PARK is a relocatable, portable parking booth which will migrate to numerous sites around Chicago over a one year period, from April 2000 to April 2001. By 'parking' at these sites, the booth implicates the land it sits on. It implies that you may park. It implies that you should pay. It implies surveillance, that your car is being monitored, that it will be safe. And it implies ownership of space. PARK points to space as retail value, where value is driven by proximity. Proximity to freeway interchanges, malls, restaurants, schools, businesses etc. Parking itself is a billion dollar a year 'interim' industry, built on what is most often a temporary use of land. Owners are speculators. They wait for the land to 'ripen', and in the meantime use it for parking until the property can be bought by a developer and taken to a 'higher and better use'. What does it mean to place the booth in a neglected lot vs. a lot already occupied by another booth vs. a lot currently used for cars but where parking is normally free? The fact that PARK is open to the public implies that whoever enters the booth could become the 'keeper' of the space, the one who accepts payment, who assumes responsibility. PARK is a structure in the service of transportation that suspiciously migrates. It seems appropriate that booths, as architecture, are not unlike cars, as architecture. Both juxtapose the enclosed sense of a private, personalized structure with the contrary fact of being surrounded by windows, leaving the person on permanent display. The role of 'parking attendant' forces conflicting, simultaneous states of vulnerability and security. He/she is both surveyor and surveyed.

Parking booth structures are innocuous but pervasive. I find in that a strange dignity. PARK celebrates the stubbornness of tiny, single-person architecture amidst the skyscrapers.

NAVIGATION PARK will be permanently open to the public. It's location will be tracked on a wall map outside Temporary Services, 202 S. State Street, Suite 1124, and at the Temporary Services web site: http://www.temporaryservices.org

At the back of this guide is a LOCATIONAL INVENTORY of all the single-story asphalt parking lots around downtown Chicago which use attendant booths. Parking lots are indexed by management company. Lots can be either owned and operated, leased or managed. Larger companies such as AllRight/CPS and General/InterParking usually do all three. Smaller companies tend to be owner-operators. The photographs included in this guide are indexed in the back. For your convenience, booth ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS have also been included

PERTINENT WEB LINKS Par-Kut: www.parkut.com Porta King: www.portaking.com

Thanks to: Brett Bloom, Melinda Fries, Kenneth Morrison, Paul Theriault, Joe Nicita, Mike O'Connell, J Cookson, Julie Pomerleau, Brien Rullman, Andrew and Tim

PHONE INTERVIEWS

Tom Baryl Peoples Auto Parking 648 9770

going towards self-parking facilities. eliminates the human, loss from theft he might be stealing - cuts cost & risks *culture of the attendant business is not to get had attendants are responsible, suspicious & suspected

Peoples is a small Niche Player own 5 lots, lease 4 lots most larger companies just manage properties for other owners land has to ripen, like wine. often parking is on lots until they can be appropriated for a 'higher and better use'

buying land is like buying stocks, get dividends

often you can't figure out who owns a property because it's tied up in a web of corporate shares

Matthew Day General Parking/InterParking 341 0011

They are retrofitting many booths to become Pay-on-Foot stations 'retro-fitted' with payment system

Land often becomes parking because of zoning laws & development hold-ups Buyers waiting for financing, etc.

General has 70% management deals on lots, the rest owned & leased

just recently merged/was taken over by InterParking 

Mike McKewan AllRight Parking/CPS (Central Parking) 578 1660

central business distict surface lots are usually an interim use of the property until the developer can take land to a 'higher & better' use

says the land tends to get developed in 7 year cycles, a boom every 7 years (sale of land to developers) so parking lots are often owned by speculators

AllRight has 5000 locations in 7 countries 30% managed 60% leased 10% owned

only peripheral downtown lots use attendants, places where the day rate is lower, where there is lots of turnover of space don't need attendants as much in the lots where people park all day because people leave their car and know that at some point a guy will come check if they're there

Just merged with Central parking Standard Parking was just bought out by APCOA (Airport Parking company...) over the last 3 - 4 years there's been a lot of consolodating of companies which cuts out the mid-sized guys but opens up more room for the single owned & operated businesses.

Parking is a Billion dollar a year industry

SUPPLIES

steel 2x2 angle iron - (4) 7'2" (2) 3'2" (2) 4'2" 1x1 angle iron - (1) 7'2" (2) 7' (2) 3'2" (2) 4' (2) 25" (4) 23" + miscellaneous steel sizes for sliding door track wood (2) sheets exterior grade 1/2" plywood (2) boards of 2x4 plexi (2) 4' x 3'2" & (2) 3' x 3'2" (2) 2" metal wheels clear silicone caulk liquid nails WD-40 clear coat polyurethene spray

ASSEMBLY

Basic Steel Structure Weld together 2 rectangular troughs from the 2" angle iron, each at 3'2" x 4'2". These are the base and roof of the booth.

Next connect the roof and base by welding in the 4 vertical lengths of 7'2" angle iron. Weld these verticals on the inside corners of the roof & base.

Now construct the cross bars that will separate the wood and the plexi. Between 2 of the verticals, at 4' up, lay in two pieces of the 1" angle iron. Lay them in side by side so they form a 'T' with its leg facing towards the inside of the booth and clamp them together. Weld in the cross bar. Repeat the same for 2 other sides of the booth, leaving one of the 4'2" sides open. (This will be the doorway side)

Next weld the 7'2" 1" angle iron lengthwise down the doorway side. This will form the division beween solid wall and the sliding door.

Sliding Door This door will slide across the front side of the booth, from left to right, on an inner track. 1st weld the door itself out of the 1" angle iron so that it is a 7' x 25" rectangle. Next weld a J shaped 'hooked' bar out of angle iron along the top side of the door and attach 2 wheels, one to either side of this piece. On the wall of the booth, weld a track for the wheels to slide across. Once the door is hung, weld in the 'T' shaped cross bars to match the height of the other cross bars. 

Roof The roof is a removable wooden cap that rests on top of the steel frame. Cut 4 lengths of 2x4s to fit on the outside of the steel structure and screw them together. Cap with a piece of exterior grade plywood cut to size.

Booth Side Panels Cut 5 panels from the exterior grade plywood to fit into the sliding door, and the 4 sides of the booth. Glue them in place from the inside using liquid nails or similar adhesive. Clamp and set to dry.

Window Panels Using clear silicone caulk, glue the plexi inside the sliding door and the 4 sides of the booth. Clamp and set to dry.