Patriot’s Park Bench

from Austin L. James Portfolio

by aj1616

Starkville Strong Center

Arch/BCS Collaborative Studio

2021 Fall Semester | 7 weeks

Ada Fulghram, Camille Mask, Nash Vanlandingham, Becca Garrick

Micheal Herndon, Matthew Thomas, Amanda Noe, Austin

Starkville, Mississippi

City Parks and Recreation of Starkville commissioned for benches to be placed in 4 different park locations in the city. Patriot’s Park is the newest park in Starkville as it now resides over an old junkyard. My team and I conducted interviews with the park goers and recorded the most visited locations of the park. Since the park only has a pavilion and playground to offer, park visitors are most often parents who watch their kids while they play on the playground. This established our location and orientation for the bench.

We took heavy inspiration from the materials of the existing pavilion as we realized the bench would hold more story to keep to the built them. The backs of each board were painted a different color to exude friendliness as this is a playground focused park. Recycled steel was welded and painted to form brackets to hold the boards in place. The most important piece of the bench is the utility poles anchored to the ground. Not only does it provide a sturdy support but it follows suit with the coloumn like utility poles used in the pavilion.