PARKING SPOTLIGHT EVENT
PUTTING THE PARK IN PARKING Around the world and down the street, IPI members thought outside the box on Park(ing) Day 2016 Compiled by Monica Arpino
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ot everyone has the vision to see beyond the blacktop of a parking space, but then again, not everyone can be a parking professional. Parking is a backdrop for communities and that’s what Park(ing) Day is all about. The international event challenges the public to reimagine metered parking spots as mini parks for one day every September. This year, on Sept. 16, IPI members dreamed up ways to incorporate art, play, conversation, rest, civics, laughter, and other creative activities into parking spaces. Here are some of their designs. McCarthy Building Companies The Dallas, Texas, office of McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. has constructed over 6,500 parking spaces and more than $133 million in parking projects, giving it plenty of preparation for Park(ing) Day 2016. The Dallas office is currently building a five-level parking garage to include more than 3,920 new parking spaces at Dallas/ Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport. This state-of-the-art garage aims to bring a “parking paradise” to Terminal E, which
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led to the inspiration for this year’s parking space theme. In the middle of downtown Dallas at the corner of St. Paul and Main streets, McCarthy created its very own Paradise Park. The parklet was equipped with Adirondack chairs, a sandy beach, cooler, and umbrella. To complete the atmosphere in paradise, the McCarthy team was equipped with sunglasses and leis to share with visitors.
Winpark Winpark participated in Park(ing) Day 2016 by taking three on-street parking spaces and creating a tailgating theme in front of the 1001 McKinney Building in Houston, Texas. Passersby were invited to play tailgating games such as cornhole. The time spent with friendly people in the mini-park allowed staff to talk about parking, commuting, and the industry. People left with a positive impression of what parking is about. Even members of the city’s parking enforcement stopped by and enjoyed a game of cornhole and some freshly popped popcorn.
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ParkHouston For the past two years, ParkHouston has helped other organizations with the permits required to create a parklet on the public street. We enjoyed traveling around Houston, Texas, and visiting the installations and seeing their creativity. Well, we caught the fever, and Park(ing) Day 2016 was the first time that ParkHouston created our own parklet. With the assistance of the Houston’s Parks and Recreation Department, we placed live plants around the perimeter. Staff members brought lawn furniture, decorations, and treats from home. We gave all visitors Hawaiian leis to help them get in the spirit of our theme. This was also a great opportunity to connect with the public and educate them on our parking programs and parking regulations. We passed out collateral explaining pay-by-plate and pay-byphone. We took some of the most common violations and created a bean bag game. A staff member would ask a question, and the participant would toss the bag to the correct answer. Learning important parking tips to avoid future parking citations was their best takeaway.
ParkCloud This Park(ing) Day, the ParkCloud team turned the office’s car park into an “urban allotment,” growing plants in the lead-up to the event and going head-to-head to create the best green space to raise money for Stockport Mind, a mental health charity. Growing plants has fantastic psychological benefits, including reducing stress and improving concentration, and the money raised by ParkCloud on Park(ing) Day will be used to help people
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affected by mental health issues in the Stockport and District area of the United Kingdom. We don’t have a final number on how much money was raised as we’ve received quite a few late donations, but it definitely exceeded last year’s total! Alongside the allotments, there was a barbecue enjoyed by local businesses and members of the community—plus Stockport’s member of Parliament, Ann Coffey.
Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) The Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) welcomed the public to celebrate and enjoy the Park(ing) Day festivities in four of the Maryland county’s largest urban districts—Bethesda, Silver Spring, Wheaton, and Takoma Park. By repurposing parking spaces for a day, the county hoped to encourage residents to rethink their transportation choices and support transit-oriented, bikeable, and walkable infrastructure. Park(ing) Day participants were given options of more than 80 locations in the county’s parking lot districts to choose from. The spots were identified with safety and pedestrian exposure in mind, and participants were not charged for their spaces. To generate awareness for Park(ing) Day, MCDOT’s Division of Parking Management created and administered a website promoting the event. Participants from this year’s successful Park(ing) Day event included Docs In Progress, Spotluck, Toole Design Group, Dewberry, Sinberg Levinas Architects, Bethesda Urban District, Green Wheaton, Montgomery County Department of Transportation’s Commuter Services, Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, Montgomery Parks, the Mid-County Regional Services Center, and Takoma Park Main Street Program.
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Lexington Parking Authority Lexington Parking Authority partnered with an architect from the local chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (KYASLA) and a professor from the University of Kentucky’s Department of Landscape Architecture to transform 14 parking spaces into pop-up parks in downtown Lexington, Ky. The three partners came together to pair local design firms with university students for Park(ing) Day 2016.
KYASLA recruited design firms and organizations around town that have an interest in or deal with environmental issues and understand the underlying theme and intent of Park(ing) Day. Then each group of students worked with local designers to provide feedback and advice on their designs. It’s an ideal situation for the students because it not only gives them the opportunity to network with professionals in their field but allows them to take a design, figure out how to execute it, get public feedback and see how they react, and then evaluate their successes and downfalls. Students addressed ways to overcome auto-centered planning and design practices by emphasizing the needs and visions of the public. To contribute to a sustainable effort, the projects emphasized the use of reused, found, and borrowed materials. The student designs attracted participants from youths to seniors and individuals to groups. This year was so successful that several of the design firms have already reached out after the event requesting to be put on the list for Park(ing) Day 2017!
Texas A&M University Students led Texas A&M University’s Park(ing) Day efforts by convincing a professor to give up his reserved on-campus parking space for the day. MONICA ARPINO is IPI’s special projects coordinator. She can be reached at arpino@parking.org.
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