Experimenting With the Margin: Parklets and Plazas as Catalysts in Community and Government

Page 24

4. Public-­‐Private Partnership – As interventions which integrate functional, aesthetic, and experiential considerations, design professionals are often critical initiators, participants, and advocates for projects and programs. This community-­‐based initiative, sometimes integrated with local government planning activity, can predate implementation by up to a decade. Furthermore, the public-­‐private arrangement also aligns with the fiscal realities of governments, who rely increasingly upon monetary and creative investments from private groups and citizens. The public-­‐private structure also touches issues of privatization, policing, and design ethics. 1.2.3 – The Parklet

The term ‘parklet’ has heretofore been used informally to refer to a small

urban park, ‘mini park’ or ‘pocket park’ (Gillool 2010; Martin 1998; The Washington Post 1967; Z Waugh 1947; Zion 1962). This thesis recognizes the Parklet as distinct urban design typology with specific spatial characteristics prototyped in San Francisco: the Parklet occupies a curbside parking lane, often reclaiming contiguous spaces, functionally expanding the pedestrian realm of the sidewalk.

Parklet installations are essentially temporary. Projects are granted permits

on a renewable annual basis, which implies a limit to their lifetimes and their potential to effect – as individual sites or cumulatively – more permanent interventions and policies. Abad Ocubillo 2012

12


Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.