Kuna, ID

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: Kuna has a large parking lot in the center of its downtown that goes largely underused for most of the year. To spark the community's imagination, the City and Idaho Smart Growth hosted the Park for a Day event, which turned the lot into a pop-up plaza. The event featured live music, a food vendor and sketches illustrating ways the space could be permanently transformed. Attendees also contributed their own designs for the parking lot. Suggestions included using the space for a series of short-term, recurring events, such as an Oktoberfest, a Christmas village, a renaissance fair or themed dance nights. The City went on to explore several ideas from the pop-up event, including paving the parking lot with solar panels and installing green stormwater infrastructure to sustain landscaping at the site.

Central Falls, RI

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: This project will weatherize a community pavilion, making it welcoming in rain and colder weather. The work will enable Progreso Latino to host more activities, particularly for older adults.

Fayetteville, AR

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: This project replaced a gazebo and pergola on the grounds of Hillcrest Towers, a high-rise for older adults and people with disabilities. It also added new seating, raised garden beds, solar lighting and an outdoor projector and screen.