Connect Category
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| This award honors spaces that have created stronger communities. |
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The Kingsley Association
Lincoln-Larimer, Pittsburgh
What’s cool about the new Kingsley Association, among other things, is that it got built at all. Originally envisioned in the 1990s, this $8 million community center and office for the Association is Lincoln-Larimer’s first major development in decades. When the facility opened its doors in 2003, it represented the organization recommitting to its mission to support the needs of families for life experiences beyond basic needs.
Primarily serving primarily black families and children, the new Kingsley Association building reconnects a part of the East End that was cut off from its heart of East Liberty during the urban renewal in the 1960s. The Association, founded as a settlement house at the end of the 19th century, had been providing recreation space and programming for working class families. The idea was that even the poorer families deserved a place for themselves – to come and enjoy free time, and to learn something beyond the ABCs.
This state of the art recreational facility features a basketball court, many community rooms, a full service kitchen for housing nutritional programs, and a swimming pool with novel flooring that allows the mobility-impaired to roll out into the water to participate in aquatic programs. More than an oasis, Kingsley seems to represent reclamation of a part of town that most have completely given up on. |
Kingsley Association exterior
Kingsley Association lobby
Pool designed for mobility-impaired
Workout room |
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Uncommon Grounds exterior
Volunteer designed and built interior
Courtyard on Franklin Avenue
Mural envisions Aliquippa's Franklin Avenue as Van Gogh's Starry Night |
Uncommon Grounds
Aliquippa, Beaver County
Uncommon Grounds, as owner John Stanley says, is a “listening space” first and café second. Stanley, a Church Army USA officer, began work on the Franklin Avenue storefront in 2001, relying solely on volunteer labor in everything from stabilizing the building, design, build-out, and operations. The café opened to the public in September 2005, and six years later in 2007, the building and operation of Uncommon Grounds has involved over 1500 volunteers and 73 churches nationally. Although the café is only a shell for its mission, it adds stability to a business district marked by instability in a transitioning post-industrial city.
Programming is designed to uplift a wide range of at-risk residents in the community. Friday nights are triple feature movie nights, providing a safe space for families in Aliquippa’s downtown area. Teen baristas are part of an employment training program, and addicts receive sobriety counseling. In a community whose hallmark was the separations between its residents, Uncommon Grounds envisions a fully united community.
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