Public Space Design with J. Manuel Mansylla

This week on First Coat we have J. Manuel Mansylla (Manman). Manman is Principal of FANTÁSTICA, leading placemaking, design, and branding projects.  FANTÁSTICA specializes in transformative projects to revitalize underutilized assets and unlock economic potential. He's worked on the creation of the first New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) public plaza in Dumbo’s Pearl Street Triangle, development of the citywide standard for DOT Street Seats with locations in Downtown Brooklyn, Park Slope, Hudson Yards, and East New York; the design of Downtown Brooklyn’s popular holiday lights display; and design of the outdoor spaces for the Dumbo Heights development in the Brooklyn Tech Triangle. He's also a co-founder of Oonee, a smart, modular, customizable pod that provides secure parking for scooters and bicycles as well as public space amenities. Oonee is currently raising money on Republic - if you're interested you can find the link in the show notes. 

In this episode we talk about how we can co-create more vibrant public spaces, the impact of COVID-19 on public spaces, and how to transform short-term public space experiments into long term policies so we can all have better public spaces. 

Show Notes: https://distillcreative.com/blog/10/27/21/public-space-design-with-j-manuel-mansylla-ep-21

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Transcript

Stephanie Eche: 0:01

Welcome to First Coat, where we explore public art, how it's made and why it matters. I'm your host Stephanie Eche, an artist and art consultant based in Brooklyn, New York. I interview artists, cultural producers, designers and funders on how art in public space happens, and how to create more equitable and inclusive projects in public space. I also share my tips on how to curate and commissioned art projects for your business, how I run my art consulting business, Distill Creative, and how I'm developing my own art practice. You can listen to this episode, wherever you listen to podcasts, or watch it on YouTube. If you like what you hear, please leave a review and support this project on Patreon. I produce edit and, well, do everything myself so your support keeps this project going. If you're interested in my art consulting services or artwork, check out distillcreative.com. Thanks so much for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode. This week on First Coat, we have J. Manuel Mansylla also known as Manman. Manman is principal of Fantastica, leading placemaking design and branding projects. Fantastica specializes in transformative projects to vitalize underutilized assets and unlock economic potential. Manman has worked on the creation of the first New York City Department of Transportation, DOT, public plaza in Dumbo is Pearl Street triangle development of the citywide standard for DOT street seats with locations in downtown Brooklyn, Park Slope, Hudson Yards and East New York, the design of outdoor spaces for the Dumbo Heights development in the Brooklyn Tech triangle as well as many other projects. He's also a co-founder of Oonee, a smart, modular, customizable pod that provides secure parking for Scooters and bicycles, as well as public space amenities. Oonee is currently raising money on Republic so, if you're interested, you can find the link in the show notes. In this episode, we talked about how we can co-create more vibrant public spaces, the impact of COVID-19 on public spaces, and how to transform short term public space experiments into long term policies so we can all have better public spaces. If you like this podcast, please let me know by leaving a review and just a reminder, you can also support this podcast on Patreon. Here's our conversation. Thank you so much for being a guest on First Coat. Can you tell us who you are and what you do?

Manuel Mansylla: 2:16

Of course, my name is Manuel Mansylla. People know me as Manman, Manuel Mansylla. M-A-N-M-A-N and I'm a designer and an architect. And I focus mainly on modular toolkits for public spaces. And we can get into that, you know, further as we as we get on with the conversation.

Stephanie Eche: 2:37

What realm would you say that you work in most?

Manuel Mansylla: 2:40

I think public space has been sort of like a, like a recurring theme and sort of like the principal area of focus throughout my career. But we've done our share of, you know, I guess, outdoor outdoor spaces as well in privately on spaces, and, you know, quite a, quite a bit of public artwork as well.

Stephanie Eche: 3:03

How did you start designing for public space?

