Five Essential Elements of a Placemaking Campaign

If, as the saying goes, architecture is frozen music, then urban planning is composition, but Placemaking is improvisational street performance. It’s interactive, messy, inclusive, and you can never be quite sure what the result will be–but you end up with something unique and truly authentic to the people who participate. We’ve put together a list of five handy tips for all of you Placemakers out there to help you navigate the exciting, often unpredictable process of creating great places in your community.

Click here to read five tips to help enhance your next Placemaking campaign!

Food for Thought: Why Barcelona’s Markets are “Super” Places

Officials from Barcelona’s public market program came by PPS HQ recently for a discussion with NYC’s market leaders. Check out some of the fascinating things that we learned about this truly remarkable urban food system!

Making the Journey a Destination: Indy’s Cultural Trail Debuts

The Indianapolis Cultural Trail’s big launch was a decade in the making. Along the way, the city has been transformed through a new passion for Placemaking. [And don’t miss Streetfilms’ new feature on the trail!]

Citizen Placemaker Nathan Martin on Prototyping [Semi-] Public Space

When they decided to create an open-air gathering space in their neighborhood, Nathan Martin’s company Deeplocal approached the challenge of making a great place the same way they would any creative project: prototyping, LQC-style!

Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design Announces 2013 Awards

This past week, the CIRD announced that four organizations in Florida, Kentucky, New York, and Texas (out of 30 applications from across the US) have been selected to host design workshops in rural communities in 2013.

• Sumandef Hakkinda on Taksim Square: “They all gathered to prevent the demolition of something bigger than the park: the right to live as honorable citizens of this country.”

• Brent Toderian on re-thinking urban transportation: “It’s not about liking bicycles — it’s about understanding how cities work best.”

• Nina Simon on transforming governance: “This is often the hardest part of institutional transformation–being willing and able to listen to the voices that are NOT inside your organization.”

• Kara Riggio, recapping a talk by Theaster Gates: “We don’t need permission to be positive agents of change, to be good neighbors or good stewards of our communities.”

• Benjamin Oliver on how organizing an Open Streets event changed his perspective: “I became a placemaker when I took action.”