Community-made canopy project aims to spotlight Sunny Slope memories and urban heat

At a Sunny Slope Community Center gathering, an unnamed landscape architect described Reflections on Sunny Slope, a collaborative project that will install a canopy and resident-designed flags to highlight neighborhood memories and challenges related to urban heat. "Reflections on Sunny Slope is a collaborative project based on residents memories and their ideas about, what the natural environment means to them and how it defines their community," the landscape architect said. The project team worked with people at the Sunny Slope Community Center; participants answered questions on cards about their memories, outdoor activities and how they cope with urban heat, then made drawings or wrote sentences that will appear on the flags. "So everyone made drawings or wrote sentences on the flags which are gonna be installed, on the structure," the presenter said. The canopy will be covered by a synthetic mesh material—described by the presenter as the same type used to make swimwear and leggings—which the presenter said is UV-resistant and will be coated with a fire-retardant finish. "The mesh that goes over the top of the canopy is a synthetic mesh that is normally used to make swimwear or leggings. It's a UV resistant material and then it's also gonna be coated with a fire retardant coating," the landscape architect said. Project organizers said they hope the installation will prompt residents to notice and discuss natural features in the neighborhood and view heat as a shared environmental challenge. "Hopefully, we'll inspire people to think about environmental challenges like heat as sort of a a common challenge and something that is in the interest of me and the people that I care about, you know, to solve," the presenter said. Timing for installation, funding sources and permitting requirements were not specified in the presentation. The project was developed in collaboration with the Sunny Slope Community Center.