A public performance space created from recycled and repurposed materials.

Could we repurpose the existing automobile material production and waste stream to create a public performance space?  I sketched a vision of a stack of automobiles welded together to create a classic bandshell shape. A team of designers, engineers, fabricator and friends made this vision a reality.

The Panhandle Bandshell is a full-scale performance stage constructed almost entirely out of reclaimed and repurposed materials, including 65 automobile hoods, hundreds of computer circuit boards, 3,000 plastic water bottles, French doors, reclaimed wood, and recycled structural steel. As a fully modular structure, it can easily be dismantled, moved and re-assembled anywhere.

The Panhandle Bandshell was a collaboration between BRAF, The Finch Mob, REBAR Group, CMG Landscape Architecture and the North of the Panhandle Neighborhood Association (NOPNA).

From June 23, 2007 to September 3, 2007, it was installed in San Francisco’s Panhandle Park, where it was open for both impromptu and scheduled performances. The Bandshell was dismantled on September 14, 2007 and moved to Treasure Island for winter storage. In the summer of 2009, it started a new life at a second location at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center, where it played host to countless performances and gatherings over the course of the next year and a half. 

Collaborators

Matthew Passmore, Blaine Merker (Rebar), The Finch Mob, CMG Landscape Architecture, Black Rock Arts Foundation

Dozens of friends and volunteers, thank you!