From parking spaces to a peopled space! For international Park(ing) Day, SWA’s Sausalito studio and Sausalito Beautiful created a peopled parklet from three metered parking spaces along the city’s waterfront at the Ferry Landing. We thought the many residents and tourists arriving in Sausalito via ferry should be greeted by a more welcoming waterfront than just a big parking lot full of cars.

Our design concept for the space, ERODED INUNDATION, was inspired by the idea of coastal flooding, and how life and our communities will be eroded and changed. At the same time, we envision how this parking space could be a people-space with layered infrastructure that sequesters carbon and cleans storm water before it’s lost forever. Instead of a precious waterfront space serving cars, we suggest this should be a place dedicated for residents, visitors and social interactions, enjoying the beautiful Sausalito waterfront that we all cherish. We see vast potential to reactivate this space and design with resilience in mind while protecting people, land and enhancing the community.

Park(ing) Day is an annual worldwide grass-roots event wherein people turn street parking spaces into something more useful and fun than car storage. It was started in 2005 in San Francisco by the design studio ReBar, and has since taken off worldwide, sparking conversations about the best and wisest use of street space.

Thanks to everyone for participating in Sausalito’s 2019 Park(ing) Day!  We built a park and we built a stronger community, too. Someday we hope to help Sausalito build a more activated and resilient waterfront.