Image from Nashville Civic Design Center, Nashville PARK(ing) Day
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Making public space for social interaction
The East Tennessee American Institute of Architects, the East Tennessee Community Design Center, and the American Society of Landscape Architects are hosting Knoxville’s first organized PARK(ing) Day on Friday, September 21.
PARK(ing) Day is a free event where parking spaces are transformed into temporary, interactive public spaces. The event will stretch across three blocks of Gay Street, transforming the street into a social hub of public engagement.
PARK(ing) Day was started in 2005 in San Francisco by the design group Rebar. 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. Paying the meter for just two hours, Rebar created a park amongst a sea of parking spaces showing the value of land that had been dedicated solely to parking. One of the founders of the event, John Bela, said “I like to think of Park(ing) Day installations as the gateway drug for urban transformation.”
PARK(ing) Day Knox 2018 is expected to have over 40 converted PARK(ing) spaces. The creativity in repurposing these parking spaces into public spaces is endless. Examples from previous PARK(ing) Days around the world include: a dog park, a photobooth, a putt-putt course, a yoga park, ping pong tables, and many more. See the PARK(ing) Day Knox Facebook Page for more examples.
Knoxvillians and visitors alike are invited to come and enjoy the PARK(ing) Day installations between 10AM and 3Pm on Friday, September 21, 2018. All of the parking spaces for the event have been donated for the day by the City of Knoxville.
For any questions, contact Alli Montgomery at (865)544-2000 or amontgomery@mhminc.com.
