Parking Lot as “City Common”

Parking Lot Movie

In Michael Kimmelman’s piece “Paved, but Still Alive” for The New York Times (an extra reading from Road II), he emphasizes the potential for community space in the ubiquitous parking lot.  Citing landscape writer John Brinckerhoff’s belief that the “parking lot be treated like the city common, with its own community values,” Kimmelman mentions several projects that are working towards innovative use of the parking lot, recognizing these lots as spaces where diverse groups of people convene.  In the numerous examples of creative design and neighborhood gatherings, the parking lot houses an intentional community, for a moment in time.  It is interesting then to think of the parking lot’s innate culture – its everyday community values that exist beyond planned intervention.

When I think of the parking lot attendant in their both, waiting for cars to enter, pay and leave it seems like their own time could be as empty as the parking lot in which they sit.  They also, however, have a potential power in setting the cultural tone of their parking lot.  They are the cultural arbiters; they are part of the spoken language of the parking lot and they are also part of its design.  In the documentary film Parking Lot Movie, parking lot attendants exercise their ownership over The Corner Parking Lot in Charlottesville, Virginia.  Their booth is a constant study, with wall space completely dedicated to musings on the lot.  Additionally, they indulge in parking lot play with orange cones and spray paint different messages on the parking barriers.  It’s a parking lot that they both read and author.

Parking lots also have a lot to say about the space directly around them. Over March break on a St. Patrick’s Day trip to the local bowling alley, a friend looked at the parking lot and commented on the layout:  “There are three rows of cars with no empty lane in between.  This really tells you something about the place they are parked in front of!”  Thinking about this comment now, makes even more sense.  A parking lot is part of the social/cultural space of the buildings it is near.  The bowling alley, a place for leisure with limited hours in this small city, was a perfect place for parking congestion.  Announcements could easily be made to release congestion and on most weekend nights it is busy enough for triple lane parking.  People often stay until closing.  The parked cars imitate the social patterns of their collective owners.  What else does a parking lot say about the social space of buildings around it?