PARK(ing) Day Puts “Rights” Back into Right-of-Way
By Veronica Foster, Communications + Advocacy Manager
3 min read Recapping PARK(ing) Day Nashville 2022: Housing as a Public Right, which was held on Friday, September 16th, 2022 along 2nd Avenue North between Broadway and Commerce.
After 10 years hosting PARK(ing) Day Nashville, the Civic Design Center took the public space advocacy event to another level. The story begins in November of 2021, when we unveiled our new Guiding Principles for Civic Design. The new Principles are based on the 10 Principles of The Plan of Nashville, but with two new priorities: housing and sustainability. It’s simple to understand—Nashville has a housing shortage, especially housing that is attainable and affordable for all. In 2021 alone, our city had a record number of lives lost who were unhoused Nashvillians. Being homeless is life-threatening, but solving homelessness is not simple.
Lorraine and EOA Architects’ team members on PARK(ing) Day inside their deployable transitional housing model
Almost 9 months ago, I met with Lorraine Ensley of EOA Architects who was eager to organize the architecture and design community around the housing affordability issue, and she was ready to take action. We discussed how architects have the unique skills to demonstrate innovative design solutions for major needs like transitional and affordable housing projects.
Our conversation led to a unique take on PARK(ing) Day, which traditionally empowers participants to get creative about the use of public space in our streets, taking over metered parking spaces to highlight the sheer amount of land we set aside for cars over humans. This year, we decided on the theme, “Housing as a Public Right”, and recruited a number of housing and homelessness experts to create prompts to inspire parklet builders.
“While this exercise was really fun and educational for our firm, I think what I enjoyed most was shining the light of truth on this crisis. These are some of the most important conversations to be having in this century and I’d love to see more people treating the houseless community with love and respect; they are humans and deserve everything housed individuals deserve. Furthermore, when a person has nowhere to turn, they should at least feel welcomed and able to enjoy public spaces.”
Last Friday marked the culmination of months spent organizing over 50 design firms and advocates, and local housing and homelessness experts to create a big impact. It’s amazing to imagine that PARK(ing) Day is just one Friday considering how all of the participants spent hours upon hours brainstorming, designing, building, and engaging community members in the name of housing affordability. Their efforts were not in vain—between 9 am and 3 pm, 4,793 pedestrians passed through and engaged with the PARK(ing) Day installations! We hope that under the guise of fun, interactive exhibits, these attendees deepened their knowledge on the housing affordability issue.
21 Parklets
4,793 Attendees
With various interpretations on tackling housing issues, the atmosphere of 2nd Avenue was full of interesting conversations! Three parklet builders created full scale models of transitional housing structures, while other installations were more educational, asking attendees to consider their own life experiences compared to data. From seesawing with strangers to playing games with shocking statistics, the activities brought lighthearted fun to a very serious topic. We can’t wait to share more PARK(ing) Day takeaways, winners and more after the Golden Cone Awards!
Board member, Nick Green, swings in Dryden Architecture + Design and JE Dunn’s parklet, The Stand
Attendees engage with Smith Gee Studio’s interactive parklet
We couldn’t have done it without our volunteers! We have amazing photos taken by Beth Gwinn, Pat Murphy and Blake Wilson. We also want to give a warm thank you to our other volunteers, Lisa Bockelman, Ty Hairr, Koby Langner, Nia Smith, and Spencer Turney. Plus, our videographer, Schuyler Howie, always captures the essence of PARK(ing) Day and we can’t thank him enough for it!
Golden Cone Award Winners Announced!
Check out our Instagram to see all of the winners from PARK(ing) Day Nashville 2022.
Golden Cone Awards winners gathered at the 37208 Community Building on September 23rd!
Check out the Instagram Reel to see all the Winners!
View the Gallery to Experience PARK(ing) Day Nashville 2022!
