Putting the PARK Back into Parking

What if you tried to pull your car into a parking space and there was a park in it?

Photo by ekai

Zen garden made from reclaimed materials

If REBAR, a San Francisco-based art collective, has anything to say about it, that should be a frequent occurrence. Beginning in 2005, the group has been organizing and promoting PARK(ing) Day, an annual “one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform parking spots into PARK(ing) spaces: temporary public parks.” Ready to see something more than rows of cars lining your own city’s streets? You, too, can create a PARK for PARK(ing) Day 2008, September 19, which, like last year’s event, is cosponsored by the Trust for Public Land.

All in all, 2008 promises to be an especially big year for REBAR, as it has been invited to participate in the eleventh Venice Architecture Biennale.

REBAR will have two projects at the Biennale, which takes place between September 14 and November 24. PARK(ing) Day will be included in the “Out There: Architecture Beyond Building” exhibition in the Italian Pavilion. Representing the United States in “Into the Open: Positioning Practice” in the American Pavilion will be Panhandle Bandshell. The Bandshell, constructed by REBAR, the Finch Mob, and CMG Landscape Architecture, was originally located in the panhandle of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.