Salvaged Love

When Indianapolis began demolishing its RCA Dome in 2008, Michael Bricker saw a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To save the stadium's white, Teflon-coated fiberglass roof from the landfill, Bricker salvaged 13 acres of it, and turned it into shade structures for the city, as well as locally-designed accessories. With this project, People for Urban Progress was born. Bricker is the Founder and Executive Director of People for Urban Progress, aka PUP, based in Indianapolis. The non-profit is focused on diverting building materials from wasting away in landfills, and repurposing it for local improvements. Trained as an architect and also working as a production designer, Bricker has gone on with PUP to turn old stadium seats into bus stops, and fabric from Superbowl XLVI into handbags. Sessions' own Donna Sink is a board member at PUP, and Bricker joined us on the podcast to discuss the organization's goals and design ethos. As a bonus for Sessions listeners, get 15% off anything in PUP's store by entering "archinect" as the coupon code at checkout.