BBVNA - Events

Events and Malvern Plaza

Malvern Plaza is located at the corner of E. Malvern Street and E. Arroyo Chico, in the Broadmoor-Broadway Village Neighborhood. The plaza is a favorite site for neighborhood events, such as craft fairs, swap meets, citrus give-away's, plant and seed exchanges, children's play dates, outdoor movies, and neighborhood potlucks. Most events are on the website and promoted on our Nextdoor social media site and listserv.

The Events Committee is active year-round in planning and hosting events, but fellow plaza collaborators are welcome and encouraged. Perhaps you have an idea for some neighborly shenanigans or a talent/skill you’d like to share? Jump right in, everyone’s ideas and efforts are welcome!

Malvern Plaza Project

In 2006, aided by designs provided first by University of Arizona lecturer and BBVNA neighbor Oscar Blazquez and his students and later by the Drachman Institute, BBVNA won a Pro Neighborhoods grant to build the first water-harvesting pocket park in the City of Tucson: Malvern Plaza. Neighbors Karen Martin, Irene Ogata and Oscar Blazquez met with city officials to plan the design of the plaza. In 2008, at the intersection of Malvern Avenue and Arroyo Chico, a large swatch of asphalt was removed by City of Tucson work crews, basins were constructed, and Palo Verde, Mesquite, and Netleaf Hackberry trees were planted. Today, the trees are more than 20 feet tall. During the monsoon rains, the basins flood with water from Malvern Avenue, replenishing the trees. The plaza, one block west of the Treat Walkway on the south side of Arroyo Chico, is otherwise unirrigated.

Suzie Husband started a neighborhood effort in 2007 to create beautiful tiles that decorate the tops of the cement tables, making the plaza an inviting location to stop and sit and converse with neighbors.

Today you can also read a book from the Little Free Library at Malvern Plaza. The library was built in 2014 with design and construction work led by Ryan Brown with help from Joan Thomas, Janice Welchert, Justine Hernandez, and Ginny Kovatch, and art work by Judy Nostrant.