Kids & Family

Bloustein and Landscaping Students at RU Create "Parklet"

A "parklet" was temporarily open on Livingston Avenue Friday afternoon to raise awareness of the possibility of public green space in New Brunswick.

Livingston Avenue was the site of an impromptu park on Friday afternoon, in recognition of PARK(ing) Day.

Two parking spaces on Livingston Avenue between George and New Streets were roped off and transformed into a mini-park, complete with flowers, tables and a bench and artificial turf to simulate grass.

Nick Tufaro of the NJ Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, said the purpose of the "parklet" was to raise awareness of the possibility of adding open, green spaces to urban centers.

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The project was orchestrated by the New Jersey Student Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (NJASLA) and Walk Bloustein Bike Bloustein of the Bloustein School.

Nearly $3,000 in donated materials furnished the project, Tufaro said. Sponsors included professional leaders of NJASLA, Barton Nurseries of Edison, Chatham Landscape Contractors and Nursery, Field Turf of Wyckoff, the Heldrich Hotel, Monrovia Nurseries, the New Brunswick Elks, Ironsmith and the Rutgers Gardens, according to a press release about the event.

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The parklet was open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday.

According to the project organizers, green spaces are more than picturesque areas for the public to gather in. They serve as filters for groundwater, can absorb pollutants, and provide shade on heat-absorbing materials like asphalt and concrete.

Alexandra Bolinder-Gibsand, 22, a senior studying landscape architecture at Cook College, said the public made use of the space throughout the day, with anywhere from 5-15 people in it at a time.


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