Downtown

[As We Tree It]

A new space shakes up the asphalt jungle

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Downtown welcomes a new self-contained chill spot.
Photo: L.E. Baskow

Downtown just had another spirited ribbon-cutting ... for a parking space. The 160 square feet at the corner of Sixth Street and Carson Avenue were transformed into a “parklet,” inspired by micro-parks in cities like San Francisco and designed and constructed collaboratively over more than 1,000 hours by Downtown Project, UNLV, Iowa State University, the Resort Gaming Group and the Nature Conservancy.

The self-contained chill spot was built with recyclable materials and aesthetically mashes up a bus stop and an Ikea dining room. A blooming perimeter of native globemallow and goldenbush insulates a long table and cube seats etched with trivia about local flora and fauna (black-tailed jackrabbits can run 40 mph?!), a topographic map pointing to the Valley’s wild places and boards for checkers or chess (game pieces can be checked out at adjacent businesses). The etchings are designed to darken with use, winking at the creators’ hope that the parklet will draw many passersby into spontaneous conversation and connection. They also hope it will be one of many.

“There’s just two acres of park space for every 10,000 residents in Downtown Las Vegas, whereas citywide, we have over 30 acres per 10,000 residents. So we think it begins to address that shortage,” RGG’s John Curran said at Tuesday’s unveiling, adding that built-in nature lessons connect the urban core to the great outdoors.

Councilman Bob Coffin lauded the creativity contained in such a small slice of Las Vegas. “You don’t need a lot of space to express yourself; you don’t need a lot of space to enjoy yourself.”

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