Pop-up West Harlem!

Pop-Up West Harlem is an initiative offering pop-up reading rooms, drawing stations, and other cultural and educational amenities in the public spaces of West Harlem. With support from the West Harlem Development Corporation in 2019, Street Lab was able to pop-up ten times, creating new ways for residents to gather, enhancing the streetscape, and making neighborhood spaces more welcoming to all—especially children, women, and families. Scroll down to see more of our work in West Harlem across the years, and stay tuned for more to come in 2020.

2019 Highlights

Pop-up reading rooms
Weekend Walk Street Festivals
Amsterdam Ave at 139th St

Pop-up urban nature exhibit
Johnny Hartman Plaza
W 143rd St

EXPLORE urban birds!
Weekend Walk Street Festivals
Hamilton Place at W142nd St

Pop-up drawing studios
Johnny Hartman Plaza
W 143rd St

Pop-up drawing studios
Jacob H. Schiff Playground
Amsterdam Ave.

BUILD NYC
Building together
St. Nicholas Park

Look back at our work in West Harlem over the years

Uni at play streets. Booyah!

Uni at play streets. Booyah!

This summer, we created regular pop-up reading rooms at six different play streets in Harlem, the Bronx, and Brooklyn. Play streets are just what they sound like—streets closed to traffic so kids can play and get physical exercise. In NYC, the Uni Project is...

Uni at West Harlem Play Street, 2014

Uni at West Harlem Play Street, 2014

Every Thursday in July and August 2014, we deployed the Uni reading room to a play street at Broadway and W 137th St run by Harvest Home next to their farmers' market. Learn more about our ongoing effort at play streets. Made possible by a generous grant from Shippy...

Uni returns to West Harlem Play Street with Harvest Home

Uni returns to West Harlem Play Street with Harvest Home

This summer we're starting to develop a circuit through NYC neighborhoods so our pop-up reading room can begin to have a deeper impact. We're relying on partnerships with organizations like second time to West Harlem with Harvest Home. Thanks to Harvest Home's Play...

New Uni Cart brings books to West Harlem Play Street

New Uni Cart brings books to West Harlem Play Street

The Uni went to a West Harlem Play Street/Farmers' Market run by the nonprofit Transportation Alternatives. Thanks to Amelia Carver and Emily Jacobson for staffing the Uni at this location. We also used this deployment to continue road testing our new design: a Uni...