“The original idea was to reclaim an urban space, but since we’re in the quad, we wanted to make it a little more provocative,” Stanton said.
Other installations in the quad included a car model made of steel rods and kites, a Zen garden of ocean beach sand and recycled tires, and a meditation labyrinth of reused cardboard and pine needles.
In order to ensure the event ran smoothly, PARK(ing) Day coordinators worked with a host of campus departments and professionals said Mimi Sheiner, a lecturer in the design and industry department and one of the professors of the design classes responsible for the temporary structures.
“We were working with professional advisers from three architectural firms, and Wendy Bloom who is with the campus planning department and over 50 design and industry students,” Sheiner said. “And that’s all in two weeks.”
Cooperation with city departments was also a critical task for PARK(ing) Day.
“Caitlin did all of that for us. Last year we didn’t have the police department coordinated and last year (students) were panhandling to pay the meters,” Sheiner said. “This year she had (parking spaces) quartered off with police signs at them.”
Though the street installations were on city property, as long as no one complained, no one would be cited said Tim Kearns, parking and transportation supervisor.
“By law they’re not supposed to but if nobody mentions it, nobody cares,” Kearns said as he sat in a parked vehicle on Tapia Drive, meters away from another PARK(ing) Day design.
Organizations like SF State club Ecostudents also set up in the quad to support the message of environmental sustainability, intended to win students over with smoothies made by a bike-powered blender and borrowed potted plants from a local plant nursery.
Despite the message of PARK(ing) Day, some students found alternative modes of transportation as an impossible solution.
“I come from San Jose, I have to drive,” said Kathryn Torres, a senior studying English literature, who commutes on her own to school twice a week.
Maggie Pan, a visual communication senior who worked on a netted maze on Centennial Drive also drove on her own from her home in San Francisco.
“I drove here,” Pan admitted. “I might take BART or bus because it’s really hard to find parking at the school and the garage is expensive.”
Nonetheless, many observers of the event appreciated PARK(ing) Day’s environmentally conscious sentiments.
“It’s a really cool concept, but I really like, in general, the fact that all this stuff is being talked about,” said Ashley Ommen, a painting and sculpture senior, after she explored the cardboard maze erected in the quad’s center lawn. “I wish more people would be aware of the repercussions.”