Manuel Mansylla: 3:05

You know, I was I was I was reading through your questions. And I was I was thinking back at the, you know, what I, what I would call the beginning of my career, at least in New York City was something that I that I kind of fell into, it happened kind of inadvertently, because I guess I've always been interested and fascinated by the intersection of design and public space in a way, you know, this idea of, of people, you know, sort of like enacting their right to be participants in the creation of a city through the creation of either art or public spaces. And so, you know, it was it was around 2008 when I was doing a master's in Urban Design at Pratt, I got my first internship at a at a business improvement district in DUMBO. And so we were talking about doing I mean, placemaking was it was kind of like a new thing back then, right? And so, and that's sort of like, I think it was also a little bit of a zeitgeist of the times that we were going through with some of the other things that were happening, I guess that economic prices also played a big role in people having more time and less resources. I feel like those were very symptomatic, right and suddenly, you know, finding ourselves in a in a neighborhood that that had a community but by many was seen as not a neighborhood right. And and so this idea of starting to create public spaces with very little time and very little resources in a collaborative way is is something that I that I got really interested on early on but but not in a gorilla sort of way you know, but more in a legitimized way. You know where where it was, it was happening through the city agency or agencies, right through the business improvement district, and talking together with, you know, some of the other city agencies like the Department of Transportation or the parks department, right. And so, you know, making them aware of the needs of a new and sort of like growing residential community in a place that was transitioning from the post industrial to a residential. Right. And it was right at that time, because it coincided with with a rezoning of a big chunk of Dumbo at that, at that time.

Stephanie Eche: 5:34

So what was one of the first projects you worked on?

Manuel Mansylla: 5:37

It's funny, I was also thinking about that, and the Pearl Street Triangle seems like, like the epicenter of everything, right. And even today, I guess, if you, if you if you punch in, you know, placemaking, on Google, you'll, you'll get the Pearl Street triangle as one of the top hits, right? It's so bizarre, like, if I think about it, you know, back like, like, a lot of people were very, like, very against the idea of creating a public space, or turning a parking lot into, a public space, right? Like, people were like, "What are you guys trying to do?" First of all, was like, "Where is this?" And "What are you trying to do?" And that their third question is, "Why?" Like, why do you guys want to do this? Like, who would ever want to sit there? Like, who would ever want to spend, you know, a lunch or coffee? You know, at that's in that space? Right? And, and I guess he was, Tucker Reed, my partner who was the head of the Business Improvement District, and Jeanette Sadik-Khan, who was still at the Department of Transportation, who actually, you know, started to talk about this idea. And, and, you know, she saw, it was either because she believed in the idea, or because Tucker wouldn't stop calling her or a combination of two, right? I'm sure it lies somewhere in between, somewhere in the middle, right? And they finally told us all right, go ahead. We'll call it a temporary, you know, a temporary project. And yes, you know, just just go ahead, it's most likely not gonna work. But, you know, it's like, go do it. And it was literally, Tucker, myself, you know, it was somebody to other people at the bid. And we were like, literally painting, you know, that triangle. On a Friday afternoon, we bought like two cases of beer and we invited some of the other community folks to like, comfort some of the other artists and community folks to come and help out. And it became, you know, what I, what I then like to describe as my own definition of placemaking. The way that I think about it is, is you know, this idea of the stone soup, right? It's like, if you're familiar with the story of the stone soup is like this kid who's walking through a forest and knocks on some, you know, some stranger's hut and says, Oh, can I borrow? Can you please, you know, come in and borrow your kitchen, because I want to boil this stone and make myself a stone soup. This old lady's like, what a crazy idea and what a curious little boy, but sure, come in and ask, he's like boiling his stone, or his little rock, he, he's like, Oh, I see that you have some leftover, you know, scallions and, and, and kind of borrow a pinch of salt. And, you know, before you know, it, he's like putting a bunch of things into a soup, and the soup starts to smell really, really good. And the lady starts to get more and more involved. And before you know, she's called her friends. And it becomes a party, right. And so this idea of how you can prompt people with an opportunity to collaborate and start bringing their own thinking and their own resources into a space, right, or a meal, right, and how that sort of like, develops new ideas, new spaces, new events, but more importantly, new connections among people. And I think that those connections are long lasting, and sometimes lasts, you know, even longer, then the spaces or the events themselves, but most of the times are ephemeral, like, here, we are talking, you know, I'm talking about Tucker and Janette Sadik-Khan, you know, we still have these stories that connect us, you know, because of this moment, and this, this space that happened, right, and those connections and those relationships, you know, sometimes out there the spaces even though the Pearl Street Triangle was a very successful space and still is, it's it's very loved and cherished by that community.

