Edison Students Work with Architects to create PARK(ing) Day

This past September Minnesota Women in Landscape Architecture (WILA-MN) teamed up with Edison High Schoolstudents and teachers to create and install two parks in front of Sen Yai Sen Lek restaurant (the same location occupied by a parklet last summer). WILA-MN members mentored two classes of Edison students over the course of two weeks to teach them about the design and planning process. Students used that time to generate ideas for programming the public space, as well as planning the necessary design elements and building materials.

The third Friday in September is PARK(ing) Day, an annual international event in which citizens convert parking spaces into temporary public places. Since this initiative began in 2005 it has expanded to encompass 975 parks in 162 cities in 35 countries on 6 continents. The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to highlight the need for more open urban space and generate discussion about how public space is created and allocated.

One class settled on a park dedicated to board games and face-painting, while the other class decided to install a miniature soccer field in their parking space. Other activities included a lounge/rest area, a photo booth and a space for traditional Somali dance presentations. The site in front of Sen Yai Sen Lek was selected because it was walkable from Edison High School. Local businesses loaned props and design elements, including straw bales from Mother Earth Gardens and plants from Terra Vista Landscaping.

Over the course of four hours students played games, painted faces, relaxed and interacted with passersby, including children from a local daycare, residents and visitors. Some students performed traditional Somali dances. Another group kicked a soccer ball back and forth on their soccer field manufactured out of artificial turf and straw bales. Yet other students peered down at a Blokus board or balanced a teetering Jenga tower.

Edison was recommended to WILA-MN as a partner by Stantec, the international engineering firm that has been a partner on the Edison Green Campus renovations. Maddie Peck, a landscape architect from Bolton & Menk, spoke about plans for future PARK(ing) Days in Northeast, saying "This year the students didn't really know what to expect, but next year's students are going to have seen all this and will be excited and ready for us."