Next month will be moving time for Quartyard, the East Village park with a coffee shop, concert space and dog run.
Luckily, the park was designed to be mobile.
It began as a thesis project done by students at NewSchool of Architecture and Design. The idea was to temporarily lease a vacant lot slated for future development and make it a public gathering space.
"This was always meant to be a temporary project," said Philip Auchettl, who was one of the students and now is the president of Quartyard. "We were able to say, OK, this is community-owned property, let's create a community space out of it, even if that's just temporary until the city is ready to put a highrise here."
The space on 11th Avenue and Market Street will soon be taken over by a new highrise that will include UC San Diego Extension. Auchettl and his fellow Quartyard designers made the park to be mobile by using shipping containers.
"We got to pick all these containers up, we've got to move them to another location, and simultaneously we've got to get the new location ready, which is one block east on Market and 13th," he said.
He and the other designers are still figuring out what will go in the space. It will be smaller, but Auchettl said he is excited to see what they can do.
He is also glad they have the chance to prove the model of Quartyard, that it can be moved between vacant lots.
While the new project still needs permits, Auchettl said he hopes it will open later this year.