Stephanie Eche: 9:23

Yeah, it's definitely my cat's crying. You want to say hi Quique?

Manuel Mansylla: 9:27

Hello!

Stephanie Eche: 9:29

Pearl Street Triangle with something- my office was right by there. So it was something that I really liked going to and it was just such a casual way to be in public space with other people. And I think that's maybe a good it's kind of like with all design like when you don't notice it. That's how you know it's been done really well when it's just really seamless and easy to access and feels really comfortable. And I think Dumbo has been an interesting place more recently because I haven't been over there lately since we've been moved. And I know a lot of people have moved out of the building we were in specifically. So I'm, I'm curious how those spaces are continuing but all the parks around by the water, basically like the socializing that you could be in public space, and you can beautify or kind of make these small upgrades to something that otherwise it's just like concrete or a parking lot sometimes helps create other things around it that now seems so normal in DUMBO, but weren't even expected to be a thing.

Manuel Mansylla: 10:31

Right, not only fill a void, but it also sort of like lurd a very strong boundary, which was the train, right, between, you know, sort of, like, the east and west side of the neighborhood. Right. And, I think that with a lot of the of the more successful examples of placemaking, you know, like, to your question about what is the successful, you know, placemaking project, I think that when it spreads when it becomes contagious, right, because how the Pearl Street Triangle triggered than the opening of the archway, right? Because it became evident, not only that people would go, and that people would use it, and the people would help grow it. Right. But it also, you know, pointed to other opportunities around it, right, like, why not reopen the archways that had been closed for like decades, right. And now, that becomes, you know, another key to this puzzle, right? And how you then start to add the city bikes to it, and, you know, new furniture and new greenery and eventually becomes a capital project, which I believe is going to close one of those two street, either Pearl Street or the other one next to it'll be a real Plaza right? After geez, 20 years or so.

Stephanie Eche: 11:50

Something that started temporary can now be something that will be maintained, for hopefully ever. I like what you said about why not? Like, I think a lot of times these small interventions, help people question why not do this, why not do that, why not try this, as opposed to just not thinking about it, because there are so many spaces that both of us probably walk by every day, or everyone listening probably walks by every day, and you just, you just assume like that's gonna stay closed, or that parking lots always going to be a parking lot, or we're never going to have a park here. But sometimes just doing a small thing can help just be the impetus to get people thinking, why not try this? Which brings me to the DOT Street seats? Can you tell us a little bit about just what is it and what have you done to to work on, to create it and mold that.

Manuel Mansylla: 12:41

Sure. And you know, it's funny, because it's it's all as you'll see, as we as we go through this, you know, interview, it's all part of one story, right? Because what happened was when Tucker moved, from being the BD at the Business Improvement District in DUMBO, he then become the president of the downtown Brooklyn partnership in downtown Brooklyn. Downtown Brooklyn, at the time, this must have been like, 2012, if my memory serves me, right, maybe maybe a little bit later, maybe like 2015. Downtown Brooklyn back then was very different. Right. And so we were really thinking of how we could activate some of the streets that were, you know, you there wasn't really that much going on and downtown Brooklyn, to the nearest like, public space, it didn't have that many public space. So what can we do with all these side streets, right. And so the idea of parklets, which was really going in places like San Francisco, but not so much in New York City, came about, but the way that that folks were thinking about parklets back then was more of like an opportunity to showcase how designers, you know how good designers were right? And so you would see these very beautiful, but very, you know, intricate, sort of, like parklets popping up, you know, in places like San Francisco right, but, but it wasn't, you know, it wasn't anything, you know, at least from what I found at the time, it wasn't anything that could be grown at scale and it wasn't that affordable. You know, it wasn't like, like really cost effective to make such a sophisticated and intricate installation, especially in downtown Brooklyn, we didn't really have that much of a budget for it. So, I started looking at you know, this idea of modularity, right and so, I came up with you know, what I like to call either like a Lego kit approach to parklets right. In the hat, I had some you know, like, like in my mind, I had some like, very basic guidelines, you know, it should be it should be done with with off the shelf components that you know, you most likely would find in like a Home Depot or Lowe's Right? Like it should be put together with very simple tools but someone who is not like highly skilled or training in any way, like anyone with like a power drill should be able to put this thing together, right. And more, most importantly, you shouldn't need to, like chase me down, you know, if you ever need to repair something, or maintain it, like it should be very easy to maintain, and it should be very easy to repair and that those were sort of like the guiding principles to the design. So we put together this proposal to build not one, but three of them, and they weren't not going to be one parking spot long, but twice as long. So you know, it's very, very ambitious, right? Like, we put together these three massive parklets. And we put them, you know, on three parallel streets in downtown Brooklyn, and, you know, it was like, again, it was some of the locations, people were like, why would you put like some seating here, like, who's gonna sit there? It's like the, because this is the streets where you, you didn't see that much people like walking around or doing stuff, right. And so there were a lot of skeptics, right and it was a smashing success, you know, like, every day you would walk by, and you would find people like having lunch there or having coffee or doing a little bit of work. So it was it was really, really successful as a placemaking, or public space activation. And, you know, I think that it was less than a year after we had unveiled those parklets in downtown Brooklyn partnership, that the Department of Transportation, the head of the of the Nick Pierson, who was the head of the of the plaza program at DOT at the time, reached out and said, Manman, we want to work with you in developing a standard design for the street seats program citywide. It really, they really like the design that we have done for the for the Brooklyn partnership, and wanted to sort of like iterate on it, to come up with a design for you know, the city. And that's how we started working together with everyone at the department in a in, you know, something that must have been like a three or four month design engagement so that we could design and build the first three prototypes, I think for the for the standard street seats program that got deployed in East New York.

