What is SolarPunk Park?

Some more info about SolarPunk Park:

Welcome to SolarPunk Park, a place where people can connect with nature and create meaningful experiences for their local communities.

We have three main focus areas: Projects, Partnerships, and Events.

Our first project is the Butterfly Garden at Radio Hill, a hillside area in Los Angeles that has become neglected over the years. Our goal is to transform this forgotten park into a thriving and inviting nature space by cleaning up the area and planting a Butterfly Garden. Students from nearby universities have volunteered to help us with this project, which we plan to complete in 2023.

In addition to our projects, we also partner with organizations and companies that share our vision of building a SolarPunk world.

Our first partnership is with Jupe, a company that designs innovative and immersive dwellings for exploring the natural world. With Jupe, visitors to SolarPunk Park can experience the beauty of nature in a unique and memorable way.

Our second partnership is with Tomato Bucket, who is solving a major problem by creating semi hydroponic gardening systems at the lowest cost and

Finally, we host a variety of events at SolarPunk Park, including workshops, concerts, and more. These events provide opportunities for people to learn, have fun, and connect with others in a beautiful outdoor setting.

So come visit SolarPunk Park and discover all the wonderful ways you can connect with nature and your community.

Project #1: Butterfly Garden at Radio Hill

Radio Hill is a peaceful hillside area featuring pathways & panoramic views of Downtown Los Angeles.

Over the past few years, Radio Hill has become isolated, degraded, and neglected. It’s a shame that it’s in such an under-kept condition…

Radio Hill is located next to nature-deficient Downtown Los Angeles. It showcases some excellent views that surely many Angeloneans would enjoy if the park were transformed into something more welcoming.

With this project, we want to bring new life to Radio Hill by cleaning up the place and planting a Butterfly Garden near the top of the hill. This butterfly garden will inspire more people to visit this forgotten park and experience the beautiful views of Los Angeles that have long been overlooked.

Students from the University of Southern California, University of California Los Angeles, and Occidental College have volunteered to help us transform Radio Hill Gardens by assisting us with picking up all of the trash on the hill and helping us to plant native Milkweed plants for the butterflies to thrive.

We aim to complete this project in the Fall of 2022 and provide a newly inviting nature space for all of Los Angeles to come and enjoy.

Partnerships

SolarPunk Park partners with organizations and companies that align with our vision of building a SolarPunk world together. Since our launch in January 2022, we have established our first partnership with Jupe.

Partnership #1: Jupe

Jupe is a dwelling bedroom inspired by the stars, designed by SpaceX engineers as a vessel for exploring new frontiers in the deepest realms of nature. Jupe isn’t just a place to stay; it’s your base camp for exploring this world.

Why Jupe and SolarPunk Park have partnered together

In March 2022, Jeff Wilson, a co-founder at Jupe, reached out to SolarPunk Park, stating that he was a fan of what we are doing and is a SolarPunk himself. After a few days of messaging back and forth, Jeff and I hopped on a call and got to know each other. We quickly discovered that our two organizations had a similar mission and that we were a perfect fit to work together. Jeff threw out an idea, “What if we create SolarPunk Parks for people to visit around the US and let people stay in Jupes while at the park?” our minds nearly exploded, and we were stoked to begin the process of doing this. Furthermore, Jeff needed a digital growth marketer who could help spread the vision of Jupe, and that’s where our partnership began to take form. SolarPunk Park is now managing Jupe’s social media assets and effectively growing them in various regions around the US, with plans of doing it globally in the future. Our team has helped to craft content and grow their digital pages, and as of August 2022, we have already gotten Jupe to over 20,000 new supporters across Instagram and Twitter alone.

While we are helping Jupe and pollinating the internet with more SolarPunk ideals, we are also in the process of curating the experience for our guests at SolarPunk Park. Shortly, SolarPunks will be able to book time at one of our parks and immerse themselves in nature, outdoor activities, and creative projects alongside other SolarPunks.

Events

At our location in Downtown Los Angeles, we frequently host events for artists, students, educators, and entrepreneurs to come together, eat local food, and have conversations about building a better world for ourselves and the future of our planet.

Art Classes

“Art + Plants Event” - SolarPunk Park partnered with P.O.P. Productions to host an art class where visitors learned from two professional art teachers how to sketch a model’s figure.

Meetups

We host artists, entrepreneurs, and students from all over southern California on Sundays and discuss environmentalism, technology, art, business, and architecture topics.

Food Pop-Ups

Chef Carlos Acquez is the founder of Birria Pa La Cruda, a Mexican chef who uses local ingredients with eco-friendly packaging. Carlos is passionate about making specialty tacos and quesadillas and often does pop-ups around the city that draw an impressive crowd. Chef Carlos is also very active in helping to promote other small business owners and artists, often by introducing them to each other through his food. Birria Pa La Cruda has hosted pop-ups at our space twice so far, with more events planned for the near future.