08/22/2026
Southside Macon was one of the largest food deserts in the country. Within four of the county’s most distressed census tracts, a community that was 90% Black faced economic hardship, deteriorating housing, and little access to fresh food. But within the community, another future was beginning to take root.
Led by a third-generation resident, the community imagined an urban farm that could transform blighted properties into productive ground, without displacement.
Our work began there, drawing from the people, the place, and a rich legacy of growing, looking to the community’s own history for the seeds of its future.
The proposed pavilion became the threshold to this new landscape. Framing from abandoned houses would be reclaimed and lifted overhead, transforming remnants of decline into shelter, shade, and a place to gather.
To find abundance within scarcity.
To find value in what had been discarded.
To transform what needed to change into a symbol of what could be.
The act of tearing down becomes an act of creation.