Stephanie Eche: 17:11

You talked a little bit about guerrilla placemaking initiatives. But why can't people just do whatever they want on a street?

Manuel Mansylla: 17:19

You know, that's a pretty good question. I like the idea of legitimizing some of these processes, just because in my mind, that's how they get codified into policy. That's how they get enacted into medium term and long term decisions about places and communities. So to me, it's it's always been important to do it under the wing of a city agency and in collaboration with other city agencies, right? Because I think that that's how that's how you get long lasting impact when it comes to how these things, you know, go go from temporary or provisional, temporary, to semi permanent to permanent, right.

Stephanie Eche: 18:01

But what are some issues that would come up if everyone were just doing whatever on the street, which, right now is kind of what just happened this past year of restaurants and such. But like, for example, I've noticed more incidents with like getting out of a car, or a cab, an Uber or Lyft. And if the restaurant has their seating out where the parking spaces would be, and there's no protected bike lane, then there's more chance that you're going to hit a biker, if you like, the space for a bicyclist is much smaller, when there aren't regulations about how far out something could be or I mean, obviously, people complain about parking with parklets. Just having less fewer parking spaces when the parking spaces are taken up by things like street seats or parklets, or restaurant seating. Why do you think it's important to have these regulations? Or what what would it prevent? I guess, if we didn't have them?

Manuel Mansylla: 19:02

I look, I've always been, you know, like a big believer that regulations or in this case limitations are only beneficial to, to creativity. It is within those constraints that creativity flourishes. And so I think that, that a lot of thought needs to be needs to go into all of these aspects. And when you and we and when you create a situation, whether willingly or unwillingly, you know, where where anything goes, you then start running into those problems. And that's why it's always been my philosophy to work together with the city and within, you know, the city's constraints to come up with the more distilled no pun intended solution for, you know, these types of approaches, right, which are necessary, it doesn't mean to mean that there they would be limited in any way or that they would be that they would be less than what would come about if those constraints or those limitations or those guidelines weren't there? Right. So it's just a matter of working with them in order to sort of like come up with a with a solution that benefits not one specific industry, but the population at large.

Stephanie Eche: 20:18

How do you think COVID-19 has- well, the pandemic in general, has affected public spaces?

