This past Friday parking spots across the States and around the world turned over a green leaf as pop-up public parks for Park(ing) Day 2014! This annual celebration of public space is one of our favorite events of the year – all it takes is a bag of quarters and some comfy seats to reclaim the roads for some rest and relaxation. We hit the streets and asked you to submit your favorite pop-up parks, and we’ve rounded them all up – check them out after the break!
Dublin – Ireland’s capital sprouted a whopping 31 pop-up parks! This lovely green escape was planted by Bloom Fringe.
Dublin – Sequoia Design Co rolled out an undulating wave of greenery for Parking Day 2014.
Dublin – Sequoia Design Co’s Green Wave park spanned several parking spots and featured a shaded bench and sculptural grass seats
Dublin – Artist and designer Faolàn Bashford unveiled an eyecatching structure that shelters park-goers from the street with translucent panels.
Dublin – Barry Murphy’s AMAZING “Lazy Salad Bed” park features a full set of bedroom furniture decked out with edible leafy greens!
Dublin – Macadamia CST’s “Spectacle Mole” park lets you experience life from the perspective of a mole!
San Francisco – BAR Architects teamed up to create “In My Backyard”, a fun temporary backyard in a parking space.
San Francisco – The classic “NIMBY” was turned into “In My Backyard,” as the installation was open to all passersby.
San Francisco – Features of “In My Backyard” included recycled pallet and magazine furniture, a tire swing, and real plants. Visitors to the “In My Backyard” Park(ing) Day Installation enjoyed sitting on lawn chairs, and even roasted s’mores!
Gothenburg – Sweden-based Mareld Landscape Architecture created a cool pop-up park by repainting old wooden chairs.
Gothenburg – The weather was beautiful, people were attracted to the bright colors of the chairs and enjoyed their lunch on a new spot in the center of the town – so all in all the day was very successful.
San Francisco – The folks at MITHUN showcased unique mycelium furniture in a temporary Park(ing) Day installation in San Francisco.
San Francisco – The MITHUN installation featured temporary furniture created from mycelium, the matted root-like structures that mushrooms and other fungi sprout from.
San Francisco – The mycelium is grown in molds and feeds on sawdust.
Massachusetts – Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition teamed up with local artists Erica Tyeklár Wells and Zoárd Wells Tyeklár to create a beautiful street-facing mural for Park(ing) Day. MassBike provided bike parking and an informal gathering space in the Central Square neighborhood of Cambridge, MA.
Tempe – A large group from Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ participated in Parking Day on the Historic Mill Avenue.
Tempe – This event was hosted by 3 student organizations: Student Planning Association at ASU, Students for the New Urbanism at ASU, and the Bicycle Coalition at ASU along with another local bicycle advocacy group known as the Tempe Bicycle Action Group.
Tempe – They had yoga classes, BBQ/picnic, board games and some groovy tunes in their park which occupied 3 metered spaces. So much fun!
San Francisco – Gelfand Partners unveiled a spectacular starburst of cardboard tubes on Market Street.
San Francisco – Gelfand Partners recorded sounds and conversations from passersby and then looped them on speakers set within the tubs to create an ever-changing audio installation.
San Francisco – Studios set up a fun pop-up park separated from traffic by a wooden divider. They invited passersby to create gigantic bubbles!
San Francisco – The walls of Studios’s pop-up park spouted bubbles!
Phoenix – Phoenix Spokes People brought their bikes to the 6th Annual Park(ing) Day in Phoenix and let everyone know what they love about riding a bicycle!
Phoenix – There was also a co-working pop up park!
Dallas – Volunteers from Southwest Airlines left their offices at headquarters and went to the streets to turn parking spots into public spaces. This connects with Southwest’s Heart of the Community program, a partnership with New York-based Project for Public Spaces to envision and activate unique public spaces in cities throughout the Southwest network.
San Francisco – Outside of San Francisco Planning and Urban Research, visitors displayed their creative talents at a temporary art studio.
San Francisco – For SPUR’s Park(ing) Day installation, visitors had access to colorful art materials to create a picture of what they saw on the sidewalk and street. Visitor’s artworks are displayed against a backdrop of traffic and office buildings at SPUR’s pop-up park.
San Francisco – Morphic Salon created a pop-up hair salon on San Francisco’s Mission Street.
San Francisco – The rent on this temporary Park(ing) Day Salon? Just $2 an hour! Morphic’s installation featured fun, colorful hair extensions and braided styles available to anyone who stopped by.
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+ Park(ing) Day Coverage on Inhabitat
San Francisco photos by Emily Peckenham and Mike Chino
