THE PERENNIAL PROJECT.
Community Rebirth Through Art & Education
Brownsville, Pennsylvania 15417
“A True Champion of Fayette County’s Bright Future - the 2024 Fayette Chamber of Commerce Non-Profit of the Year!”
We Plant Flowers. What Grows is a REVIVAL.
Born in 2019, The Perennial Project began with a simple act of hope—planting flowers among the ruins of blight and decline in Brownsville, Pennsylvania.
We didn’t have much. But we had our hands, our heart, and a belief that something small could grow into something lasting.
What began as a handful of weekend volunteers has since blossomed into a movement—hundreds of neighbors, students, and local leaders working together to reclaim public space and restore community pride.
Yes, we’ve been planting flowers.
We’ve cleared vacant lots, polished forgotten windows, and tended to the overgrown corners others had long ignored.
But what we’ve really been growing are seeds of change.
And Brownsville is beginning to bloom.
We NURTURE Ideas Into Action & Grow Art Into TRANSFORMATION.
At The Perennial Project, we believe Brownsville’s greatest strength isn’t in what it used to be—it’s in the students and teachers building what it can become.
We create hands-on opportunities for learning, growth, and civic action—where education, art, and public space meet in powerful, unexpected ways.
Through immersive design workshops and creative fieldwork, students re-imagine what’s been left behind. Vacant lots, boarded-up storefronts, and blank walls become sites of possibility. Their materials? Salvaged parking meters. Historic fragments. Painted bottles. Tires dragged from our signature waterways.
Nothing is too broken to become part of something beautiful.
We invite students, teachers, and neighbors to see public space not as forgotten, but as fertile ground. We challenge them to rethink what art looks like—and who gets to make it. We welcome the mess of transformation, knowing that creativity sparks connection, and connection drives change.
Together, we’re turning what’s overlooked into sources of pride. And we’re helping young people see that their work, their voice, and their vision can reshape the world around them.
This is how a town comes back to life. This is how we grow—from the ground up.
From Brownsville to the World: A National Leader in Digital Preservation, Education & Place-Based Design
Our architectural heritage is more than brick and stone—it’s memory, identity, and the soul of our community. It tells the story of where we came from—and where we’re going.
Once symbols of economic decline, Brownsville’s historic buildings now stand at the center of a groundbreaking, youth-led digital preservation and workforce development initiative. In 2020, while the world stood still, we stepped forward. We partnered with local technologists and global designers to launch a first-of-its-kind effort—digitally scanning and modeling our downtown before its most endangered structures were lost forever.
But we didn’t stop at preservation.
We created an innovative high school course that teaches students how to use cutting-edge technology—3D modeling, virtual reality, animation, and architectural rendering—to digitally restore and reimagine the built environment around them.
Today, this award-winning educational program spans over seven schools along the historic National Road in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. These students are not only reclaiming their town’s history—they’re acquiring in-demand technical skills and shaping a future rooted in creativity, equity, and purpose.
Our work has scaled globally. In partnership with Autodesk, our Brownsville model has become the official Revit Sample Project, distributed worldwide as part of the company’s flagship design software. What began as a grassroots preservation experiment is now a global educational resource used by architects, engineers, and students to explore real-world applications of digital design.
To deepen our impact, we’ve teamed with engineering students from the University of Pittsburgh to develop sustainable infrastructure strategies for Brownsville’s future. We’ve also partnered with graduate technologists from Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center to evolve our high school–led curriculum into a fully immersive, interactive digital environment.
This work is about more than technology—it’s about transformation.
We are strategically investing in our local students and the regional education ecosystem, building a dynamic pipeline between high school education and higher education–driven workforce development. The Perennial Project is now a model for place-based innovation, blending heritage preservation with 21st-century technical training and community storytelling.
And where buildings once stood—too far gone to save—we’ve created HOPE Park: a public space that brings people together around film, memory, and imagination. The park’s outdoor theater showcases local documentaries, student work, and interactive 3D experiences, including virtual explorations of scanned historic assets and walkthroughs of digitally restored landmarks.
This is more than preservation. This is national leadership in digital storytelling, education, and revitalization.
This is Brownsville—from the ground up.
Together We Rise—And We’re Just Getting Started.
We believe Brownsville’s potential is limitless—and that small actions can spark extraordinary change. Every flower planted, wall painted, or lot reclaimed is a step forward. But we don’t do it alone.
Join us. Lend your hands, your voice, your vision.
Come to a cleanup. Jump into a design workshop. Help us shape the future of our town—from the ground up.
📍 Follow us on Facebook & Instagram to find out where we’ll be next.
💬 Show up. Speak up. Build with us. Because together, we rise.