Manuel Mansylla: 20:24

That's a super, that's a really great question. And obviously, I think, you know, folks, like you and me have been thinking about this for a long time, and I don't think that we've seen all the changes that are gonna come out of this, I think we're starting to see some changes, right? Because, you know, I think I think what we've seen so far, you know, like, like, a year and a half into it, is very reactionary is like something that came out of great necessity, right, you know, responding to a crises, and it has led to a lot of, you know, a lot of really good ideas and has, and has proven that a lot of the things that were taboo to the city, suddenly, you know, like things like parking, or the lack of parking, right, or, or things like, you know, sheds or covers over parklets or, or street seats, right, like things that could not be talked about or mentioned before, suddenly, they're okay. And the city didn't go into chaos, or, you know, there was there was no panic because of these things, right. Like, then they sort of like help prove that maybe there is a way to incorporate these things right. Now, on the other hand, you do see a lot of things that were that were put together in a very sort of like, yeah, in a very nilly willy way. And so, a lot of, you know, you see some beautiful examples of design and architecture, right. But in many cases, you see things that are either, they're not great from an aesthetic standpoint, but they're also not safe, you know, from from, like, a structural integrity standpoint, right? And that's something that that is a big no, no, for me, right? It's like, how do you ensure that a lot of these structures are safe? And how do you make sure that they don't, that they're not gonna look like, you know, shanty towns in X number of months or years? Right. And I think that that's really important. And that's, that's why having, you know, specific guidelines and parameters in place is important.

Stephanie Eche: 22:38

Definitely. What do you think is the future of public spaces?

Manuel Mansylla: 22:43

Well, I think just taking that thought, a little bit further, is like, you know, what comes after reactionary? Right, what comes after ephemeral? Right, what comes after, you know, we've had time to sort of, like, analyze, and think through what we've seen so far, as far as everything that has been put forward, how people have reacted to it, how the city has responded, or, or sort of, like, dealt with it, right, in a way? And how do you combine all of that into, you know, new ideas, new designs and new programs, right, either because you're going to create new ones, or you're going to build on existing ones, and just amplify them? Or extend them? Or, or sort of like, iterate on them? Right? And I think, you know, I like to think of it as a sort of like a movie set, right, where right now is sort of, like you're walking through a movie set, and it's a sort of like a resemblance of our reality that could be or will be. And that's really exciting to me, it's like what's gonna come next, once, once the spaces and these sort of, like, modules evolved to, to, in many ways, right, not only from the magical reality of it, right? You know, where you see a lot of things are put together with, with inexpensive materials, and, you know, they're, they're pretty much disposable, like you might mind right, but what is the next sort of like, the the next iteration of that, that look like from from a material standpoint, but also from a user- a user experience standpoint, like to give you one, one example, you know, we're now collaborating with with a really great partner, where we are building an outdoor dining structure, designing an outdoor dining structure that will be shared, you know, between a wine bar next door in a coffee shop, you know, and they're thinking about incorporating things like bike, bike racks, or bike parking, and also, you know, like trash receptacles, like something like your trash corral, right. And so the idea of adding more features to it, and also sharing it with other users or other activities or you uses is very exciting to me, as far as how I see the the evolution of what may come next.

Stephanie Eche: 25:08

Yeah, going from that temporary to semi permanent and then having more shared infrastructure. I'm, I'm excited to hopefully see more outdoor working opportunities. I think that's something that has always been, I don't know just kind of ignored, like, no electricity, no internet in the outdoor area. And so it's hard to spend more time there. But now that we can kind of spend more time in a space creating more like weatherproof areas where you have like an indoor outdoor experience, which you know, in other places is very normal, but in New York City is not because of our weather, but I was just in Mexico City and it's like, literally everywhere you can be inside, outside, semi-inside semi-outside, and it's it's just their climate is more conducive to, to that kind of design where you can actually invest in that kind of space, because it's, you're not going to get snowed on every year. But at the same time, they still deal with a lot of rain. But it also doesn't get very cold ever. So I think in some ways, New York City has more we just have more parameters to deal with and how we create spaces that are outdoors or semi outdoor spaces.

Manuel Mansylla: 26:24

Yeah. And my other partner Viviane Liao always says there's no such thing as bad weather. There's just that clothing. But yes, to your point, I think the idea of bringing power to some of these outdoor installations or modules, and, and you know, that leads to some other really exciting opportunities, right, because I think that the connection with other activities such as outdoor, you know, work and or outdoor exercising, right, and it's exciting, but I think it's there's another, another opportunity with how these things tie into micro mobility, that I think it's really, really exciting. And so some of the work that we're doing with our sister company Oonee is also super exciting, right? And we'll see some very exciting updates coming in the in the near future with that one, as well.

