Park(ing) Day Returns to Reimagine Public Space

Leslie Bateman·September 21, 2026

McCarty Holsaple McCarty Architects + Interior Designers with Legacy Parks Foundation, Park(ing) Day, Market Street, September 2026

Cars are useful. They take us where we want to go, whenever we want to go there. Wow. But their utilitarianism diminishes substantially when they’re just sitting there: large, immobile hunks of metal, plastic, rubber and glass taking up space, quietly waiting to ferry us to our next destination.

For instance: When my profoundly unremarkable 2015 Subaru Forester is parked on Gay Street, it isn’t contributing to society in any measurable way. I mean, it doesn’t even have any fun bumper stickers. It’s just a lifeless 3,500-pound squatter occupying 157.5 square feet of prime center-city real estate that could, reimagined, become something much more useful or even exciting.

I’m not sure where we’re at two years later, but a 2024 City-commissioned survey of parking in downtown Knoxville pointed out that 25% of developable land downtown is dedicated to parking (93 acres, equal to about 60 Market Squares). Most of that space is surface parking (74 acres). Woof! Read more in Alan’s breakdown of that survey here.

First dreamed up in 2005 by San Francisco design collective Rebar, Park(ing) Day began with a single metered spot converted into a temporary pocket park. The point: to highlight just how much urban real estate is consumed by cars, and how much more community-building could happen if we reclaimed some of that space for people.

Since then, the idea has spread worldwide. Every third Friday in September, parking spaces in cities across the globe are turned into public “parklets” for a day. Knoxville officially joined in 2018 with a Gay Street installation. There was an informal celebration of the day, with a few rogue participants, for a few years before that. IOK, in its self-appointed role as the city’s resident busybody on the subject of surface parking, has covered PARK(ing) Day nearly every year: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2018 preview, 2018 review.

Knoxville’s Park(ing) Day was organized this year by YES! Knoxville, a grassroots nonprofit advocating for more housing and transportation choices, along with more community spaces close to home.

YES! Knoxville, Park(ing) Day, Market Street, September 2026

Here’s YES! board president Jack Coker speaking on YES!’s mission and the idea behind Park(ing) Day:

It once again took to Market Street with local teams transforming curbside parking spaces into mini-parks, lounges and creative gathering places.

Participants included Barber McMurry Architects, Bike Walk Knoxville, City of Knoxville Office of Sustainability, East Tennessee Community Design Center, Fred’s Around the Corner, Knox-Knox County Planning, Knoxville All Hallow’s Eve Society, Knoxville Community Development Corporation, McCarty Holsaple McCarty Architects + Interior Designers with Legacy Parks Foundation, Sanders Pace Architects, Trees Knoxville and Two Oaks Architecture + Interiors.

There was continuous interest and engagement from passersby, most of whom were simply going about their day downtown and stumbled into something unexpected. For me, it was a heartening reminder of how many people and institutions are so passionately invested in making Knoxville a better place to live, work and play.

Here’s a virtual walkthrough, starting with People’s Choice Award winner McCarty Holsaple McCarty with Legacy Parks which shared a preview of art installations coming to the SoKno Rail Trail. The Juried Award went to KCDC, which focused its parklet on its Transforming Western initiative. I was a judge, and let me tell you, it was a VERY difficult decision. Each of the parklets were so creative and inspiring in their own way.