Ever wondered what the city might look like if it didn't have so much asphalt? Well, tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 17) in a handfull of places around Baltimore, you can get an idea.
Activists, artists, landscape architects and just plain folks will be converting curbside parking spaces into pocket parks, complete with grass, plants - even a green roof in at least one case.
It's all part of PARK(ing) Day, an annual event intended to demonstrate the need for more urban open space. It began in San Francisco (of course) five years ago and has gone global since.
"The goal is really to show people what even just a little green space can do to the city," says Joan Floura, co-owner of Floura Teeter, a landscape architect firm in the 300 block W. Franklin Street that's camping out Friday in three spaces in front of the office.
There'll be grass, of course, and a small green roof outside Floura Teeter to show how they're made and how they soak up storm runoff. There'll be more than a bit of whimsy, too.
"We're having croquet out in Fanklin Street," Floura says. "How many times a year can you do that?"
Anybody can get in on the fun - though it's too late for this year. Go here if you'd like to get in on this DIY event in 2011.
Here in Baltimore, you'll have an extra hoop to jump through. In the city, it's illegal to block off a parking space without a permit. So you have to contact the Department of General Services, fill out a form, pay $65 for use of the curb lane and 15 per space - and wait three days (That's why it's too late for this year). You can get the form online here. Fax or mail it in, or go in person to the permits office at 200 Holliday Street. Ask for Helen Marinelli, the Queen of Permits.
Meanwhile, here are the others besides Floura Teeter who'll be PARK(ing) on Friday:
1) Planning firm EDSA Inc. will creat a "Guerilla Park" on Commerce Stret north of Pratt Street (just north of World Trade Center);
2) Architects Ayers Saint Gross will have a storm-water education park at Thames Street and South Broadway;
3) MD chapter American Society of Landscape Architects will have a "green living room" on St. Paul Street just south of Mt. Royal Avenue;
4) Morgan State University landscape architecture students will show they're not just shrub experts at 40-50 E. Cross St. in Federal Hill;
5) Artist Marian Glebes, in collaboration with Parks & People, will set up a campsite at North Avenue and North Charles Street in front of the Wind Up Space bar.
(Floura Teeter's 2009 PARK(ing) oasis, courtesy the company)