The Front Porch Project
Front Porch Project - A Placemaking project by Downtown Wichita
Sarah Myose & Chiyoko Myose
The Front Porch at Old Mill Tasty Shop "Celebration of Dream" &
Mini Old Mill Tasty Shop Library
A Collaboration with a Restaurant
Place: Old Mill Tasty Shop at 604 E. Douglas Ave, Wichita, KS 67202
Materials:
Plywood Sheets, sun sail shades, a deck (built by Farha Construction), miniature Dutch mill paddles (crafted by NMW Crafts), paints, webbings, and hardware. Little library (built by Wall to Wall Woodworks),paints, vinyl letters, acrylic boards
My daughter Sarah and I were selected as one of the creatives for the project called Front Porch Project founded by Downtown Wichita for the year of 2022.
We're paired with Old Mill Tasty Shop, a Wichita's beloved restaurant. The restaurant is located in the middle of Wichita Design District on the Douglas Street. The restaurant is family-owned and it's like a family for the people in Wichita. The food is all homemade and excellent. It opened in 1932 and they are cerebrating 90 years in 2022.
We designed the Front Porch according to Old Mill's request for an outdoor seating space. With the help of the local construction company, Farha Construction, we created a Front Porch that would be enjoyed by the community of Wichita.
We call it, "Celebration of Dream," because we believe a long-running business might have been the owners' dream come true. Old Mill is a family friendly place, so we kept it in our mind to create a design that invites children as well and hoped it will be inspiring to them to have dreams. The design also represents the city of Wichita as a good "home" where we see good businesses and the people of the community who support them. While the porch stays there for one year, we hope people can visit Old Mill to have their delicious foods and congratulate them. Not just for eating at Old Mill, everybody is welcome to the porch for seating.
In 2023, we added a Little Free Library for the community to take a book and share a book, following the international movement of "Little Free Library".
The Front Porch Project is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Knight Foundation Fund at the Wichita Community Foundation for the project.