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After a nonprofit coalition bought the former Sugar Shack strip club in the Cully neighborhood last year, more than 1,000 residents showed up at a community meeting to discuss future plans for the property, which totals approximately two acres.

Anna Gordon, outreach coordinator for the Living Cully group, knew then that plans should be up to the residents, so she gathered neighborhood kids to participate in the design process.

Living Cully was formed in 2010 as a collaboration of four nonprofits: Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East, Hacienda Community Development Corp., Native American Youth and Family Center and Verde. Living Cully, according to its website, 鈥渞einterprets sustainability as an anti-poverty strategy by concentrating environmental investments at the neighborhood scale and braiding those investments with traditional community development resources.鈥�

Gordon said no decision has been made about the existing building on the property, but plans were sought for 20,000 square feet of the site. She engaged Alex Salazar of Salazar Architects Studio to oversee the design 鈥� but with input from around 40 kids.

To begin the process, Gordon said, Living Cully held four planning workshops with students in neighborhood after-school programs.

鈥淭hey had kind of a brainstorm and voted on top ideas and then came back and did design charettes,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e placed different elements on the site and then came back and modeled what the final design would look like.鈥�

Portland Parks & Recreation also helped, Gordon said, by arranging a field trip for the students to five area parks.

鈥淭he director of parks (Mike Abbate) came with us and interacted with the kids,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t was a great opportunity to learn about landscape architecture, and Alex talked about being an architect, giving them exposure to career opportunities.鈥�

Salazar, who has been in practice in Portland for about a year and a half, was point person working with the students, he said. He has taught architecture at schools including Portland State University and the University of California, Berkeley.

鈥淢y task was to determine what we could do with the site and involve the kids in the process,鈥� he said.

Salazar also involved the Center for Public Interest Design at PSU. Its staff helped run the design charettes.

All students, including a group of skateboarders in the parking lot, were invited to participate. The students, mostly from middle schools and high schools, didn’t agree on everything at first, Gordon said, but they learned to compromise.

鈥淎 big group wanted a skate area and another group had wanted a basketball court for a long time, so there was a little bit of tension,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut we incorporated them in the design and they collaborated.鈥�

Some of the girls in the design charette also wanted a garden area, and that was incorporated as well, Gordon said.

鈥淚 think it was a great community-building exercise for them, and they learned to respect each other,鈥� she said.

Living Cully bought the Sugar Shack property at 6739 N.E. Killingsworth St. after a successful crowdfunding campaign last year that raised $54,000 and helped secure financing for the $2.75 million purchase.

No money is available for construction yet, Gordon said, but eventually plans will be finalized and work will take place in phases.

鈥淲e don’t have money to build this, and it will be baby steps at the beginning,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t’s not a done deal, but this has been a great project, a need in the community and it’s been great to have an opportunity to (involve youths in the) design.鈥�

To help publicize the effort to design the small park, Gordon said the entire process involving Salazar and the students 鈥� including their tour of city parks 鈥� was recorded. The video will be shown to community groups and others who want to help the redevelopment project.

鈥淚t’s still tentative, what came out of the youth workshops, and (the final design) might not include all those things, but it’s been a great design process and we’ll be showing it to people who might be able to partner with us,鈥� Gordon said.