PARKing Day 2018: Tiny Temporary Public Spaces Bloom in Honolulu

PARKing Day is an event planners and folks in our community look forward to each year. The 2018 event went off without a hitch! For this global event, metered parking spaces are transformed for one day into temporary public open spaces. These miniature parks provide a means of creating more public open space in cities where opportunities to create this space are often limited. Parklets this year were created by teams from a variety of entities including non-profits, businesses, as well as firms in the planning and engineering industry. A few of this year’s teams filled us in on how they got involved in PARKing Day. The teams also shared what they enjoyed about creating their parklet and what some of their challenges were. Hopefully the information they shared can inspire YOU to get involved in PARKing Day next year.

APA Hawai‘i

Belt Collins Hawaii

By Eric Wat and Rachel Katzman

1. What got you interested in creating a parklet for PARKing Day? Was your parklet based around an idea or theme?

Participating and supporting more company related professional groups’ activities and events. We saw creating a parklet as an opportunity to increase internal office collaboration and to make a statement about the need for green space in the urban environment. We wanted our parklet to highlight Belt Collins’ services, sustainable design practices, and also staff hobbies and interests.

2. Creating a parklet is a creative endeavor. What did you enjoy most about creating your parklet? 

Staff comradery working together to create the parklet components. We enjoyed looking for found materials and coming up with creative ways to reuse them in our parklet design. We spent time sketching ideas and looking at reference images to gather ideas before we harvested materials and started construction.

3. What was the greatest challenge in creating your parklet?

This being the first time participating, so not knowing exactly what to expect and making the structure a little too complicated or large.

4. What advice do you have for folks who want to create a parklet for PARKing Day in the future?

Keep it as simple as the group can handle assembling. Also, it should be comfortable but creative and perhaps have a unique feature(s) as to interest people and convey the parklet theme. Come up with a clear message and design a parklet that concisely conveys that overall idea. Think of ways to engage the public as they walk or bike by.

5. In what ways do parklets contribute to our community?

Parklets can inject a playful energy and visually “soften” an otherwise mundane, hard surfaced environment. They bring people together in a shared space that would typically be inhabited by just one usually non-occupied vehicle, can evoke a healthy curiosity, and inspire people to be creative and think outside the norm of the environment we’re used to seeing and experiencing.

Friends of the Library of Hawaii 

By Kathee Hoover, Barbara Walt, Lynn Hiyakumoto, Victoria Harstad, Pat Oshiro, and Nainoa Mau

1. What got you interested in creating a parklet for PARKing Day? Was your parklet based around an idea or theme?

Friends of the Library of Hawai’i has participated in PARKing Day for the last 3 years. We normally provide books and partner with other organizations but this year we jumped in and took the lead, partnering with ARTS at Mark’s Garage and the Hawai’i Water Color Society. Our parklet was based around a reading room with live artists for parts of the day.

2. Creating a parklet is a creative endeavor. What did you enjoy most about creating your parklet?

The best part about creating the parklet was seeing everything come together and to see the interest from those passing by. It is always good to get out of our warehouse and offices and insert ourselves into the community. Creating a parklet literally inserts something in space that had a completely routine singular purpose. Our volunteers love to help create and staff our community events so volunteer enthusiasm was also a plus.

3. What was the greatest challenge in creating your parklet?

The greatest challenge in creating the parklet was getting the materials and accessories necessary for the endeavor. As a non-profit organization, we have limited resources in terms of materials and funds, but also manpower. We are lucky to have amazing volunteers but also other fantastic community partners who helped with the permitting and who loaned us materials. Geobunga generously loaned us palms to bring the greenery and the American Society of Landscape Architects organized the event and covered permitting and insurance.

4. What advice do you have for folks who want to create a parklet for PARKing Day in the future?

It’s a lot of fun to create a parklet. Don’t do it alone. Find partners and collaborate.

5. In what ways do parklets contribute to our community?

The parklet engages the community and brings a different energy to the streets. In the downtown/chinatown area we don’t have much if any outdoor seating in front of businesses. The presence of parklets slows the pace a bit as people stop to see what is going on, enjoy the space and books, and look at this 9’ x 17’ area of asphalt differently. It provides a bit of calm in busy downtown. It also provided some exposure to the artists and the bookstore when people stopped to see what was going on. Where normally we park a vehicle, a space has opened where many people can rest, read, or chat.

Paiko

By Courtney Monahan

1. What got you interested in creating a parklet for PARKing Day? Was your parklet based around an idea or theme?

We became interested in the concept of a parklet after the kaka’ako parklet near Hanks Haute Dog was constructed 3 or 4 years ago, we then visited San Francisco and saw the parklets they had built in that city. We were then inspired to create a more substantial structure that not only included a unique seating experience but also provided shade and greenery. We then shared our ideas with longtime buddies, Jason Selley and Lance Walters who got excited, pushed the idea and design, and got on board as the architects and 2 years later we did it! Our parklet was built with the idea of creating a green space in a non-traditional setting and something that many people in Hawaii had not experienced before.

2. Creating a parklet is a creative endeavor. What did you enjoy most about creating your parklet?

Working with the architects, the builders, farmers (who helped guide us with what plants would work best) and all the people who stopped what they were doing to lend a hand in building this parklet with us.

