Federation Square, in Melbourne, had the primary goal to create a great place.

The Role of Placemaking in Fostering Better and More Creative Design

“Architecture needs to evolve from expressing the individual’s creativity to supporting the community’s creativity.” — Silvia Soonets, Architect, Arqui5

If the primary goal of architects and landscape architects was to create places that people want to be in, would we be designing our communities the way we do today? If contemporary architecture was asked to be responsive to community outcomes, public uses and human comfort would it be done differently? Would it create more demand for the skills of designers?

Looking at design magazines and looking at our cities, it appears that the professional shaping of the built environment has been reduced to creating isolated physical forms with little consideration for their contribution to a larger experience of a place. This reality no doubt closely reflects a demand on design professionals to merely create designs (for buildings, parks, roads, master plans, etc.). Since they have rarely been asked to create places that attract people, it follows that they have not, for the most part, created such places.

At a time when the skills, technology and need for creating successful places has never been greater, there are so few truly successful examples of new public spaces being created or improved.

It Will Take Architects to Create Great Places

Design professions can be much better employed in shaping the public realm. The role of design can and should be much broader and bolder, but will undermine itself if it continues to try to drive a city building or Placemaking process the same way it does today. If the role of design is to create places, design actually become more valuable and creative while developing more productive relationships with clients, partners and communities it is serving.

But if we merely focus on the goals of “good” or “world class” design as an end in itself, we limit the potential of what can be accomplished, and we ignore architecture’s ability to respond creatively to context. When a project prioritizes creating places that meet the needs of its community, the design problems and solutions become more clear, interest in the project rises, and talented people step up to collaborate in the process.

How PPS is Working to Support the Design Professions

Our intention at Project for Public Spaces is to boost the prospects of success for urban designers, architects and landscape architects by creating public demand for quality urban spaces and educating communities to work creatively and constructively with design professionals. Ultimately, we want designers’ work to be more valued than it is today.

PPS works to understand, bring about, celebrate, and inspire public spaces that are valuable to cities with the hope that we can get more of them. When public spaces are not adequately used, do not add value to a community and or become “owned” by the citizens that are meant to use them, it is not only a loss for the community, but a blow to the design professions whose contributions have been limited.

By focusing on the broader goal of creating places, we are consistently able to draw more creativity out of the various professions, as well as the communities they serve. We believe that creating successful places should be easier and more rewarding than it is today, and we dedicate ourselves to making that happen.

Can you see this sign? (Photo Credit: Marc Stiles, Daily Journal of Commerce)

The battle over the right to use public spaces on private property has been played out throughout the US over the last half century. Many developers, in exchange for a more favorable floor-to-area ratio (FAR) allowance, were required to build ground level public plazas.   Unfortunately, most of these plazas were public only in name; all too often, property owners and building managers discouraged people from using them, in direct violation of the law.  The problem, which continues to this day, is exacerbated by the fact that the spaces often feel private and univiting, and as a result are heavily underused.

PPS got its start in the late seventies working on many privately owned public spaces, convincing owners to make them more inviting and then adapting them to actually work for people. Rockefeller Center remains one of our strongest examples of accomplishing this transformation.  When PPS was established,  it was thought that the organization would not need to exist after a few years when everyone saw the value of making public spaces truly public and understood the simple principles for designing and managing them to be inviting to people.

Of course, the struggle continues today.  A group of city officials in Seattle recently organized a tour of these Privately Owned Public Spaces–or POPOS–to spread awareness of the issue to both the public and property owners.  During the tour, the issues at stake arose almost immediately; as reported by an article in the Daily Journal of Commerce, the group was asked by a security guard to leave the premises.  The officials politely informed the guard that they were on public property.

A press conference of the event (Photo Credit: Catherine Anstett)

Cities that have offered similar incentive programs, including New York City and San Francisco, have also continued to wrestle with this issue. Early successes there, as well as in Seattle, include new signage that clearly identifies these spaces as public areas. This is, of course, a long way from realizing the full potential of creating gathering spaces on privately owned property, for both social benefit and private economic gain.  And at PPS, we will keep working untill the last of these spaces is actually a public asset.

Locavore

* Markets and eating local. Locavore ($3.99) uses the iPhone’s GPS capability to find your closest farmers’ markets, and tells you what’s currently in season near you, from almonds to zucchini.  It also links to recipes and information for all 234 food varieties it tracks — very convenient when you’re trying to figure out what to do with quince or sapote.  Farm Fresh NYC ($2.99) works similarly for the Big Apple, and includes a graphical grocery list; San Franciscans can use Sprout (free) to track down markets, CSAs, and other local food sources.  (And check out this group that combined their love of Apples with their love of (locally-grown) apples!)

