Functional Art in Historic Germantown
By Veronica Foster, Community Development Director
4 min read After the Civic Design Center’s 14th PARK(ing) Day comes to a close, it is important to celebrate what made this year unique. The new parklet and the block party celebration were a perfect representation of the Historic Germantown neighborhood and its local artists. There was also a special pop-up parklet designed and built by Belmont University architecture students! Read on to get the full details.
Photo by Andrew Keithly Photography
Germantown neighbors and community members far and wide came in droves to celebrate PARK(ing) Day 2025 on 6th Ave N last Sunday. Over a thousand people—and what feels like just as many four-legged friends—visited the Block Party with 30 hyperlocal artists, retail vendors, and community organizations. Businesses like Mother’s Ruin and Sauced popped up right in front of their brick-and-mortars while a few others rolled their garment racks from a block or two away. Even with all the pop-up activations, you couldn’t miss The Cupcake Collection’s new parklet that has now replaced one parking space permanently. In this year’s installment of the Parklet Design Competition, ESa took the grand prize. After two months of coordination, their winning design was fully built with donated materials and labor by JE Dunn Construction in just over two weeks with the first year of permit fees waived by the Nashville Department of Transportation.
Photo by Andrew Keithly Photography
What makes a neighborhood unique?
The Germantown community has always embraced art, so the fact that the parklet is an art piece in itself fits perfectly into the neighborhood context. Our team also made an intentional effort to involve artists from 100 Taylor Arts Collective and other studios around the neighborhood to participate in the Block Party. It is with this mindset that we go into each hyperlocal PARK(ing) Day Block Party. While PARK(ing) Day Nashville activated downtown parking spaces from 2012-2022 with pop-up art installations and thought provoking community engagement opportunities, the last 3 years have been a testament to our neighborhoods. PARK(ing) Day 2023 had the same homegrown feel as the block itself where Wilburn Street Tavern sits across from the historic, yet crumbling, Roxy Theater. With crafts and homemade mini golf for the kids and cheap beer, hot dogs and burgers for the adults, it felt like a traditional block party.
From local musicians performing in front of trendy Bagelshop and its equally trendy parklet to focused activations about the neighborhood’s new library and transit-oriented development, PARK(ing) Day 2024 couldn’t have been more “Hip Donelson” if it tried. This recent evolution of PARK(ing) Day to the Design Competition and celebratory Block Party feels like a representation of Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s ask for neighbors to stay. This is geared towards Nashvillians as a reminder to embrace what makes our city and each of our neighborhoods unique. Photos below by Andrew Keithly Photography.
What makes a winning parklet?
Photo by Andrew Keithly Photography
As we have made it clear, a winning parklet design fits the context of the neighborhood while being completely unique. However, we set an even higher bar for the Belmont University O’More College of Architecture students for their own parklet design competition this year. The students had to learn about parklets, design and build something beautiful with a very limited budget in just a few weeks. The Design Center team taught the participating classes about what makes parklets fun and different from other architecture projects, then the students visited the site in Germantown where the temporary parklet would be built to understand the unique neighborhood context. Second and third year architecture students then split into 6 teams and came up with concepts using the theme of “play.” Not only were the judges reviewing the designs based on its connection to the neighborhood, its approach to “play,” and how their design could evolve into a permanent parklet, but it had to be a fun, one-day activation that could be sustainably recycled. The students had just 5 days to update their designs after a critique before final judging!
We were so incredibly impressed with all the designs that the students came up with, but the winning team was Symphony of Senses, led by David Caples, Morgan Geisinger, Daniel Masiglat, and Rosie Hoover, in Professor Barry Ballinger’s class. Their concept was permeable from both the street and the sidewalk, which was critical to the Block Party approach. They also had an impressive approach to a shade structure that could be adjusted easily to accommodate the harsh sun on 6th Ave N. The group’s overall presentation demonstrated the depth of thought that went into the design because they planned to activate all five senses with their one-day activation. There was a scent diffuser for smell, fresh lemonade for taste, interactive musical instruments for both touch and sound, and of course, a structure that was made to be looked at. Finally, all the students came together to manage the project from concept to reality—and it was an absolute success. Kiddos, in particular, wanted to hang out there the whole day! Photos below by Beth Gwinn.
What comes next?
If you are reading this and you think a parklet is something you would like to steward for your own community, we are here to help you decide if you are in a location that could be both feasible and successful. After PARK(ing) Day, there was some discussion about utilizing the Belmont student parklet as a pop-up structure for organizations to test the idea of a parklet, and as this materializes, we will be sure to share information. Regardless, you don’t have to wait until the next PARK(ing) Day rolls around to make plans for your own parklet. Grants could provide the best opportunity for local organizations that might not have the capital in their normal operating budgets to be able to fund the design and build of a new public parklet. Sacrificing one parking space is beyond worth the inception of high quality street activations, and we hope you agree. Check out NDOT’s website to read the Parklet Manual and get ideating!