Pop-up parks can be found in the metered parking spots of the South Entrance to the CAP building.
Ball State College of Architecture and Planning students want to make a statement on Friday with their event, CAP Park(ing) Day Pop-up Park.
From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., CAP students will celebrate National Park(ing) Day by calling attention to a possible alternative to unused parking lots with homemade pop-up parks.
Trevor Preddy, a junior urban planning major and president of the Student Planning Association, describes pop-up parks as “temporary, miniature, homemade structures with previously grown plants that represent just one alternative to parking lots.”
He hopes that the parks will persuade people to lean toward sustainability and away from an "overly condensed urban culture." Preddy also emphasizes the importance of recognizing driving alternatives — such as biking, walking and taking buses — and wants to inspire innovative substitutions to parking lots.
Danah Alqunfuzi, president of the student chapter of American Society of Landscape Architecture, said finding alternatives to parking lots has multiple benefits, including the improvement of living. She added that asphalt creates an unnecessarily large amount of heat, and implementing these pop-up parks would reduce this detrimental heating effect.
“There’s a cost associated with parking,” Alqunfuzi said. “Everything affects you in some way or another. Treating urban cities in a better way can directly improve our lives.”
Preddy said the best part of the experience is the installation of the pop-up parks, but he also enjoys “figuring out how it will work, creating [the parks] and seeing it come true in real life” as well as talking with people about the event.
Multiple organizations on campus, including the SPA, SASLA and the American Institute of Architecture Students came together to plan, build and organize the event, which “shows unity and an interdisciplinary, shared interest and concern,” Preddy said.
Students are encouraged to attend CAP Park(ing) Day and take part in games and activities. Students are also welcome to study and relax in the pop-up parks.
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