Placemaking
Chicagoland Interventions Show the Value in Temporary Projects
Jared Green looks at some of the innovative projects recognized by Chicago's Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) for their ability to creatively transform blighted lots into community assets.
Placemaking Confronts Entertainment Initiative in a Downtown L.A. Alleyway
A quaint downtown L.A. alleyway celebrated for its Old World charm has been cleared of its outdoor dining facilities to ease access to a rehabilitated theater's loading dock. Can an equitable compromise be found?
To Create a Great 'Third Place', Get Out of the Way
For far too long, the shaping of public spaces has been left to architects and urban planners, who plan from the top down. The most successful projects involve people directly in deciding how their public spaces will look, feel, and operate.
Gilbert Doubles Down on Downtown Detroit With Ambitious Placemaking Plan
Rather than succumb to the negative news surrounding Detroit's dire financial situation, businessman and booster Dan Gilbert is doubling down on his extensive investment in the city with an ambitious effort to enliven downtown's public spaces.
The Power of Place: On Democracy and Public Participation in Planning
More thoughts on how public participation in the placemaking process can create better places and better functioning democracies.
Build a Better Democracy Through Public Participation
In the first entry in a series exploring the connection between the processes and products of Placemaking and city governance, PPS explores how "Place Governance" can increase leadership, equity, and cohesion among citizens.
The Timeless Value of Visuals to Planning
Throughout the history of planning, compelling visuals have been essential to communicating the concepts established in "our most influential plans," says Howard Blackson. That tradition continues in New Urban placemaking endeavors.
Placemaking vs. Placeshaking: Planning & Politics
Are you a Place-Maker or a Place-Shaker? Check out Scott Doyon's post for a look at where to draw the line. Spoiler alert: It's all about the politics.
Placemaking Is About More Than Just 'Cool Urban Amenities'
Brendan Crain responds to recent criticism of placemaking as a counterproductive and superficial pursuit with a defense of the social and economic capital building elements that are the foundation, and outcome, of the process.
Framing Placemaking as a Tool for Achieving a Larger Goal
Nathan Norris continues his series on municipal placemaking mistakes. This time: failure to understand the big picture and its order of operations.
10 Principles for Productive Public Spaces
Mackenzie Keast surveys the ten fundamental principles for placemaking identified by New York-based Project for Public Spaces (PPS) in their newly released handbook Placemaking and the Future of Cities.
Why We Shouldn't Let Architects Shape Our Cities
In an essay for The Guardian, Jonathan Meades laments the "cult" of architecture and argues why "[a]ppointing architects to conceive places is like appointing foxes to advise on chicken security."
How Does Placemaking Pay?
Hazel Borys compiles an extraordinary list of studies quantifying the role of livable, walkable places in building equity, city coffers, health, and social capital.
Public Spaces Provide Path to Improving Life in Global Slums
The Project for Public Spaces (PPS), who have been working with UN-HABITAT on sustainable urbanization, describe why establishing public spaces can be even more important to improving the world's slums than providing power or clean water.
DC Planning Director Harriet Tregoning on Smartly Bridging the Anacostia River
DC Planning Director Harriet Tregoning discusses plans to create a pedestrian-oriented space out of the 11th Street Bridge as part of a larger goal of uniting DC around the Anacostia River, making it an amenity and not a barrier.
Brewing Economic Development
Cities across America are catching on to the economic development and placemaking potential of craft breweries, writes J. Katie McConnell.
Chicago Works to Add People to its Places
On Wednesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel kicked-off Chicago's “Make Way for People” program, an effort to "promote economic development and make Chicago streets safer for pedestrians," by transforming the city's paved surfaces into people places.
Why Place Matters
In the era of globalization and increased connectivity, which was once predicted to loosen our bonds to place, Saffron Woodcraft argues that cities have become more, not less, significant.
Eclipsing Smart Growth
After a decade in ascendance, smart growth is showing its age. As its agenda becomes "formulaic and even clinical," Kaid Benfield argues for the need to reinvigorate, or move beyond, smart growth with more attention paid to the quality of a place.
From Landscape to Soundscape in Urban Placemaking
Chuck Wolfe outlines the importance of soundscapes to cities past, present and future, and describes efforts to both document urban sounds and use sound as a planning tool.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
EMC Planning Group, Inc.
Planetizen
Planetizen
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
