Valley of the Sunflowers

A special trip we made during my time at GGP was taking the long walk down to 3rd St. and Garfield to Kitchen Sink studios. There we met the historic preservation advocate, Jim McPherson, and the art and park advocate, Dorina Bustamante. As we spoke about their roles in Phoenix, we walked down to a previously vacant lot down the street. A lot behind Bioscience High School was vacant and, through much effort and hard work, was transformed into a sunflower lot, name Valley of the Sunflowers. This project is meant to start up conversation about vacant lots in downtown Phoenix and how they can easily be filled by temporary uses, while waiting to be developed. The sunflower seeds of the flowers being grown on the lot will be used to extract oil, which will then be used for an automobile that Bioscience High School students are building. Currently, there are a number of initiatives taking place that revolve around vacant lots, including the Ro2 lot or "The Lot: What Should Go Here?", where Mayor Stanton discussed the need to temporary projects on vacant lots.