{"id":1132,"date":"2012-03-27T16:18:30","date_gmt":"2012-03-27T22:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=1132"},"modified":"2013-01-28T07:15:50","modified_gmt":"2013-01-28T14:15:50","slug":"parking-lots-as-public-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=1132","title":{"rendered":"The Parking Lot as Public Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday\u2019s Atlantic Wire<\/a> listed MIT Urban Planner Eran Ben-Joseph<\/a>\u2019s column in The New York Times<\/em> called \u201cWhen a Parking Lot is so Much More<\/a>\u201d<\/strong> as a top Monday read. The essence of Ben-Joseph\u2019s argument:<\/p>\n

The ubiquity of parking lots has\u2026led to an overlooked social dimension: In the United States, parking lots may be the most regularly used outdoor space. They are public places that people interact with and use on a daily basis, whether working, shopping, running errands, eating, even walking \u2014 parking lots are one of the few places where cars and pedestrians coexist.<\/em><\/p>\n

Better parking lots would embrace and expand this role. Already, many lots provide space for farmers\u2019 markets, spontaneous games of street hockey, tailgating, even teenagers\u2019 illicit nighttime parties. This range of activities suggests that parking lots are a \u201cfound\u201d place: they satisfy needs that are not yet met by our designed surroundings. Planned with greater intent, parking lots could actually become significant public spaces, contributing as much to their communities as great boulevards, parks or plazas.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A couple of examples are noted. Like this one at the Renzo Piano re-designed Fiat Lingotto factory<\/a>, apparently Ben-Joseph\u2019s favorite<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Parking Lot at Fiat Lingotto, Turin, Italy<\/p><\/div>\n

And this one at the\u00a0Dia art museum<\/a> in Beacon, New York:<\/p>\n

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Parking Lot at Dia Art Museum, Beacon, NY<\/p><\/div>\n

Other lots are described here<\/a>.\u00a0 I\u2019m not entirely sure that the features of these parking lots are all that redemptive when it comes to providing public space.\u00a0 Both seem to privilege the individual pedestrian\u2019s experience over that of a larger social collective. But Ben-Joseph\u2019s basic argument is a good one.\u00a0 As described elsewhere in this blog<\/a>, an Intercultural Urbanism often sees, lying within the surface parking lot, a \u201chard plaza\u201d capable of serving a variety of social and economic functions for cultural groups of varying sizes and with varying interests.<\/p>\n

Design guidelines for the \u00a0project we\u2019re following here in Denver at 9th<\/sup> and Colorado<\/a>, however, certainly seem to exemplify the prevailing anti-lot bias.\u00a0 Walkability is the guiding design value at 9th and Colorado, but so too is \u201cconnectivity\u201d and social interaction. \u00a0The current guidelines<\/a> cast surface parking as something to be disguised rather than embraced as active social space. \u00a0According to the guidelines, the parking lot\u2019s \u201cvisibility\u201d must be \u201creduced\u201d and its \u201cvisual impact\u201d must be \u201cminimized\u201d or \u201cbuffered\u201d by streetscape and landscaping elements.\u00a0 It is forever destined to be \u201cunderutilized\u201d until it can be redeveloped and replaced with something else.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cSurface Parking\u201d is categorized as conceptually and functionally distinct from \u201cPublicly Accessible Open Space and Plazas.\u201d \u00a0Ben-Joseph does good work–as does Times<\/em> architecture critic Michael Kimmelman in an earlier piece<\/a>–by inviting us to think about whether the surface parking lot can\u2019t be a whole lot more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday\u2019s Atlantic Wire listed MIT Urban Planner Eran Ben-Joseph\u2019s column in The New York Times called \u201cWhen a Parking Lot is so Much More\u201d as a top Monday read. The essence of Ben-Joseph\u2019s argument: The ubiquity of parking lots has\u2026led […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[3,8,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9th-and-colorado","category-general","category-placemaking"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1H2bI-ig","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1132"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2468,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132\/revisions\/2468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}