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creatively reorganize our collective hours and sent out several hundred postcards asking her
2
days in ways that help more people enjoy our fellow city residents whether they might support
cities and institutions. Time might be our most a novel idea: to close one section of the street to
valuable resource for building the environ- traffic on Sundays.
ments we want. She formed the Riverbend Park Trust the 10
Argument
Covid-19 brought about temporal designs of following year. The group got permission to try
other kinds. Starting in spring 2020, cities from out the idea, and held an enormous picnic in the
New York to Bethesda to Berkeley repurposed street to celebrate. A small group of volunteers
city streets for outdoor dining, allocated by worked to raise the money to cover the basic
hours of the day. Retail shops everywhere, from expenses of Riverbend in its early form: portable
grocery stores to booksellers, dedicated toilets and park rangers. The Trust lobbied the
“seniors-only” browsing hours to vulnerable Metropolitan District Commission to approve
customers. In London and other cities, cross- Riverbend one year at a time, before the idea’s
walk signals were extended in length, an accom- momentum was sufficient to make it perma-
modation for more pedestrians in a season of nent. Since 1985, it has been managed by the
fewer transit rides. It took responsiveness under Massachusetts Department of Conservation and
duress to refashion the streets and spaces of our Recreation.
lives. Some of that ingenuity used the invisible Time has long been a way to rethink the
tool of the clock. design of cities and spaces. There are lightweight
Riverbend Park in Cambridge and “found” versions — a baseball diamond that is desig-
parks like it are created from a declaration, or nated as an off-leash dog park in early morning
more precisely a reclamation, of time — without hours, for example. Some shopping malls open
expensive construction or risky permanent their doors before regular retail hours, allowing
changes. Our collective clock got reset in a crisis, people to walk their corridors for exercise — a
showing us that our time might be spent safe and smooth passage especially appealing to
differently. The pandemic may ultimately force older adults.
us — or beckon with an invitation — to see the Time can also be a transformative tool for
clock as a resource for the cities we want, one redesigning spaces with more ambitious goals in
that’s always been right in front of us: an under- mind, making the built world more accessible
sung and powerful utility on a designer’s tool belt. and equitable. Many museums have made
Designing with time may seem like an adjustments to their modes of physical access —
abstract concept best left to civic planners and ramps and elevators and audio tour apps —
public officials, but it’s important to remember: but meaningful accessibility might also call
Sometimes the designer is an ordinary citizen. for a creative shift in time. At the Smithsonian
In 1974, Isabella Halsted lived on Memorial Institution museums in Washington, D.C., for
Drive in Cambridge, one of the “river roads” that example, a time-based program called Morning
connects downtown Boston to its outskirts. She at the Museum makes exhibits much more
saw the Charles River every day — blocked by friendly to patrons with disabilities, especially
the constant traffic. This river — the city’s jewel, those with intellectual or developmental
girded by plenty of green space — is mostly disabilities.
experienced at the pace of a car, rushed and Ordinarily an exhibition is designed to
blurry. But Ms. Halsted, who had grown up in be visually and aurally dynamic, with plenty
nature, wanted more of that waterfront and of interactive sounds and lights. But when com-
green space to be present in its quieter, slower munity research made it clear that some people
form — for herself and for her whole city. So she with autism spectrum conditions found these
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