Park(ing) Day

Seattle 2013

Freiheit & Ho Architects

Providing temporary public open space . . . one parking spot at at time.

PARK(ing) Day is a annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places. 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 … at least until the meter runs out!

The vision for our space, located in front of Melrose Market on Capitol Hill, was to invite the public into our extension of the sidewalk.  A place for interaction between all passersby who have one thing in common, being on that sidewalk at the same time.  The Park(ing) space included large letters representing the firm's name (FHO) and encouraged the public to interact with them in any way they chose.  Two life size Jenga sets were also available which quickly became the prime catalyst for interaction on the site.  The amount of attendance this spot received was more than we could have hoped for and I cannot wait to participate in Park(ing) Day 2014!