As the most beloved open space in Strawberry Mansion, the Mander Recreation Center provides a range of amenities that this project aims to amplify and expand on: a place to gather, a place to play, a place to celebrate, and a crossing place. Our team first engaged Strawberry Mansion residents through a celebratory event, the I Love Mander Block Party, to better understand what makes Mander a treasured space. Through several events at Mander, we developed a communal vision to expand programming throughout the site, shape the landscape to make sports and play central to the campus, and honor the history of the site and the memories of its people.

To honor local heroes, the memorial fountain features a poem about Joseph Mander and John Coltrane’s musical sketches inspired the paving and wayfinding system for the site. The resulting plan established the campus as a legible welcome mat to the neighborhood with stronger connections to the broader Fairmount Park and expanded programming of Mander’s critical after-school youth program.