
image: Alexandra Hay
This past Friday, September 18, you may have noticed a few new inhabitants taking over parking spaces all across the country. Instead of cars, you might have seen pop-up sitting areas, outdoor reading rooms, play spaces, picnic areas, or any number of alternate uses—all for PARK(ing) Day 2015.
Taking place the third Friday in September since 2005, PARK(ing) Day began with a single parking space re-imagined as a temporary public place by the San Francisco art and design studio Rebar. For more on PARK(ing) Day’s origins and story, check out Rebar’s PARK(ing) Day Manual and Manifesto.
Creators of parklets this year included many chapters of ASLA, students, landscape architecture and design firms, small businesses, nonprofits, and many more—see ASLA’s PARK(ing) Day map for a sense of the geographic breadth and organizational scope of this year’s parklets.
And, new this year, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) also created a parklet in front of ASLA headquarters in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington, DC. Here in Washington, the District Department of Transportation once again organized the application and permitting process for PARK(ing) Day pop-up spaces, and the city hosted 32 parklets this year, up from 18 in 2014—impressive growth over just one year.
Below, we take a look at more than a dozen PARK(ing) Day spaces around Washington, DC. From inviting sitting areas to mini-golf, these spaces highlight the potential a single parking space holds to host a plethora of different functions.

image: Alexandra Hay

image: Alexandra Hay

image: Alexandra Hay

image: Alexandra Hay

image: Alexandra Hay

image: Alexandra Hay

image: Alexandra Hay

image: Alexandra Hay

image: Alexandra Hay

image: Alexandra Hay

image: Alexandra Hay

image: Alexandra Hay

image: Alexandra Hay

image: Alexandra Hay
We hope you had a chance to design or just stop by a parklet or two for PARK(ing) Day this year. With the number of parklets in Washington, DC alone nearly doubling in just one year, this is an event that is sure to continue its phenomenal growth. For more pictures from across the country, follow #ASLAPD.
Hi Alexandra….nice pics and narrative!