Title: KAPPA ACHIEVEMENT PARK
Location of Proejct: Raleigh, NC
Project Completion Date: N/A
Firm Name: Hanbury

Short Description: Kappa Achievement Park is aimed towards presenting a sustainable and equitable community development model to historically segregated and increasingly gentrified communities. The project creates space for all neighbors within southeast Raleigh by knitting together the historic, social, and economic fabric. The design is built with a Kit of Parts that encourage Live, Engage and Gather. The building blocks of a flourishing community.

Architect's Statement: Kappa Achievement Park is aimed towards presenting a sustainable and equitable development model to the Raleigh Alumni Chapter of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and Trailblaze Development. During this process, it is important to acknowledge and honor the legacy of Kappa Alpha Psi’s long standing community engagement work around the city of Raleigh. Additionally, we were prompted to knit together the historic, social, and economic fabric of a rapidly gentrifying area in Southeast Raleigh while creating spaces for all neighbors. The intention is to develop a case study that can serve as a resource to other cities facing gentrification.

Purchased in 2003 by Kappa, the project site is located in Southeast Raleigh. What was once a segregated neighborhood pool, has been transformed by the Kappa Brothers into a place of growth and engagement. As the current Kappa Alpha Psi local alumni center, the brothers use this space to gather, hold meetings and engage with the local community.

The racial and ethnic divide in Raleigh is evident due to the pre-existing political and social barriers. Dating back to the Jim Crow era, the racial lines have been sharpened through redlining, confining Black and Brown communities confined to the city’s Southeastern lowlands. The Southeastern lowlands are prone to flooding, lack green space and city views.

After engaging with locals, we can understand that there has been a large disconnect between developers and the community. Part of this disconnect stems from designers and developers coming into the community with prescribed solutions rather than an openness to listen. In an effort to truly engage with the community, we created a design process that starts and ends with the community. The design model shifts away from a purely profit-driven development to create a more equitable community and help fight gentrification.

The model above is a cyclical design process that requires continual stakeholder engagement, similar to the tech industry’s method of agile management (one of the fastest evolving industries in the world). In community developments, the key stakeholders should be the community. It is necessary to create a space where everyone’s voice can be heard, this gives power and dignity to the people.

City-growth and gentrification are rapidly evolving problems and require solutions that are adaptable over time, the model also includes phases to promote flexibility and the opportunity to investigate the success of the project.

We developed a kit of parts that encourage community based development. They include: Live, Engage, and Gather. These three ideas are flexible within each other to provide the right tools for a community to grow with a city. We will show how the interplay and layering of these parts create space for the community, reinforce their culture and identity, and how to invest in themselves.