PARK(ing) Day 2018 Enlivens Downtown

It’s called PARK(ing) Day, but not the kind of parking you normally envision. Across the globe on Friday parking spaces were temporarily reclaimed by people instead of cars to celebrate PARK(ing) Day, including in downtown Milwaukee. Twelve different organizations took over 12 different downtown parking spots, each offering something different to the area.

The Two-Fifty building in partnership with Quorum Architects oversaw their “Hop Stop” where passersby could enjoy nitro cold brew coffee from Pilcrow Coffee while learning about the new Milwaukee Streetcar. Meanwhile The Sam Belton Jazz Experience could be heard across the street in front of City.Net Cafe.

Down E. Wisconsin Ave. you could run into Sculpture Milwaukee teaching people how to make their own tin foil sculptures and then eventually run into the Westown Pop-Up Farmers’ Market featuring Alice’s Garden Urban Farm and the Downtown GO! Kart filled with all kinds of games to play.

Local artist Tzng Lee, in partnership with Milwaukee County Transit System, transformed a bus shelter near 740 N. Water St. with a lovely mosaic pattern as part of The Bus Art Project MKE. She even allowed guests to decorate the inside of the paper pieces of the mosaic.

Cathedral Square Friends showed how much progress they’ve made in restoring the park including adding new hanging flower baskets and getting the county to aerate the grass which hasn’t been done in years. The friends group arranged to have the sod used during PARK(ing) Day to be installed in a heavily worn area of the park.

Even Urban Milwaukee’s two founders Dave Reid and Jeramey Jannene — longtime participants of PARK(ing) Day —  joined in on the fun, providing lounge seating and bean bag toss at 755 N. Milwaukee St. Meanwhile Rinka Chung Architecture provided their own lounge space across the street.

Check out photos of the fun below.

Photo Gallery

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