Pocket Parks: A Small Bet That Makes a Big Difference

Volunteers working on a sign for a pocket park in St. Louis, MO. (Source: YARD & Company.)

It began with a walk, a few photos, some sketches of how a public space could be reimagined, and then Samantha Smugala took a step in making her city of St Louis, Missouri, a better place. “It was during the pandemic when I finally was like, you know, maybe I should actually do something with these sketches because clearly it's something that's interesting to me.” Smugala founded the nonprofit Pocket Parks in 2021 to help neighborhoods transform vacant spaces into loveable community spots at low costs, focusing on using resources already available. In 2022, Pocket Parks teamed up with YARD & Company to build a downtown park in 24 hours. 

“We start with what we have, and build from the ground up, hand in hand with the community with very little resources,” said Smugala on how Pocket Parks operates. “So we really focus on low-cost, highly feasible, very quick projects.”

Before YARD and Pocket Parks came along, this specific downtown space was not a very welcoming, or memorable area. It was lightly used by locals, featuring a picnic table or two, and Smugala recalled there being trash in the area. The spot, which is snuggled between apartments and office spaces, is used as a backyard space by local renters, said Kevin Wright, principal and co-founder of YARD. “And so the design sort of stemmed from this idea of, how could this become more of a true backyard?” 

With the help of local volunteers, some being organized from the American Planning Association’s Missouri conference, the “backyard” was transformed with delightful colors painted along the building, sun covers over the picnic tables, trash cans, and a few other simple additions to beautify the space. “We didn't overthink it,” said Wright. “It was like: it needs some shade. It needs an edge to it. It needs a welcoming entry. We needed plants, a little more seating, and lighting.”

The completed pocket park. (Source: YARD & Company.)

(Source: YARD & Company.)

When the space was complete, “People started looking at the space differently, and their behaviors started changing,” said Smugala. Locals began using the space more often, and the trash that once littered the area has become less and less prominent. “I think it just shows how much people react, and how much behaviors are influenced, by just a simple act of kindness or a simple act of taking care of a space, and how that trickles into other behaviors and how people treat a space.”

“It added some color and some energy and some happiness to a corner of downtown that needed it, and provided a place for people to connect and spend time together,” said Wright. 

When asked how people in other communities could revitalize an area in their town, Wright advised: “Go on a walk, identify the problem, find the space, and then begin to identify the solution.” He mentioned how it can start to feel overwhelming to turn an idea into reality, and that’s the point when “I would go find someone in your town, who's an architect, or a designer. Samantha was an interior designer, which has a lot of similarities to architecture. Someone who can just sketch something out, because I feel like that is when the average person sort of hits the wall.”

“A lot of people think that something needs to be perfect,” said Smugala. “But I think that just having some room to test things and be flexible and having patience are really good virtues... Be open to new ideas, try things out. It's okay if it's messy.”

---

---