CALL FOR ENTRIES

2007 RUDY BRUNER AWARD

About the Rudy Bruner Award:

The Rudy Bruner Award is given to urban places that demonstrate the successful integration of effective process, meaningful values and good design. RBA winners are distinguished by their social, economic and contextual contributions to the urban environment, and often provide innovative solutions to our cities’ most challenging problems.

The RBA awards one Gold Medal of $50,000 and four Silver Medals of $10,000 each.

Case studies of winners are published on line at www.brunerfoundation.org and in a book distributed by the Bruner Foundation.

2007 Selection Committee:

• Mayor Manny Diaz, Miami, FL
• Reese Fayde, CEO, Living Cities: National Community Development Initiative, NY
• Reed Kroloff, Dean of Architecture, Tulane University, New Orleans
• David Perry, CEO, Great Cities Institute, Chicago
• Josephine Ramirez, Director of Planning, The Music Center, Los Angeles
• Robert Kroin, Chief Architect, Boston Redevelopment Authority, Boston

For more information or to receive an application, contact:

Bruner Foundation

130 Prospect Street

Cambridge, MA  02139

Ph. 617-492-8401, Ext. 184

Fax 617-876-4002

Email: application@brunerfoundation.org

Download the application: www.brunerfoundation.org

The application deadline is December 18, 2006.

Please provide your name, title, company or organization, full address and daytime phone and/or fax number on all application requests. Please let us know how you learned about the Award.

Yesterday members of Transportation Alternatives staged a parking squat - a “quasi-legal reclamation of urban street space in which a metered, curbside parking spaces are transformed into urban parkland complete with sod, benches, trees and human beings.”

These events always evoke strong reactions - as evident in the comments posted to StreetsBlog.

In 2005, PPS began working with the City of Mississauga to help grow a lively downtown that appeals to a growing downtown population.  Even before the ink was dry on our final report and concepts, the city had formed a new department, Building a City for the 21^st Century. The department has been busy implementing recommendations, empowering residents to become leaders in City projects, and organizing the “My Mississauga” program of outdoor events. Activities and events range from Farmers markets to Vintage Car Club Thursdays.

Mississauga’s immense effort in its downtown has even convinced us to remove it from the PPS Hall of Shame!

Some photos from this summer’s “My Mississauga” events:

For more information on PPS’s work in Mississauga, see the Placemaking in Mississauga project experience.

By bringing music to public spaces, composers are reaching audiences as diverse as the locales.

“Key stakeholders in the City of Detroit are busy crafting a market-driven redevelopment plan for downtown Detroit. Central to the plan is fostering walkability in Detroit; an element many believe is a cornerstone to the city’s revitalization.”

Several dozen people converged on New Glasgow this week to learn how to change their communities from places they couldn’t wait to get through to places they didn’t want to leave.

Reduce traffic volume and make room for happier citizens, urged workshop leaders from the New York-based Project for Public Spaces. Kathy Madden, Cynthia Nikitin, and Kathleen Ziegenfuss trained about 50 provincial politicians, municipal planners, librarians and others interested in community development, in simple low-cost techniques to revitalize neighbourhoods.

An extensive study conducted by Project for Public Spaces of Anchorage’s popular weekend open market concludes that it works well in its present location, but should grow to interact more with the rest of the downtown area.

“Just five years ago, fruit farmers William Schober Sons Inc. sold all their apples, peaches and nectarines on the wholesale market and dealt with the low prices they often got for the produce.

This season, the Monroeville farm only sold about 40 percent of the farm’s crop to wholesalers. Next season, it could be even less.

So where’s the farm’s fruit going?

“We have a roadside market and we go to farmers’ markets in Collingswood, West Cape May and Woodbury,” said John Hurff, who heads the fourth-generation family farm astride the Elk-Franklin boundary.”

“Bryant Park, which has been home to the massive spring and fall fashion shows, is pulling out the welcome mat.” - New York Business.com

Last year, Bryant Park installed an ice skating rink that was free to the public - and much more popular than the exclusive private fashion shows. This February Bryant Park may choose in favor of extending the ice rink, rather than closing the park off for Fashion Week.

After writing about the dangers of privatization of Bryant Park for years, PPS enthusiastically applauds this decision.

After years of grumbling, this much-maligned public space in at the heart of Phoenix is on the verge of a makeover.  But the proposed design has ignited controversy with people who either want the park saved as is or who want it redeveloped, but not in the way that is on the table.