Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about Park(ing) Day in the context of one of my favorite art works/public space interventions, Gordon Matta-Clark’s Fake Estates. In the early 1970s Matta-Clark bought up a number of parcels of land being auctioned off by the City.  These small and awkwardly shaped pre-development plots were animated simply through Matta-Clark’s taking an interest in them.  His purchase of the land transformed the so-called remnant “gutterscapes” into new artzones with unlimited potential energy.  Though Matta-Clark died before he was able to actualize his vision for Fake Estates, the project raises all sorts of questions about types of space in the City and what they can (or should) be, and about the very notion of land ownership.

While Park(ing) Day is more in the spirit of sharing than owning, I think the ambition is parallel.  Just as Gordon Matta-Clark challenged New York’s patterns of (over)development by becoming an NYC land owner, there’s something slightly transgressive about parking yourself in a parking spot for an afternoon.  It implicitly questions the supremacy of the car and the time, space and money forked over to perpetuate that supremacy. 

Last year at the Center for Architecture we collaborated with Common Room, one of our 2008 New Practices winners, to create a satellite meeting/public interface space.  Passers-by were encouraged to engage firm members and the day ended up as a free-and-easy dialogue about the built environment.

By Jonah Stern