Early Friday morning, one parking spot on Manchester Road in front of Shop ’n Save will become part of a movement to call attention for the need for more urban open space. It’s part of PARK(ing) Day 2015.
PARK(ing) Day is an annual international event where residents, artists and activists come together to temporarily transform metered parking spaces (unmetered in Maplewood’s case) into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places, according to a press release.
In Maplewood, SWT Design will do the transforming. They expect to be there from around 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday.
The project began in 2005 when Rebar, a San Francisco art and design studio, converted a single metered parking space into a temporary public park in downtown San Francisco. Since 2005, PARK(ing) Day has evolved into a global movement, with organizations and individuals creating new forms of temporary public space in urban contexts around the world.
The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat.
Neat idea. Brilliant placement. How many thousands of cars drive by that parking spot every day? This message will reach well beyond Maplewood.
Have to say, my pragmatic side thinks this is quite silly…….on the other hand, this type of thing is one of the reasons I love living in Maplewood…….you would not see this in Chesterfield, and Clayton would probably frown on it. Side note……SWT’s work is pretty impressive (looking at their site).
I love the idea of incorporating open and engaging green space into our community. Hope to see everyone there!
This is an interesting concept. I must say though that Maplewood has a lot of open space and parks. We are very lucky that the city had the forethought to delegate the spaces for public use.