Stephanie Eche: 27:19

Do you want to talk about fast casual?

Manuel Mansylla: 27:21

Yeah, in line with these modular outdoor activity toolkits, we've created one that is specifically geared towards the restaurant industry. But also, you know, there's possibility of doing outdoor work, you know, like an outdoor office, as well, you know, which I think has a lot of potential, like, you were saying, you know, why couldn't there be these types of modules where you can, you know, sit down, do some work you, you have, you know, a charger for your computer or your phone, right, and you have, you know, a nice, comfortable desk to sit on, and some shape right, during the warmer months. So we designed this flexible activity module coasts called PASS schedule. And, you know, the idea there is, how can you create such an amenity that, you know, people would want to hold on to, as opposed to, you know, the disposable version of it, and have it redeployed, you know, every season pretty much like how you do it with street seats or a parklet. And so instead of thinking, what can I do as fast and when with as little money as possible, and then I'm either going to have to keep retrofitting it or adding to it or taking from it because, you know, it's funny how in looking how the evolution of by woodshed, right is it went from, you know, like a plywood parklet to a plywood shed to a winter log cabin. And every time they would, you will see the same couple of guys coming with more and more plywood, adding or taking from it because then you know, once the the year came around, you know, it's like, now they're taking off layers. So they're either taking panels off or they're taking the roof off or so it's funny how that evolution so instead of seeing that, where you have these sort of like Frankensteins, it's all over the place is like one system that is that is additive that is designed to change with the season or change with a user. And, you know, to be adaptable. To give you one example, we've had this one instance with with one of our locations where the DOT had to have to repave Broadway, so everybody on Broadway and that stretch of Broadway had to move literally move their outdoor dining structures in like, you know, a couple of days right hours to five hours to move it and we actually moved it to the side side street and it was fine. It was is designed for that but a lot of the outdoor dining structures you know, were were either you know, damaged or completely destroyed because they're not designed to be moved like that.

Stephanie Eche: 30:00

Do you have any deployed right now?

Manuel Mansylla: 30:01

Yes, we have a coffee shop called, Foreigner, in our own district. We have one in Krispy Kreme in Thai Square with the 48th Street location. And we have another one at the Daily Provisions in the Upper West Side on 78th and Amsterdam, and we have a couple more coming, that will be announced in the next couple of weeks later in the fall.

Stephanie Eche: 30:22

Awesome. Well, I'll definitely put links to those addresses and to Fast Casual in the show notes so people can check it out. Given your your work in public space, how would you define a really good public space? Or what should every public space have?

Manuel Mansylla: 30:35

That's a really good question. I mean, let me put it this way, the spaces that I like to hang out in will be very diverse in nature, like when you see a combination of all kinds of folks like doing all kinds of activities, and people really making their own little version of a public space, right. And what that means is using it in their own personal, intimate way, is what I think counts for a good public space. Right. But there's also something to be said about the design. And you mentioned something about design that is good is just sort of like becomes invisible. But there's, there's a lot to be said about programming. And we touched on it a little bit before when you were saying, oh, you know, what is it about guerrilla that that you don't like, right? And and I think programming is something that is sometimes overlooked when it comes to placement, because as designers, and I'm sure you know this we take a lot of heat sometimes when when people say, oh, you know, but you were involved in the design of this public space and now it's, it's led to all of these, like negative uses and negative aspects in our neighborhood. It's like, yeah, but that has absolutely nothing to do with my design, it has to do with the programming of the space, you guys forgot about it. Nobody, you know, nobody ever went back and attained it or made sure to activate it in a positive way. And so it's taken over by negative, you know, activities and negative uses. Right. And so, I think that back to, you know, what, what becomes a successful or positive public space is something that, you know, is constantly activated with good uses and good programming, basically.

