Interactive Features

Experience the Gateway to Trails and Forests!

Organizations: Nature Explore, U.S. Forest Service, Arbor Day Foundation, and Dimensions Educational Research Foundation

Our trails and forests lead to great adventure and discovery, and with help from the Smart Growth community we hope to continue to protect and share them with our next generation of environmental stewards. Nature Explore Classrooms serve as gateways to connect even our youngest children with nature. We then encourage inspired families to ultimately visit our parks, trails, and national forests.

Come and release your inner child in our parklet! Build a fort from your childhood, play a musical instrument, and explore all the creative things you can do with natural items. Discover a connection to Mark Twain National Forest and rekindle your passion for these national treasures.

This parklet produced in close partnership between the U.S. Forest Service, Arbor Day Foundation and Dimensions Educational Research Foundation, working together to get families outdoors.

Smart Growth Will Protect our Trees and Prairies!

Organizations: Forest Releaf of Missouri, U.S. Forest Service, and ASLA Student Chapter at Washington University in St. Louis

The rich, native forests and grasslands around St. Louis – like those in and around your own community – hold tremendous value worth protecting. These landscapes define the places we call home. They call out to us to slow down and may stop us in our tracks and take our breath away. Research finds that trees and grasslands improve the air we breathe and the water we drink; they cool us in summer and slow the winds of winter; and reduce our stress levels to such a degree that they may literally improve our productivity and save our lives. In a partnership between Forest ReLeaf of Missouri, the U.S. Forest Service, and the ASLA Student Chapter at Washington University this unique parklet does all of the above. Please stop by for a dose of nature during your busy days at the conference.

Healthy Food, Urban Agriculture, and Pollinator Habitat

Organizations: PlaceMatters, PGAV Planners, SWT Design, Knox College Office of Sustainability, and Urban Harvest STL 

The local food movement aims to connect food producers and food consumers in the same geographic region in order to develop more self-reliant and resilient food networks; improve local economies; and have a positive impact on health and communities. PlaceMatters, PGAV Planners, SWT Design, Knox College Office of Sustainability, and Urban Harvest STL have all teamed together to create this fun, informative, and nutritious parklet! This parklet will feature a small greenhouse, plants for eating and plants that attract pollinators, places to sit, and a bike equipped with a smoothie making apparatus. While pedaling away to make your smoothie, or waiting for your buddy to make one for the two of you, there’s information to read about the local food/placemaking movement and how pollinators play a large role in the urban environment.

Creating Energy and Excitement in PLAYces

Organizations: Kaboom, Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection

Energy is something that we use and create daily. When we take the opportunity to exert energy at public spaces like bus stops, health clinics, sidewalks, streetscapes, we are able to transform places of potential frustration into moments of joy. While interacting in this PLAYce, full of Rigamajg parts and KaBOOM! pieces, ask yourself “How complete are our public spaces if we don’t use them to their full potential?” and  “Is there a way to capture the energy we exude to power the things we need like cell phones and tablets?”  In this parklet installation, we will demonstrate how innovative places that put kids first in public space design not only create sustainable, equitable cities that provide kids with opportunities to play, but also encourage design creativity using elements of energy, art, music, nature, and more. Come play with us!

The Learning Lab

Organizations: WALC Institute, Placematters

There are many types of parklets… from temporary or pop-up parklets, to long-term installations, from seating to play structures and anything else you can imagine. The Learning Lab is a “parklet on parklets” that will explore the different ways communities can repurpose a space mostly relegated to private vehicle storage to something that can help revitalize and humanize the streetscape. Learn about many of the creative uses of these spaces, and witness on-screen images and videos of inspiring parklets around North America. Sample materials for pop-up design will also be at the parklet so that visitors can experiment with their different uses.

Taking it to the Streets – Good Planning + Driverless

Organization: GreaterPlaces

This parklet ponders what needs to happen to combine livable, healthy & sustainable community design with smart city technology & driverless vehicles.