Young-at-heart on College Avenue
By James Rojas, founder Place It!, July 21, 2025
Every Christmas when I was growing up, my mother would take me to Downtown Los Angeles to see the animated holiday window displays along Broadway. Those trips left a lasting impression, and since then, I’ve been hooked on walking and window shopping.
As a pedestrian, I love to engage my senses in joyful, everyday ways. Whether it’s strolling past the lush front-yard gardens in Rockridge or pausing to admire the colorful storefronts along College Avenue, I find delight in how the street slowly reveals itself. A good window display can spark the imagination, encouraging people to move, explore, and connect to place.
That’s why I was so thrilled to help install a vibrant city model in the Bella Vita children’s shop window. The model has been capturing the attention of passersby, especially children, who stop, glance, and often linger in quiet contemplation. These few moments are a powerful reminder: streets should delight us, surprise us, and invite us to see our cities with fresh eyes.
Great window displays on College, like those at Cole Hardware or Preserved, can place a piece of our home out on the street, or at least reflect an aspiration of it. They remind us that sidewalks aren’t just for walking; they’re for wondering and wandering.
And wondering and wandering is exactly what the pedestrian eye does as it scans across the thousand handmade buildings arranged in our window display. Each tiny structure is carefully placed within a street grid that mirrors the direction and rhythm of the storefront windows themselves, converging toward the center in odd but invitingly shaped plazas.
The cityscape has its own topography: the smallest rowhouses sit in the foreground, while taller buildings rise in the distance like an urban skyline. Color dances across the display like a bouquet, splashes of reds, blues, greens, and yellows scattered thoughtfully throughout the streets.
Every building was lovingly handmade in Oakland, crafted from found objects and salvaged materials, wood scraps, buttons, rhinestones, washi tape, sourced from the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse on Telegraph Avenue, Urban Ore in Berkeley, and the curious little treasures I pick up on my daily walks through Rockridge.
Rooftops have been painted gold, so the buildings shimmer, even on overcast days, and gleam brilliantly when caught by sunlight.
This miniature city is more than just a model, it’s an invitation to slow down, to explore, to remember that cities, like dreams, are built one small detail at a time. Behind the display, a poster designed by John Kamp poses questions that encourage passersby to reflect on their own urban lives.
So why not celebrate the city itself? Why not turn storefronts into small acts of urban storytelling, sparking curiosity, promoting awareness, and inspiring all of us, young and old, to imagine the communities we want to build together?
About the Author
James Rojas
James Rojas is an acclaimed urban planner, community activist, and artist who transforms public engagement through art. He developed an innovative method that uses hands-on creative processes to involve communities, having led over 400 workshops and built more than 50 interactive models in cities from New York and San Francisco to international locales in Mexico, Canada, Europe, and South America. His work tackles critical issues such as transportation, housing, open space, and health while exploring U.S. Latino cultural influences on urban design and sustainability. As the founder of the Latino Urban Forum, James continues to empower low-income communities by increasing awareness around urban planning challenges. A sought-after speaker and writer, he has shared his expertise at institutions like MIT, Harvard, and Berkeley, and his work has been featured in leading publications such as The New York Times and Dwell.