Parking Meter

Installation Art Piece

Project Overview

I made this installation sculpture of a parking meter was designed to bring awareness to the sale of Chicago's street parking spaces to a privatized company — when a coin is inserted into the installation, a miniature corporate office inside the meter flickers to life as if its lighting bill was paid for by that quarter.

Design

This parking meter is based on the meters outside of my apartment. I modeled the body in SolidWorks and 3D-printed it. The windows are heat formed acrylic panels. The office inside consists of hand painted 3D printed office decor. Within the body of the meter I designed cavities and grooves to house the electronics that detect the coins and trigger the LEDs to turn on.