UpNext 3D NYC

Everyblock

By Ken Farmer and Tom Peyton

In NYC, street closures for pedestrians, activities and celebrations are becoming increasingly more commonplace. With normally ever-present automobiles absent, pedestrians are free to walk and play in the streets, meeting one another for shopping, dining and conversation.

Unlike traditional street closures surrounding a specific event (e.g., Bastille Day on Smith Street in Brooklyn), Williamsburg Walks — one of NYC’s most popular street events –was created simply to allow the community to define the identity of Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn between North 4th to North 9th Streets. This experimental approach was intended to enable the community to reconceive its relationship with Williamsburg’s bustling central avenue as a place for eating, dancing, creating and observing art, relaxing and much more.

Revelers play music and sell goods. Photo Credit: Aurash Khawarzad

The series of yearly closures began June 13th this year.  On Saturday, July 11th — the last event of the summer — Bedford was packed with revelers as each block took on an identity of its own. Vendors sold books, records and various oddities. Bands played music without the help of electricity. Artists smashed pianos and spread Yves Klein blue paint around canvasses. Civic groups shared information with concerned residents and those visiting the neighborhood.

Armed with Twister, sidewalk chalk and a hunger for 4-square, PPS staff spoke with lots of people strolling up and down Bedford Ave. First, we asked patrons to map their favorite spaces in the neighborhood and those with the greatest opportunity for improvement. We also asked the community what kind of activities they would like to do in their public spaces. Not surprisingly, participants had several creative ideas about the neighborhood’s physical environment, programming in public spaces and changing social dynamics.

Thinking about the physical environment, people were excited about increasing the number of public activities that would allow them to interact with other people in the neighborhood. Several people wanted more places to sit, especially seats that they could move around and configure however they wanted. The desire for an outdoor swimming pool came up a fair amount, and many attendees were aware of the current plan to reopen McCarren pool as a functioning swimming pool.

People were concerned about the disruptive nature of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway running through the neighborhood and wondered if creating parks and increasing greenspace under and around the freeway would improve current conditions. There were also many unique ideas for highly interactive projects including outdoor rock climbing walls, sculpture parks, ziplines between buildings and litebrite walls!

Priti Patel talks with an engaged resident. Photo Credit: Aurash Khawarzad

Community and rooftop gardens were also a hot topic. The high number of vacant lots in the area had people talking about reclaiming the spaces and turning them into communal vegetable gardens and green space. Referencing Greenpoint’s flourishing Rooftop Farms, residents were looking up and imagining green roofs that could provide the neighborhood with fresh, local produce. Food was very much on people’s minds. Among calls for new types of cuisine in the area, there was also interest in communal dinners and potlucks. These ideas dovetail well with community gardens as ideal spaces to hold community dinners.

People were focused on how to improve waterfront access and had a host of ideas relating specifically to East River State Park. Suggested improvements to the Williamsburg waterfront included building piers, boardwalks and artificial beaches. Residents also offered creative ideas for increasing programming such as kayaking and fishing. Concerts are being held in East River State Park this summer but the fate of the concert series in future summers is uncertain.

Participants generated several ideas about programming for the neighborhood in general as well. People were enjoying the Williamsburg Walks experience so much that they wanted regular, year-round street closures including a possible expansion of the streets closed during Williamsburg Walks. Many were interested in an increase of participatory sports and physical activities including kickball, capture the flag, four-square and yoga. Events for kids and improving the conditions of the neighborhood’s playgrounds were also popular ideas. The concerts at the waterfront are a great start but local residents wanted even more live, outdoor music throughout the neighborhood. Outdoor movies were also a popular idea.

Williamsbug Walks on Bedford Ave. Photo Credit: Aurash Khawarzad

Most residents were aware of the changing nature of the neighborhood and the fact that so many new types of people are moving into Williamsburg. Longtime residents of the neighborhood were concerned about new residents appropriately integrating into the existing community. Late-stage gentrification typified by new real estate development in the area was a concern for residents both new and old. It was obvious that everyone on the street was aware that Williamsburg is in a state of flux and that what happens right now will have a big impact on the future of the neighborhood. Community board involvement was suggested as a means of creating meaningful connections between new and old residents, educating the community as a whole about where they live, and providing a forum for collective action.

