1. Service Center
Indianapolis, Indiana
www.bigcar.org
Description
Service Center is an abandoned Sears auto repair shop that has been turned into a venue for
art education, performance, and a large community garden.
Citizen Role
A team of dedicated volunteers take charge of weeding, planting, spreading mulch and
compost, and educating passerby on their methods, techniques, and results. Other volunteers
maintain the building itself, which is in the process of being converted to a structure that is more
suited to the organization’s purpose.
Degrees of Involvement
Service Center obviously requires a dedicated volunteer network in order that the space
function properly. However, an agreement must be made with the property owners of the
abandoned space in order for the building and surrounding parking lot is to be used. Therefore,

2. real estate and its market are directly related to this project.
Contact Person Responsibilities:
Contact persons must not only instruct volunteers, but emark on the challenge of creating trust
between the Chinese and Latin cultures existent in the city and whose neighborhoods directly
bound the Service Center site. Contact people must be excellent communicators and sell their
ideas to a serious audience, into which is embedded a series of social abnormalities the garden
seems to somehow interrupt.
Public Role
Citizens of Milan have an opportunity that has not existed since WWII, when Piazza del Duomo
was converted to a victory garden. The chance to garden, the chance to grow produce is not so
much about practicality or produce, but rather questioning the capitalistic and feudalistic ways
the city (and country) are being governed. Citizen participation in this organized guerilla garden
are making a statement Italy desperately needs to be made.
Service Diagram
Enabling Systems
One of main reasons this project came about was because of the blatant decline of the
Northwest side of Indianapolis, not to mention the closing of a shopping mall that was at once
high class. If the system of urban decline can be an enabling system, then this is certainly the
case.

3. Role of Digital Environment
Service Center relies heavily on its digital presence, as its location along a major street prevents
passerby from really beginning to understand the importance of this project. A website run by a
set of passionate collaborators has become necessary to understand what is being shown.
Background / History
Service Center has taken the place of an automotive repair center located in a mall known as
Lafayette Square -- or to some as Lafayette Scare. The city has long been uncertain about
what to do with this large, sprawling expanse of pavement and lack of vegetation to balance
your morning with something.
Public & Collaborative Services: Case Study
Neighborhood Care: Christopher Patten