On a typical lunch hour in downtown Houston you’ll see a lot of cars circling the block near McKinney and Caroline looking for a coveted on-street parking spot.
But on PARK(ing) Day, local architectural and landscape firms transformed those places into tiny “parklets” with seating and green space. Passers-by could use the spaces to play games, draw pictures, read and engage in conversation.
We spoke with Lisa Girard, of TBG Partners, an urban planning and landscape architecture firm. She’s also a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the group that coordinated Houston’s PARK(ing) Day.
Girard said the event calls attention to how much urban space is used for cars and how that space could be utilized for other purposes.
“We’re saying we’re the dwellers of the city,” said Girard. “We want to be outside, we want to engage with each other, we want to have a community. One way of doing that is simply by taking over some parking spots and saying, we don’t need that much space, but look what we can do.”
One of the parklets that got a lot of attention this year was a pop-up, fenced-in dog park called “The Barking Spot.”
“The really cool part is people that are walking their dogs are asking if they can put their dogs in there,” said Girard.
If you missed this year’s downtown parklets you’ll have to wait until next year before you can see them again. They were taken down by mid-afternoon, giving those spaces back to the cars.
Check it out, there’s a pop-up #DogPark at McKinney & Caroline in downtown #Houston #ParkingDay2018 @HPMNews887 @HoustonPubMedia pic.twitter.com/d6yUq1uKc0
— Gail Delaughter (@Gail_HPM) September 21, 2018
.@rdahouston & @Texas_ASLA have temporarily transformed multiple parking spots along the 1200 block of McKinney into creative “parklets,” including a mini dog run! Stop by until 3 pm today to check them out! #ParkingDay2018 pic.twitter.com/JmglWEtidg
— Downtown Houston (@DowntownHouston) September 21, 2018