IGNITE September 2021

Reimagining is good for your neighborhood

Let your creative mind loose to transform where you live

Recently, Great Neighborhoods finished up a project with Judson University’s architecture program. Their Graduate Studio came to Rockford for a four-day master planning charrette where students took a neighborhood tour and spoke to community stakeholders and residents.

The purpose of the Graduate Studio project was to pick a city and focus on its urban design and community design, identify the strengths and challenges, and develop an urban masterplan in response. The second part of the project focused on developing architectural design projects on site within the proposed masterplan.

If you are looking for an organization that can help you reimagine where you live, Great Neighborhoods is a great place to start.

The graduate students reimagined Rockford’s Fordham, SWIFTT and ORCHID neighborhoods as part of their project. The results were amazing! The recommendations included an American girls’ professional baseball museum focused on the Rockford Peaches, aquarium and science center, ecology center, event venue, mixed income housing and a vertical farm and restaurant.

The project sparked not only community conversations, but it challenged us to use our imaginations and rethink, and rethink big, about where we live, work, play and worship. And even though it is responsible to be realistic, using our imagination has so much value.

Here are five reasons to use your imagination more:

1. Imagination sparks passion: Dreaming of what could be allows us to tap into our imagination and reminds us what it feels like to be passionate about something. Imagination connects to passion and that passion turns into purpose.

2. Imagination can create our futures: Our imagination is a vehicle that takes our thoughts and makes them possible. Albert Einstein said, “imagination is everything. It is the preview for life’s coming attractions.

3. Imagination stimulates creativity and innovation: Imagination is the creative power and key ingredient to expansion and advancement in the world. Some of the most influential and innovative ideas have come from the simple act of imagining something bigger, easier and more beautiful.

4. Imagination is magical: Think about children playing together and the places, people and things they have created from their imaginations. How amazing would life be to look at everyday challenges through the eyes of a child? Imaginative thoughts turn the mundane into a magical expression.

5. Imagination provides hope: Watching the news and hearing about the world’s challenges and hardships all the time, makes us feel like that’s just the way it is. Using our imagination as a means of creation, provides hope and where there is hope there is an opportunity for transformation and change.

Imagine the Possibilities

When you look around your community and your neighborhood, remind yourself that there are so many more possibilities outside of what you are seeing right now. You can turn a green space into a park or a community garden. You can redesign a crosswalk, turn fences and trashcans into colorful creations, brighten up a dark neighborhood with a neon-mural, and more. We have the power to create so much more, and it’s up to us to use our imaginations for the better.

If you are looking for an organization that can help you reimagine where you live, Great Neighborhoods is a great place to start. Great Neighborhoods is a grassroots program available to help residents understand their neighborhoods and what they have to offer. We transform neighborhoods into what the residents want. Together, we co-create action plans with our neighborhoods, and help connect all the dots and utilize networks and resources to move projects forward.

Connect and get involved with Great Neighborhoods to impact the neighborhoods around you by emailing cira@transformrockford.org. You can also visit the website, greatneighborhoods.info, and link to the Facebook and Instagram accounts too.

Cira Richardson is program director at Transform Rockford-Great Neighborhoods and a member of IGNITE.

The views expressed are those of Richardson’s and do not necessarily represent those of the Rockford Chamber of Commerce.