Combining Pavement and Reusable Materials to Make Urban Parks

Allison Arieff argues that cities should look to reversible parks modeled on the Pavement to Parks program to prevent blight, combat the practice of land banking, and model sustainable practices.

1 minute read

September 28, 2009, 11:00 AM PDT

By franny.ritchie


"San Francisco's 'Pavement to Parks' program creates spaces for people by reclaiming excess roadway, through the use of simple and low-cost design interventions. What's innovative about these parks isn't so much the design as the implementation. As Andres Power, urban designer at the San Francisco Planning Department explains, because there is no structure in place to do something like this 'it fundamentally changes the old impasse of years of planning and just lets the space evolve over time.'"

Thanks to Franny Ritchie

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 in NYTimes: By Design Blog

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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