Getting A Little Greener: Park(ing) Day 2018

Once again, Pagers got into the spirit of the annual Park(ing) Day event which encourages people to think about the fact the majority of urban outdoor space is allotted for private vehicles while a fraction of that land is dedicated to pedestrians. The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) encourages community members, students, and designers to transform metered parking spaces into temporary parklets for one day every year in the hopes of raising awareness. Pagers put a lot of thought into their displays and shared their team stories.

In Dallas, the Page team developed a concept of a parklet with an art display visible from the pedestrian and street sides, combined with a shaded seating area, that would draw people in for selfies. Murals throughout Dallas have made it known as a selfie destination and the team wanted engage their colleagues and the community by creating something similar and memorable. 

The selfie wall design was made of 155 parallelogram tiles that were uniquely designed and painted in the office following only three rules: 1) use the two colors assigned to the tile 2) paint in shapes that are parallel to the edges and 3) use triangles and parallelograms. The firm's identity was incorporated into the parklet by designing the seating portion to mimic the “Page slash” of the brand. General contractor Hill & Wilkinson collaborated by building the parklet and providing all the landscape elements.  

The firm's San Francisco office, located in the Jackson Square neighborhood, leveraged the high rate of pedestrian traffic by creating an interactive mapping activity in their parklet directly in front of Page's historic office building. A large city map was set up on an easel so passers-by could place color-coded dots on their destinations for everyone to see. In the early morning hours, it was largely covered with red dots indicating work trips. However as the lunch hour approached, participants began to add different colored dots indicating that they were heading to lunch, meeting up with friends, or just out for a walk. This simple exercise gave the Page team a small snapshot of the diverse array of public life occurring outside the office on a typical Friday.   

The team defined their parklet with outdoor furniture brought from home and incorporated large potted plants to symbolize the transformation from parking space to public park. Page Planner Katharyn Hurd explained, "We found this was a great opportunity to share our public engagement skills in a way that allowed us to get to know people passing through our neighborhood. The event also opened doors to future collaboration with nearby creative organizations – and there are many in this district!" 

To learn more about Park(ing) Day, visit the ASLA website here.