By putting the concerns of pedestrians ahead of the concerns of motorists, Bedford Ave became a space for new community interactions. Williamsburg Walks succeeded in filling the street with an engaged group of people.

Check out PPS’ work on The New York City Streets Renaissance to learn more about how reclaiming streets for pedestrian use can help build community.

We would love to hear more about your experience of street closures in Williamsburg, or wherever your community may be.

The city of Los Angeles has long been plagued by gang violence.  California has the largest gang presence of any state, and L.A. is at the top of the state’s list for gang-related violent crime.  Parks in poor neighborhoods are a frequent site of gang clashes, turning ostensibly public spaces into foreboding “territory” into which average citizens dare not venture – especially after dark.  Violence typically spikes during the warm summer months.

L.A.’s traditional approach to gang violence puts heavy emphasis on policing and physical separation of rival gangs, making use of “gang injunctions” to restrict the movement and public activity of gang members.  In the words of one LAPD officer, these measures “[make] it a crime — an arrestable crime — to hang out together.”  Though these programs appear to have met with some success at reducing crime rates (and the California Supreme Court has upheld their constitutionality), they have come under some legal and policy scrutiny for being overly restrictive of civil liberties and subject to arbitrary enforcement.

Last summer, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Gang Reduction and Youth Development office implemented a new approach to fighting gang violence: parks programming.  The Summer Night Lights program extended nighttime hours in eight parks in troubled neighborhoods — keeping lights on until midnight, and sponsoring nighttime movies and family-oriented activities four nights a week.  According to the mayor’s office, the program was responsible for a 17% decline in crime rates and an astounding 86% decline in homicides for those areas.

This summer, the city is building on that success, doubling the size of Summer Night Lights to sixteen parks in blighted areas.  The park activities have become even more important in light of California’s budget troubles, as local schools have been forced to cut summer programs, leaving kids with more free time and less structure.  L.A. plans to serve 350,000 free dinners over the course of the summer, and will offer a variety of programming focused on families and youth.  The multitude of programs includes basketball and soccer leagues, safe skateboarding programs, screening of local films, and acting, dance, hip-hop, and fashion workshops.

Lighting up L.A. to fight crime and build community. (Credit: L.A. Times)

One of the most notable aspects of Summer Night Lights is the city’s engagement with community stakeholders, including at-risk youth themselves.  One component of the program is the creation of a ten-member “youth squad” for each park, which will assist in staffing events and help to create neighborhood awareness.  Summer Night Lights is being sponsored by $1 million in private donations, which the city has pledged to match – a great example of the power of public-private partnerships in community placemaking.

Los Angeles hopes that the power of a great place with great things to do will stave off violence in its urban parks — so it has suspended gang injunctions for gang members peacefully attending Summer Night Lights programs.  By allowing these youths to socialize freely in the park with other community members, L.A. is recognizing that providing positive options is an essential tool in improving urban neighborhoods.  As gang intervention worker Miguel Leon told the New York Times: “You can rewrite the narrative of your life and your neighborhood.  A gang affiliation is not your whole identity.  You’re also part of this community.”

In The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, William H. Whyte remarked that “the way people use a place mirrors expectations.”  L.A.’s approach to urban parks matches this observation perfectly.  By inviting positive uses in its public spaces and treating gang members as stakeholders, Summer Night Lights is creating community bonds and changing the fabric of L.A.’s neighborhoods from within.

Malcolm X once said that “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” And so we found ourselves in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn at the first annual Bedford-Stuyvesant Malcolm X celebration, as guests of the Malcolm X Merchants Association (MXMA). We were there to educate ourselves about the community’s experience using mass transit in their neighborhood, with the intention of improving the transit service in the community by equipping local stakeholders with tools to influence the transit planning process.

When people think of the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, or Bed-Stuy as it’s better known, transit may not be the first thing that comes to mind. But as with many other urban centers, transit was a key factor in its development, growth, and sustenance.

In 1888, the Fulton Street Elevated line, operated by the Kings County Elevated Railway (KCERy), began operation. It connected the Fulton Ferry with Bed-Stuy. The next large transit infrastructure project was the development of the A subway line, which connected Harlem with Bed-Stuy. The new subway line led to an exodus of African-Americans from overcrowded Harlem to Bed-Stuy. From that point on, the neighborhood has grown into one of the most vibrant in the Brooklyn metropolis.

