Scenes from Park(ing) Day 2012 [slideshow]

Did you stumble across people coloring flowers, lounging on curvy benches, working at desks, or camping in a parking space on Friday? September 21 was Philadelphia’s fifth annual Park(ing) Day, a daylong event when design firms, community groups, and city agencies transform ordinary in-street parking spots into unique, temporary public spaces. This year there were 59 installations, nearly doubling last year’s total.

Christine Fisher and I pounded the pavement, visiting about 20 park(ing) spaces across the city. Among our favorites: Pumpkin’s new parklet in South Street West, Camp WRT on Market Street, Groundswell’s shipping container turned art gallery on Chestnut (bonus points for the Holly Whyte quote border: “The street is the river of life of the city, the place where we come together, the pathway to the center.”), the Water Department and Community Design Collaborative’s Soak it Up Cafe by Reading Terminal, and a “color garden” of paper plate flowers on 17th Street.

Check out selections from our Park(ing) Day tour in the slideshow above. Photographer Gary Reed, a frequent Eyes on the Street Flickr contributor, hit up Germantown’s collection of Park(ing) Day installations and shared his shots with us (below).