After almost a decade of active co-creation and space transformation, our work at NOW Hunters Point has wound down as PG&E plans for longer-term development. To close this chapter meaningfully, Envelope and Studio O partnered with Kristin Damrow & Company to create a site-specific, community-driven dance performance and art installation entitled An Intentional Shift.

The work uses the stories, quotes and data generated through the past decade of work on site, along with additional community voices gathered through a series of events, workshops and focus groups. An Intentional Shift retells this narrative of place, exploring how communities inhabit space, how space influences bodies, how design can bring communities together, and how history is held in individual and collective bodies. Through movement, the artists inhabit reflections on community responses to history and stories from the cityscapes of the Bayview Hunters Point, and more specifically, NOW Hunters Point. In addition to KDC, the performance included a piece by local artist Malik Seneferu, local performance groups Feline Finesse and Prescott Family Circus, and audio recollections by local leaders from the StoryCorps seriesundefined

Rarely do designers of activation projects have the opportunity or take the time to be as intentional about how they leave a site as they were about how they occupied it. We hope the history of NOW Hunters Point becomes a living part of the community, and that participants and witnesses alike feel empowered to continue efforts toward activism and spatial justice.