Bed-Stuy is now served by the A and C subway lines at the Utica Avenue, Kingston-Throop Avenue, and Nostrand Avenue subway stations, the B46 and B25 bus lines, and the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). An extensive list of services compared to many other American communities. But is that translating into quality service for the travelers to and from Bed-Stuy?

The statistics tell us that the Utica Ave. subway station, which is at the intersection of Fulton Ave. and Utica Ave., on the A and C lines, carried 4.46 million passengers in 2008, making it the 101st busiest station out of 422 in the City. And although we don’t have a count for how many bus passengers board the B46 at that intersection, we know that the B46 carried 17.3 million riders in 2008, giving it the second highest ridership out of all NYC’s bus lines.  While these numbers are impressive, they don’t tell us the full story of transit service in Bed-Stuy. They don’t explain how and why people use transit, and what improvements could be made to accommodate even more users, and perhaps more importantly, to make the community a better place.

Before we get into the survey process and the results of the survey, I should describe the basis of this project. It is part of a Federal Transit Administration research grant intended to develop tools for public participation in transit-dependent communities. PPS has been working in two pilot study sites, one in LA’s Byzantine Latino Quarter and the other in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood. Local stakeholders, community activists and merchants have been meeting over the past few months to try out some of these tools. In Bed-Stuy, PPS has worked with the Malcolm X Merchant’s Association and Bridge Street Development Corporation (BSDC) to hold workshops and focus groups that will pilot our public participation tools and, simultaneously, create a community vision for Malcolm X Boulevard and Utica Avenue Plaza.

We went to the Malcolm X festival to gather the type of qualitative information that traffic reports often lack. We set up a table on Malcolm X Avenue, in between a vendor selling homemade earrings, and another vendor selling very random trinkets, with the hope that a few interested people would stop by. We had with us two tools to understand the community’s interpretation of their transit service — one was a short survey regarding the quality of pedestrian journeys, and the other was a large neighborhood aerial for a Destination and Route Mapping exercise. The survey had basic questions that we used to determine people’s destinations, preferred paths, and thoughts on how transit stops could be improved. The map was used to determine positive and negative areas in the community, as well as the paths people chose to get to or avoid those places and why.

Before we knew it, our table was swarmed with community members. The wealth of nuance that they gave us was tremendous. Many of the participants in our research had been living in the community their whole lives and their family histories go back several generations. That’s no small measure in a city as transient as New York City! They described their streets down to the most minor detail, as if they knew them like the back of their hands. “Don’t go down Stuyvesant between Bainbridge and Chauncy after dark because it’s not lit well enough,” one woman said. Another woman spoke of the well-kept landscaping on Decatur between Malcolm X and Patchen. “What about that wine bar opening up on Lewis?” “I don’t like those drug dealers on Fulton,” “There’s Solomon’s Porch on Stuyvesant!” People were blurting out things left and right. Within a few hours our map was filled with green and red dots, and we had 25 completed surveys in our back pocket.

Many community members are not involved in the transit planning process, and as a result, transit service is not catered to their needs. Instead, it is designed to meet the parochial benchmarks of transportation engineers – “level of service” and so on and so forth. But “level of service” isn’t always the best measure for level of service; it doesn’t consider the café down the block that people might want to walk by in the morning to get coffee, or the fact that a vacant block across the bus stop might attract seedy characters. Our pilot project is intended to understand the reality of a community’s transit needs, and equip them with tools to influence transit service to it adapts to that reality - a bottom-up approach, not a top-down approach that we’ve seen far too often.

During our research the community’s main concern regarding their transit experience was safety. Participants mentioned fear of crime in places where certain infrastructure such as lighting was missing. Nevertheless, there was a clear sense of neighborhood pride that people shared. The community spoke with confidence that the streets were theirs, and there was always a glimmer of confidence in their words that they were restoring their community from an era where it suffered greatly from crime, poverty, and political neglect. With the tools that we are helping to develop for Bed-Stuy, and eventually, other transit-dependent communities, we can play a role in empowering them to improve their journey from point A to point B. We want everyone dancing while they wait for the bus, like this gentleman waiting for the B25 in Utica Plaza.

Graphic program of just one area of the Tempe downtown proposed in PPS' Urban Open Space framework, which comprised a fabric of more than 30 connected destinations

In 2006, PPS was hired by the city of Tempe to create a comprehensive open space plan for their downtown, which has experienced rapid growth in recent years. The plan proposed improvements for more than 30 places that made up the fabric of the downtown experience in order to create a more lively, pedestrian friendly environment with a great mix of destinations.

