Park(ing) Day, a celebration of people-friendly design in city spaces with some Capitol Hill roots, is expanding to a two-day event in Seattle. Today (Friday, August 5th) is the deadline to sign up for the 2016 edition:
PARK(ing) Day Plus+ is the perfect time to make your dream mini-park or street improvement a reality. OnSeptember 16 and 17, groups from all around Seattle will be transforming parking spaces into temporary pop-up parks and street improvements to help generate a conversation about healthy, sustainable, and livable cities.
What do you want to see in Seattle? You can create spaces for reflection, creativity, solace, play, or improvements for safety and mobility. PARK(ing) Day 2015 was our biggest one yet with over 50 pop-ups installed throughout Seattle, and we want this year to be even bigger!
Don’t forget that you can also now apply for a Small Sparks grant (up to $1,000) to help fund your project. To learn more about this opportunity and how to apply, contact Ed Pottharst ([email protected]) or Karen Selander ([email protected]) at the Department of Neighborhoods.
Check out SDOT’s guidelines for easy-to-follow tips about planning your space and submitting your application—but be sure to get your applications turned in to [email protected] by tomorrow, August 5. For additional information about Seattle PARK(ing) Day, including application requirements, please visit http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/seattleparkingday.htm.
While the present day Park(ing) Day tends to draw participation mostly from design firms and architects, the early days in Seattle included some crunchier parks. The first Seattle Park(ing) Day took place in 2009 along E Pine. The People’s Parking Lot — a gravel-covered dirt parcel left empty as a developer waited to build the six-story building that stands there today — was transformed into the first home for the Seattle version of the event. The event has helped lead to more long-lasting experiments in urban space with the creation of the first parklet in Seattle on Capitol Hill in 2012 and the city’s experiments with pavement parks like the Pac-Man designed space coming to Summit at E Denny.
