project raised $60,000 in 30 days on the website Kickstarter and got a major fundraising boost from Andrew Cantor, CEO of the investment firm Cantor Companies.
RAD Lab leased the lot through July 2016 but hopes to stay in the space longer. Because the park is built on borrowed land, all of its structures need to be easy to disassemble and move so the buildings are made from shipping containers.
"We're going to be able to line the whole street with food trucks, which will be pretty awesome, because then when you come down, you have the option of whether you want to come to the restaurant, you want to grab a beer, you want to grab something from the food trucks, grab a coffee on the way in," Auchettl said. "It's going to be a lot of fun."
The Meshuggah Shack coffee shop and Slater 50/50's S&M: Sausage and Meat will set up in the park, along with a 10,000-square-foot beer garden run by Best Beverage Catering. The park will also host concerts and events and will include a dog run.
Auchettl said having a space for residents was essential to the design.
"It's a community-driven project and that for us was important," he said. "That's something we really stuck to our guns with, and made sure it was going to happen."
The entire space, which RAD Lab calls the Quartyard, is set to open in February.
