Lockerbie Night Market from Big Car Collaborative on Vimeo.

In October 2017, our Indianapolis Spark Placemaking crew teamed up with CitiMark and Gershman Partners to bring short-term public programming to the Lockerbie Marketplace small park area between Alabama, New York, New Jersey, and Vermont streets in the heart of Downtown. This previously underutilized green space is surrounded by a grocery store and other office and retail spaces and is located just off of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail.

In addition to bringing this pop-up public space to the general public, our staff was testing ideas to help inform long-term use of the green space. Through this testing period, Big Car staff members spent up to four hours every weekday out at the space, testing placemaking ideas, hosting pop-up programming, and keeping up with games (ping pong, foosball, cornhole chess and checkers) — all while observing and collecting data. We then are able to share insights and ideas on long-term ways to design and program the space to benefit the public and others who work and live nearby and visit this area.

For the entire month of October, our Spark Placemkaing staff led by our Placemaker and Planner in Residence, Amber Janzen, offered special programming — like live music, yoga, a night market (in the video above), an outdoor film night and more. These were all free to the public.