Bringing the World to Lake Worth presented by Palm Beach State College Students of Architecture

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It's always interesting to see what young people are up to these days and we got to do that last night at the Shuffleboard Court Building where three teams of architecture from Palm Beach State College gave us their views of Lake Worth well into the future. They were all given the same land site, our 19 acre beachfront property, to design as if it were raw in order to use their imagination on what would make Lake Worth stronger.

The science fiction genre is diverse. Obviously, inspired by Sci-Fi movies, video games, and even Dubai and Disney World, their assignment was to make our city more appealing to a larger and even more diverse group of people by connecting us physically, culturally and globally. Commissioner Mulvehill mentioned that already we have 67 languages spoken at Lake Worth High School, so the residents already here fit into their "diverse" mold.

They want visitors to interact with the natural environment but want to change that natural look and create mountains, rain forests even going so far as to remodel and move the pier. Giving examples of accessibility versus exclusivity, one team suggested taking out all of the parking at our beach/park even the streets on Lake and Lucerne between Federal and Dixie and put in green. This concept, if ever remotely implemented, would eventually keep everyone away because of impracticality. People want easy access and want to park close to where they are going whether it be the beach or shopping. One citizen even agreed about taking out all beach parking.

It was stated that most people want to leave Lake Worth to experience the world, but the students want to bring the world to Lake Worth, a highly dense small city with no land in which to build unless it is the landfill as suggested by Jack Simons. He also suggested that some of the designs could be used on small pockets on 6th Avenue South or 10th Avenue North, gateways into our city. With some artistic futuristic ideas, their objective was to allow us to enjoy our city even more by pretending that we are somewhere else. People who come to Lake Worth are seeking exactly what we have here--a laid back lifestyle with a fabulous beach, 18 hole golfcourse, a walkable city with a vibrant downtown and a great Bryant Park...but who knows what the futuristic population will desire.

I will say that it was an interesting presentation through the eyes of youth. Many times throughout it I kept saying to myself, "Is this for real?" I give the students an A for creativity and purity of thought. Architecture should also encompass the pragmatic aspects of design which were somewhat missing. Through their enthusiasm, flair and intrepid boldness, they formed futuristic images of Lake Worth most of which were not present in reality or practicality. But you never know about the future--some people said that we would never land on the Moon.