3. What was the greatest challenge in creating your parklet?

The initial permitting process took quite a while, mostly because of its newness in Hawaii and not knowing which departments we were actually supposed to be working with for approval. Then once we began building, the unevenness of the street posed a structural headache for the builders. Luckily they were determined and enjoyed the challenge and the opportunity to a build something “different”.

4. What advice do you have for folks who want to create a parklet for PARKing Day in the future?

Our structure is semi-permanent, so we did go above and beyond anything we would do for a day, but my advice would be to create something that you would want to spend time in. Look inwards to see outwards.

5. In what ways do parklets contribute to our community?

They create a space for people to spend time in a place they would not normally consider to be a peaceful and enjoyable setting, the street. This is a place we are usually not spending any time in on our feet. And for the eye of a passerby-er they are pleasing and inspire wonder and that is something we unfortunately don’t have enough of in many communities as you walk down a developed street.

PBR Hawaii

By Grace Zheng

1. What got you interested in creating a parklet for PARKing Day? Was your parklet based around an idea or theme?

This was PBR's third year participating in PARKing Day and our themes for each year always tangentially relate to sustainability as we like to reuse and recycle most of our materials. This year, we wanted to share the idea that the sense of time for native Hawaiians was historically place-based. There are native Hawaiian proverbs collected by Mary Kawena Pukui that talk about mauka/makai, plant/animal relationships as a way to understand seasonal changes. For example, "Pua ka nenelau, momona ka wana" means when the nenelau blooms, the sea urchin is fat. Since the nenelau blooms about the time when the hala fruit ripens during autumn, it was a sign for uplanders that the sea urchins in the ocean were ready to be gathered.

2. Creating a parklet is a creative endeavor. What did you enjoy most about creating your parklet?

We enjoy the team-building aspect of physically setting up our parklet because it's a culmination of brainstorming and coordination that allows us to set up each component in sequence. To be part of the action and feel the instant gratification of assembling a parklet is the best!

3. What was the greatest challenge in creating your parklet?

The hardest part is agreeing on the theme and what we're sharing with the public each year- everyone has an opinion and yet we need to have a cohesive idea at the end.

4. What advice do you have for folks who want to create a parklet for PARKing Day in the future?

Work backwards in your schedule on when the temporary use permit is due and what is needed for it. This will set a final deadline for a drawing/sketch of your parklet and its various components. Also, don't forget to provide shade! If you're not confident about building a stable shade structure, get an umbrella or a pop-up tent because it gets very hot off the road starting mid-morning.

5. In what ways do parklets contribute to our community?

Parklets are not for every neighborhood or every street - they're the most effective in dense urban environments by a commercial area that has limited to no shade trees. It's the contrast that parklets bring to the street that reframes how people see urban space. Most people who walk by the PARKing Day parklets are curious; they think it's either a street market or community outreach because those are the only times they've seen the street being used. When we talk to them about how a parklet is a mini park, how it creates interest for pedestrians, how it could potentially benefit businesses, they are able to better understand how parklets could improve their urban environment.

HHF Planners

1. What got you interested in creating a parklet for PARKing Day? Was your parklet based around an idea or theme?

HHF has participated in PARKing Day for the last four years. We continue to participate in the event because it’s a great opportunity to push our design skills and imagination. It’s also fun to get together as a team and build something! As planners and designers who work and live on O‘ahu, creating a parklet is a way to show our community that green space can be created in downtown Honolulu even though opportunities to create this space are limited.

This year's parklet was inspired by our parklet sponsor, landscape supply and decor company, Geobunga! 

2. Creating a parklet is a creative endeavor. What did you enjoy most about creating your parklet?

Alex Felix, our firm’s GIS technician and jack of all trades, has played a huge role in the design of HHF’s parklet each year. He notes that some of the most creative designs stem from being presented with unusual criteria and constraints. Each year, PARKing Day presents Alex and our firm’s design/build team with the challenge of creating public green space within a 9’ x 20’ parking stall. This year, Alex decided to approach the challenge by developing a material based design using recycled pallet wood and other found materials. He enjoys the chance to further hone his skills in both designing and building a project. Alex emphasizes that the parklet design/build process is an important reminder for designers to be aware of the physical effort associated with constructing their design. His experience designing and building HHF’s previous parklets informs his goal to create a design that’s aesthetically pleasing, comfortable to inhabit, and straightforward to construct. This goal allows our firm’s team to manage construction preparation and build time before, during, and after the event. By managing this process through design, our team has time to enjoy the space created between the time invested in parklet construction and disassembly.

3. What was the greatest challenge in creating your parklet?

Parklet construction always presents challenges. Our firm’s team tries to prepare for circumstances that impact construction but there are always unexpected site and material constraints. Alex emphasizes that designers need to be flexible as their design may require changes due to unexpected circumstances and constraints. The flexibility and quick thinking of our parklet team helps the team pull through in these situations.

4. What advice do you have for folks who want to create a parklet for PARKing Day in the future?

Alex advises future parklet developers to elevate their base to the height of the curb. This makes it easier for pedestrians of all ages and abilities to use the parklet. This design element also gives the parklet a strong connection to the sidewalk.

5. In what ways do parklets contribute to our community?

To our firm’s team, parklets remind people that options exist to create peaceful green space in cities that are already developed. Regardless of its size, a shaded and landscaped space creates an oasis for city residents from the surrounding concrete and pavement.