Parklets: San Francisco & Beyond

 

Post by Holly Hendrix, Biophilic Cities Project Researcher, UVA Department of Urban & Environmental Planning

 

Parklets are the latest biophilic feature to invade the streets of urban America this year. The concept began in 2005 as design studio Rebar purchased a 2-hour metered parking spot in San Francisco and gave it a life of its own by bringing in sod, a bench, and a tree for the people passing to stop and enjoy. This demonstration, later known as Park(ing) day, caught on quickly and has been replicated in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Vancouver across the country. By 2011, Park(ing) Day had gained a strong foundation of support with thousands of people canvassing their cities to lease and personalize spaces. The city of San Francisco responded to this popular notion with an innovative plan to offer a special permitting process for temporary sidewalk extensions known as “parklets”.

“The project continues to expand to include interventions and experiments well beyond the basic ‘tree-bench-sod’ park typology,” according to parkingday.org, and in San Francisco there is no shortage of diversity among the more than 20 parklets that have been implemented this year and the more than 40 under review for permitting. Some serve as accessory seating for cafes while others serve as works of art or general public seating. Not all parklets consist of large amounts of greenery or are celebrated as urban forests. They incorporate varying degrees of natural grasses, trees, or plants, yet their ultimate goal – to draw people out of buildings and onto the street – is a promising gateway for future policies that push the envelope further towards integrating nature and culture into urban places.