With the economic downturn, much of the exciting new mixed-use development being planned for the downtown has been put on hold. But Tempe’s planners understand that now is the time to plan for their public spaces, because it is just these types of spaces that will attract people and companies to downtown Tempe once the recovery takes  hold.

From an Op-Ed piece in The Arizona Republic: “City leaders are reviving the [open space] plan, saying it’s even more important during this down time to plan for and invest in public-space projects. They’re right. If these building blocks are securely in place once the economy recovers, Tempe runs much less risk of being blindsided by developments downtown and along light rail.”

Visit our website for more information about the new plans for Tempe’s downtown.  On a related subject, check out a recent article from the PPS newsletter, How Your Community Can Thrive–Even in Tough Times.

The latest in urban planning, placemaking and citizen action:

• The Environmental Defense Fund’s Reinventing Transit highlights a new generation of innovative public transit. [EDF.org]

• In the greater Toronto area, the Tower Renewal Project looks to transform post-war, high-rise, concrete towers with sustainable, suburban development. [Worldchanging]

• A bill recently passed by New York’s state Senate will provide a boost in funding for farmers markets facilities. [Watertown Daily Times, The Gouverneur Times]

• After five years in a New Urbanist community, residents of Glenwood Park reflect on visibility, neighborhood involvement, access and businesses. [The Atlanta-Journal Constitution]

• Joanne Arnay makes the case for including preservation in urban planning efforts. [The City Newspaper]

• At the Green Cities Conference and Expo, officials, planners, architects and advocacy groups discussed how to pitch a ‘green’ agenda. [NY Times Blog]

• In San Francisco, the Great Streets Program (a PPS collaboration) hits the ground running. [Streetsblog]

Chicago’s Metropolitan Planning Council, our partner in Placemaking Chicago, a city-wide Placemaking campaign, continues to make strides in applying Placemaking in Chicago.

MPC asks residents what they want to see in the Polish Triangle

Their latest project is the transformation of the intersection of Division Street, Ashland Avenue, and Milwaukee Avenue, at a crossroads also known as the Polish Triangle.  MPC has gathered insight and feedback from more than 700 people, using online surveys, in-person workshops and by starting a public group on the Placemaking Movement - PPS’s online social network.  So far, ideas from the community have included public art and traffic calming.

Participants map out ideas at an MPC workshop

More information:

• Placemaking in Chicago [pps.org]
• The Polish Triangle networking group [The Placemaking Movement]
• Residents come out in force to shape the future of the Polish Triangle [MPC]
• www.placemakingchicago.com

Photos in this post from MPC’s Flickr page

Savannah is known for the beauty of its tree-canopied streets, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. Clearly, its citizens agree. A recent survey that invited people to name the city’s best and worst streets drew four times as many responses for “worst” as for “best.”

The survey was conducted on behalf of Savannah Forward, a coalition of public and private institutions — from the government, to the Downtown Neighborhood Association, to the morning news — all of whom are looking for ways to increase Savannah’s livability.

To that end, they invited PPS president Fred Kent to the city on February 5th to speak to a crowd of over 300 citizens interested in improving Savannah’s public realm. Kent tackled some of the “worst” streets — all of which, he noted, prioritize car traffic at the expense of everything else. Bay Street, for example, cuts off the city’s downtown from its riverfront, and is “the most obnoxious road you have,” Kent said. He urged the city to consider narrowing the roadway, widening the sidewalk, and adding attractions like sidewalk cafes to turn it into a gathering place.

The “good” examples submitted by the public were split between convenient throughways and slow, tree-lined residential streets. Which means, Kent suggested, that the right approach for Savannah will be one that balances the region’s character and ambience with easy accessibility to its destinations.

Savannah’s built form is also notable for the historic squares that checker its downtown. But “just because they’re beautiful doesn’t mean they’re well-used,” Kent pointed out. He encouraged the coalition to bring their squares to life, starting by scheduling activities in two or three squares to draw people there, like an interactive water feature, sitting steps, and a plaza for live performances.

“Mr. Kent inspired us to take action now,” said Theodora Gongaware and William Stuebe of Savannah Forward. And it’s a great time to act — not in spite of the economic downturn, but because of it. The lull in development offers “an excellent window of time to try new things,” they said.

They’re not the only ones who are excited. Check out this post, “Is Fred Kent Hiring?” from someone who attended the event, and this follow-up from another Savannah citizen.