Stephanie Eche: 32:18

Right. Yeah. And that takes money, which I think is something that is sometimes maybe not forgotten, but pushed till the end of the budget, right. Like there's, there's this budget upfront for the design, and implementation, but then it's not thought about, like what happens in one year, two years, three years, five years, and both from a maintenance perspective for any any kind of structure or public art or anything, but then, especially programming, I mean, ideally, you would have this thriving space, that kind of programs on its own, but even a place like Washington Square Park has, like 2030 little groups that do their own programming. And that's why it's so activated. It's not, it may not be like a city run thing necessarily, or one bid running the whole thing. But it's these little pockets of groups creating their own little communities that make it so vibrant. And I think it takes stirring the pot to actually get that going. And usually that that takes money to actually start not that you need a lot of money to do programming, but you need, you need at least a person who was going to want to create activities in the space. And something that I've seen a lot of space in that I've done myself in spaces is just utilizing the existing communities because there's always a community in any place, and usually many different communities doing things like the soccer club is there, like kids need a place to play soccer, or there's a group of moms that want to have like, baby play time, or just there's a yoga studio down the street. And all of these people usually would love the opportunity to use a public space. It's just, it's one of those like, why not things where you don't really think about it. And then once you see someone doing yoga in t e park, you're like, oh, yeah we should, we should also do y ga in the park. But then some people might think like, well do I need a permit? Or like am I allowed to do that. And n every place, it's diff rent, but just having that pers n who actually does the thin, I think can really help othe people start doing things, whic is one way to get around not aving a large budget of prog amming, just utilizing what exis s in the area. Yeah. What are ome resources that have help d you along the way in doin what you do?

Manuel Mansylla: 34:31

You know, just an insatiable curiosity, to hear other people's thoughts on something, you know, because I think that to your previous question, right, or to your previous point about programming, right, I think that, you know, what I've always enjoy about placemaking or my own placemaking projects is, is this sort of like booby trap quality to them, right? It's like, prompting what that means is like the act of like prompting people with an opportunity to get involved in the creation of a space or a thing, right. And so what that happens is, you know, you oftentimes you get surprised with, with folks who maybe you've never been asked and suddenly come up with, like, brilliant ideas, right? But when those ideas are enacted, then you have a collabor tor, you have, you know, yo have a steward for life for that space, right. And I think hat that, you know, goes a l ng way, right, because as a des gner, I'm going to, I'm going to leave, I'm going to move on o my next project. But if a gro p of people, these local ch mpions, you know, that you were mentioning, take ownershi of the space, they'll make sur to not only demonstr te the positive uses, but to b, you know, very opiniona ed, about, you know, not usin it in a in a negative way. And I think that that's, that's, hat's really important. So this dea of, of using placemak ng, as an excuse to bring pe ple together so that they can share their ideas, and then tho e ideas, you know, will sort of ike plant the seeds to whatever what will happen in that spa e is, is what I would call, yo know, an important resource right? So, use people as resou ces.

Stephanie Eche: 36:21

Definitely. Is there anything that you've read or listened to, or watched th t's inspired you recen

Manuel Mansylla: 36:27

Yeah, I do quite a fair bit amount of people watching and you know, what I walk the streets and look Well, thank you so much for chatting with us, chatting with at, you know, how how folks are going about their day, and the sort of like ideas and creativity that are seen in the reason, months is really inspirational to me, you know, in terms of how much people have adapted, and have had changed their lifestyles and their ways of commuting and being outside and being with their families and sort of like, absorbing, me today. I'm excited for everyone to hear this interview. experiencing and using their neighborhoods is very inspiring to me. And I think that that will, that will lead to, but it's already leading to a sort of Renaissance when it comes to how cities are going to shape themselves in the not so distan future. And I think, you know, here's some really big change And where can our listeners find you online? coming, when it comes to micro obility and how people are mo ing in cities, that is going o be really, really exciti g. You guys can go to any of the Fantastica, like Fantastica Brooklyn, on Instagram, there's a lot more coming with Oonee on od pot. And I think that's also a good place to follow, you know, the work and projects. But you know, an email saying hello, also works.

Stephanie Eche: 37:55

Awesome. Well, I'll put those links in the show notes. Thank you again. It's been great to chat.

Manuel Mansylla: 38:01

It was super cool to talk to you, Stephanie. Keep up the good work, okay?

Stephanie Eche: 38:05

Thanks for listening to this episode of First Coat. If you like this podcast, please leave a review. Make sure to subscribe to the First Coat podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and follow us on Instagram @firstcoatpodcast or @distillcreative. First Coat is a production of my company Distill Creative. Check us out at distillcreative.com