Vacant storefronts are an urban mainstay. But while passersby may dream of what they wish would fill the void, rarely do they get any say in the matter. Combining street art and city planning, I Wish This Was is an interactive public art project that invites residents to voice their ideas about improving the neighborhood. Trained in architecture, graphic design, and urban planning, Candy Chang posts grids of blank stickers on vacant buildings so that residents can write their thoughts on future use, provid- ing a fun, low-barrier tool to spark civic engagement and a way to showcase the city’s collective imagination. The project was launched in New Orleans, but stickers are available online and have been appearing in cities around the world.
- Projects
- 61st Street Farmers Market
- 78th Street Play Street
- 596 Acres
- 1415
- ACTIVATE!
- Air Quality Egg
- AirCasting
- Amphibious Architecture
- Aquaponics Container System
- Art in Odd Places
- ARTfarm
- Astoria Scum River Bridge
- Bartering and Sharing Networks
- Bat Cloud
- Bench Press
- Better Block
- BK Farmyards
- Brooklyn Night Bazaar
- Bubbleware
- Building Projections
- Bunchy Carter Park for the People
- By the City/For the City
- Campito
- Cart Coop
- chainlinkGREEN
- Chair-bombing
- Chicago Rarities Orchard Project
- City Farm
- The City from the Valley
- City Sensing: Signal Spaces
- Cleveland Bridge Project
- Come Out & Play Festival
- Community Living Room
- Crown Heights Participatory Urbanism
- Cut.Join.Play.
- Day Labor Station
- Depave
- Dérive App
- Detroit, Demolition, Disneyland
- Dream It. Grow It.
- Eco-Playground
- Edible Estates
- Edible Schoolyard
- Edible Wall
- Faubourg St. Roch Project
- Field Guide to Phytoremediation
- Flint Public Art Project
- For Squat / Reuben Kincaid Realty
- Fresh Moves Mobile Market
- Ghost Bikes
- GOOD Ideas for Cities
- Grassroots Mapping
- Greenaid Seedbomb Vending Machine
- Guerrilla Bike Lanes
- Guerrilla Drive-Ins
- Guerrilla Gardening
- Guerrilla Grafters
- Harvest Dome
- Holding Pattern
- Hypothetical Development Organization
- I Wish This Was
- ICE-POPS
- Iluminacción
- Imagination Playground
- Imaging Detroit
- Insert____Here
- Intersection Repair
- Islands of LA
- Kingshighway Skatepark
- KISS Popup Chapel
- LA Green Grounds
- Legal Waiting Zone
- LentSpace
- LightLane
- Linden Living Alley
- Local Code: Real Estates
- Local Previews
- Making Policy Public
- Marcus Prize Pavilion
- Mobile Dumpster Pools
- Moving Design: Civic Intervention
- Museum of the Phantom City
- MyBlockNYC
- Neighborland
- New Public Sites
- NY Street Advertising Takeover
- No Longer Empty
- Notes for Anyone
- Occupy Wall Street
- OpenPlans
- Paintings for Satellites
- Parking Plot
- Parklets
- Parkman Triangle Park
- Parkmobiles
- Participation Park
- People Make Parks
- Periscope Project
- Phone Booth Book Share
- PHS Pops-Up Garden
- Piazza Gratissima
- Pixelator
- Place It!
- Place Pulse
- Placemaking in Bronzeville
- Pop Up City
- Pop Up Lunch
- Pop-Up Art Loop
- Popularise: Build Your City
- popuphood
- Post Furniture
- Power Cart
- Power House
- proxy
- PUPstop Project
- QR_Hobo_Codes
- Queens Boulevard Intervention
- re:NEWS
- Red Swing Project
- San Francisco Garden Registry
- SeeClickFix
- Serendipitor
- Skipping Only Zones
- Soil Kitchen
- Spatial ConTXTs
- Stairway Stories
- Streetfilms
- Syracuse Downtown
- Tactical Urbanism Handbook
- TrafficCOM
- Ten New Historical Markers
- TERRITORY
- TreeKIT
- Trees, Cabs and Crime in San Francisco
- The Uni
- Version Festival 12
- Visionary Chicago
- Walk Raleigh: Guerrilla Wayfinding
- War Gastronomy: Recipes of Relocation
- #whOWNSpace
- Yarnbombing
- Teams
Candy Chang / Civic Center
I Wish This Was
New Orleans and anywhere
2010 to present
Community, Economy, Information, Pleasure
150 – 500 stickers, 20 permanent markers and poster putty
4 weeks – posting stickers, documenting responses, adding stickers, posting responses online
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Problem - disengaged public with unmet needs
Solution - stickers for sharing desires on vacant storefronts