A penny pincher’s park, and the libraries loaning a warm nook

1. United States

A California city created a public park on a tiny budget using scavenged and recycled materials, drastically lowering construction costs. Demand for such public spaces surged amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and construction costs have risen to match. But in Hayward, Mission Boulevard Linear Park – built next to a major road with about 15% of a typical park budget – has emerged as a community favorite.

A landscape architecture firm, Surfacedesign, made concrete pavers from a building slated for demolition and gathered fallen trees from tree-cutting crews. It repainted and reused old benches from