During a recent meeting with the Vancity Community Foundation I learned about the potential of church parking lots. Specifically, how creatively re-purposing these spaces has the potential to transform communities into more inclusive and engaging places.
Church parking lots are – more or less – used for about five or six hours per week (on Sundays). For the vast majority of time they do not realize their potential as community spaces. Concrete and asphalt also absorbs heat, making cities way hotter than they should be. This kind of productive and environmental underachieving is compounded by the fact that these parking lots often sit on valuable real estate, which makes them even more treasured as possible spaces of social purpose. The need to re-imagine how we use spaces like church parking lots is particularly evident in cities like Vancouver, which is internationally renowned for being unaffordable. Finally, churches are mission-driven organizations, so there is, perhaps, more of a chance that their leaders would be interested in transforming this real estate into places for the greater good than, say, an organization that was driven primarily by financial profit.
Intrigued by this idea, I sought out the knowledge and experience of my friend, Stewart Burgess, an architect, leader in the Heritage Movement, and builder of cool things in public spaces. At this time, I’ll turn the article over to Stewart, who has some ideas about how we might make more creative, inclusive and impactful use of church parking lots.
Affordable Housing
In Vancouver some congregations are shrinking and consolidating, often selling lands for private development to finance continued church operations. The most recent example of this is the historic Kerridale Baptist Church at 5870 East Boulevard, slated to be demolished and replaced with six storey condominiums. What if instead of selling these valuable assets the congregation could partner with social – or mission – driven enterprises, such as Vancity Savings Credit Union, to develop their own rental or subsidized housing? Income from rental properties could subsidize church operations and raise the profile of these organizations in the community, perhaps leading to a more worshippers.
Playful Design Interventions
Not all churches are shrinking. Certain evangelical churches such as the Westside Church or the Redemption Church at the Hollywood are active and growing. How is parking used at these organizations? Might they start to consider alternative uses for their parking areas? Saturday Farmer’s Markets, midweek outdoor movies, music festivals or street hockey games? Simple interventions such as painting playing lines on the asphalt or putting accessible electrical outlets could allow other uses when parking is not required.
Create Your Own Space
As recently demonstrated at the 2008 Gastown Summer Drive-In Movie series and the 2014 Vancouver Public Space Network Bike-In Movie parking lots are blank canvases on which many kinds of programming can occur. Take the initiative and make something happen!
However you like to imagine and create, Stewart and I hope that you will look at empty urban spaces differently. Because they have so much potential.
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Stewart Burgess is an intern architect in Vancouver BC that is interested in good design, great public spaces and the best of heritage. He is currently interning at Bruce Carscadden Architect.