Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/893182
he Sandlot Pop-up Park was a vacant, run- down gravel expanse before designers from Mahan Rykiel Associates (MRA), a Baltimore- based landscape architecture and planning firm, together with Beatty Development, BHC Architects, local celebrity chef Spike Gjerde, and Corey Polyoka's Baltimore Foodshed restaurant group, saw its potential and teamed up to convert the site into an attractive community gathering place. Shipping pallets are featured prominently as sculptural and functional elements throughout the pop-up park. Pallets are configured to form a railing system around the deck leading the restaurant ordering station, where, in addition to defining the perimeter, they add a cozy intimacy to the space. Stacked wooden pallets serve as planter boxes in the beer garden, and strategically placed pallet configurations form seating structures in the amphitheater from which patrons can enjoy food and drinks as well as evening concerts and movies. Pallets even form the exoskeleton of a living green wall adorned with ornamental plants and herbs that are harvested to garnish the drinks served in the park's beer garden. Various other repurposed industrial and shipping materials complement the pallet leitmotif and contribute to the Sandlot's quirky charm. Customers place their restaurant orders in a structure that once did duty as a shipping container. Hops and colorful flowers grow out of old construction tubs, and shipping crates that once held Ferrari engines found new life at the Sandlot as trash receptacles. Together with the pallets, these fixtures give the park a natural, unaffected look and contribute to its urban chic vibe. The experience at Sandlot is as diverse and eclectic as the materials that make up the space. Beach volleyball, Bocce, movies, climbing structures, hammocks, a beach and a diverse menu of food and beverage offerings provide hours of entertainment in a lively open-air setting. The Sandlot Park offers a nearly 360-degree view spanning Baltimore's inner harbor and the Baltimore city skyline with its iconic Domino Sugars sign illumining the night sky. Sailboats, kayaks and water taxis cruise the inner harbor, adding to the scene's allure. People on the Baltimore city side of the harbor who formerly looked out upon a dark void and empty beach front now gaze across the waterfront at a beautifully revitalized urban venue. "We studied pop-up parks elsewhere – in Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, DC," said Richard Jones, Mahan Rykiel's president and the principal designer of the project. "Pop-up parks are meant to encourage people to be active and playful in an outdoor urban environment. They are, by their nature, temporary." Typically, a pop-up park is expected to remain in place for about six to eight years, often as part of a greater urban site redevelopment and transformation strategy. "In this case, the long- range plan is to ultimately revitalize the entire 27-acre Baltimore harbor area," Jones said "We saw the potential of pallets early in the visioning phase for this site," he noted. "Pallets are an economical way to solve a lot of problems. They are essentially modular units that can be used to create railings, seating areas, planters, climbing and play areas, walls and other features. Their modularity means that they offer 34 PalletCentral • September-October 2017 palletcentral.com T Pallets are Popping Up All Over Pallets helped transform a derelict industrial site in Baltimore's Inner Harbor into a popular community hotspot. By Leah Wheeler