Philadelphia, along with nearly two-hundred other cities, will participate in Park(ing) Day today. Celebrated annually since 2005 in cities all over the world, Park(ing) Day participants repurpose metered parking spaces for a day, turning them into public spaces. Now in its fourth year in Philadelphia, local artists, architects, designers, and a few city departments have created nearly thirty mini parks and exhibits around Center City to provide a momentary respite from the daily grind or make us think a little about energy, transportation, design, or planning.

We snapped some photos of a handful of Park(ing) spaces, and encourage you to check a few out in person if you live or work downtown. The exhibits should be in place until around 3pm, or possibly a little later. Yeah, late notice, we know. Sorry.

20th St., above Sansom St.

The Park(ing) space above studies the temperature difference between grass and pavement, sun and shade. As expected, grass in the shade is cooler than pavement in the sun. We’ve gotten an unconfirmed report that Mr. Wizard will be showing up here later this afternoon.

19th St., above Walnut St.

A giant pink windmill, to make us think about the possibilities of wind power. We were considering offering to purchase it, until we remembered that we probably don’t have room at home for ANOTHER giant windmill. Sometimes you just gotta know when enough is enough.

Broad St., just south of Walnut St.

A bunch of windmills, a bench, and a little sod. Pretty fun. What are those windmills sitting in?

Just as we suspected

Subway grates, beer bottles, and wine bottles. We were assured that no beer or wine was wasted in the construction of this Park(ing) space.

Walnut St., just east of Broad St.

Cool parklet from Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. And they gave us soft pretzels!

Sydenham St., just below Walnut St.

One of two Bicycle Corrals from the Bicycle Coalition. Unlike the other Park(ing) spaces, this will be installed at this location until early November. Let’s see, one car parking space traded for 12-14 bike parking spaces? Not too shabby. Oh and did we mention the corral looks kind of like a car?

Coooool

A full map of today’s Park(ing) spaces can be found here. Check them out quickly, or you’ll have to wait a whole year to see them again. And that would be a darn shame.