Sole Purpose: PARK(ing) Day 2016

For the last decade, designers, artists, and urban advocates have celebrated PARK(ing) Day , an international effort to temporarily reimagine metered parking spaces as public spaces that serve the community. Ranging from miniature parks and coffee shops to tutoring centers and free health clinics, PARK(ing) day interventions both contribute to lively and active streetscapes, and offer humanitarian services to the marginalized members of the community, many of whom call public space “home.”

For this year’s PARK(ing) Day, urban planners and landscape architects from the award-winning international planning and design firm Design Workshop have partnered with Central Presbyterian Church, a critical provider of services to downtown Austin’s population of people who are currently homeless, to transform two parking spaces at E. 8th St. and Brazos St. into a street fair of community service. Through a collaboration with the church’s clients that are currently homeless or low-income, we are collecting donated new and lightly used shoes and boots, and dispersing them to those in need from a makeshift “shoe store” housed in a parking space. Any leftover shoe “inventory” will then be donated to Central Presbyterian for later dispersal, and by nightfall, the parking space will return housing automobiles--at least until next year’s PARK(ing) Day.

We are raising money for the materials--wood, fasteners, and finishes--to construct the installation depicted above. Your help will allow us to offer a sophisticated addition to downtown Austin's streetscape, and to provide a dignified space for some of our cities' most marginalized residents. Additionally, you can donate your new or gently used shoes and boots at one of two drop-off locations at 490 Brazos ST., or at the TOM'S store on South Congress .  


We are eternally grateful for your support. To learn more about the project and other opportunities to get involved, visit us on Facebook  and Instagram .