PPS Vice President Ethan Kent was one of the presenters at the Sustainable Tourism Development Forum held in Pawtucket, RI on Thursday, October 25, 2007.

The Providence Journal
By Philip Marcelo

PAWTUCKET— Policymakers, city planners and tourism officials from Rhode Island and neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts gathered downtown yesterday for a forum on “place-making” sponsored by the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council.

“Place-making is taking a place that you can’t wait to get out of and making it into one that you never want to leave,” explained guest presenter Ethan Kent, vice president of the Project for Public Spaces, a consulting and design firm based in New York.

The half-day of presentations and small-group discussions was geared toward those interested in sustainable tourism, which the tourism council describes as development that enhances a place by using its cultural, natural, historical, human, educational and built resources to differentiate it from other destinations.

Project for Public Spaces Vice President, Ethan Kent, writes about Melbourne's successful new public space development, Federation Square, and a Placemaking training course that he helped lead, which included many city staff, local developers and "place managers."

 

Three urban planners from PPS visited Churchhill County and Fallon, NV, in an effort to inventory and assess local gathering places and destinations around town. 

Phil Myrick, vice president of PPS, and Elena Madison, assistant vice president, presented a list of sites they felt could be better utilized in Fallon. The team, which also included farmers market expert David O'Neil, toured downtown and the county and polled local residents on needed changes or additions to bring people together and to the downtown area.

Fred Kent believes that you can have the most attractively built community in the world, but if people don't come together to mix in public spaces, it's just dead space.

His theory is that attractive, non-automobile dominated public spaces layered with multi-use functions will pump vitality back into communities that have become too isolated.

Kathy Madden, Senior Vice President of PPS, is participating in Planetizen's Interchange blog series.  In her second entry, Kathy answers the question, does a building need to be old or look historic to create a sense of place?

Kathy compares the ground floor design and management of Country Club Plaza in Kansas City and Rockefeller Center in New York.

This interview with Fred Kent appeared in the February 2007 issue of Urban Land:

"As an internationally known advocate for public spaces, Fred Kent, founder of the New York-based  Project for Public Spaces (PPS), sees cities - and the people who inhabit them - through the measured senses of an urban provocateur."

Although New York prides itself on its public life, New Yorkers inhabit a public realm that pales beside what it could become. "After working in cities around the world, we've developed a rich understanding of public spaces that begs to be put to use back in our home town," explains PPS President Fred Kent. "New York can benefit from our experience and become an even greater city in the 21st century."

Museum Mile Festival, 5th Avenue 

Read this special issue of PPS's newsletter Making Places, which includes the city commentary, New York great public spaces and hidden gems, and the places that provide the biggest opportunities for improvement.

Listen to Fred Kent discuss what makes a great waterfront on San Diego's KPBS.

Kathy Madden, Senior Vice President of PPS, is participating in Planetizen's Interchange series.  Read her first entry, which looks at several major new museums in European cities that are brutal, dehumanizing buildings surounded by dead spaces.

PPS staff members Fred Kent, Cynthia Nikitin and Ethan Kent traveled to Dubai to train a group of the city's leading real estate developers in Placemaking.  The largest city in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai has experienced explosive growth in recent years, emerging as the region's financial and cultural capital. Ethan explores the transportation situation in the rapidly growing emirate in this entry on Streetsblog.

Congratulations to the San Jose/Guerrero Coalition to Save Our Streets, co-recipient of the 2006 Grand Award, given by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in San Francisco.

The Coalition of neighborhood activists successfully transformed a dangerous 6-lane arterial into a traffic-calmed street with wide medians, safe pedestrian crossings, and bike lanes. PPS worked with the Coalition to create a Neighborhood Plan, to further redevelop the neighborhood's streets into great public spaces.

Read more about PPS's work with the San Jose/Guerrero Coalition to Save our Streets here.

Less room for cars translates to more room for bicyclists. (Photo: Noah Berger)

The City of Greensboro held a ribbon cutting ceremony on December 1, 2006, to celebrate the opening of the new Center City Park.

In 2003, PPS worked with the City and community members to create a vision for what this new park could be.  PPS facilitated a Placemaking workshop where participants developed a range of both short-term opportunities and a long-term vision plan. The new park was envisioned as an opportunity to revitalize Downtown Greensboro, and to create a community gathering place that will be a destination for residents.

 
Image (c) David Wharton 

Greensboro blogger David Wharton wrote a great description of the new park, comparing it to PPS's list of the ten qualities of a great park.

Cynthia Nikitin, Vice President of Project for Public Spaces and Director of the Civic Centers Program, discusses the importance of involving the community in revitalizing cities and neighborhoods, on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

PPS is seeking a Transportation and Placemaking Project Manager in its transportation line of business. Candidates should have experience in several of the following areas: transportation and land use planning and/or policy, TOD,  transportation facility design, public participation and facilitation, community development, redevelopment and real estate development  market analysis. The selected candidate will report to the Vice President for Transportation and work with other VPs, project associates and interns on a range of planning, research, and marketing projects, including land and community development projects and general and specific plans for communities, cities and counties.

Read more about this position at: http://www.pps.org/info/aboutpps/jobopenings

In an era when cities and towns are changing rapidly, public spaces are the key to reviving civic engagement.  Fred Kent and Benjamin Fried look at how one city is making it happen, in the September 2006 issue of Municipal World.

 

Crystal Crawford, mayor of Del Mar, CA, attended a presentation given by Fred Kent, President of Project for Public Spaces, and writes this of the experience:

"I was totally impressed by his presentation and struck by the possibilities for Del Mar.  I sat captivated by Mr. Kent’s description of what creates wonderful public spaces while seeing his photographs from around the world demonstrating those very concepts.  I could not help but think about how we could apply these very concepts to the revitalization of Del Mar’s business district and, by doing so, further the principles of our Community Plan."

An interview with Fred Kent, President and founder of PPS, on what it means to create a great place and why the concept of Placemaking has gone international.

Watch Fred Kent, President of Project for Public Spaces, give his presentation "Creating a Sense of Place", given in San Diego on March 14, 2006

This presentation and other streaming video programs are available online on UCSD-TV's web site at www.ucsd.tv.

The NYC Streets Renaissance exhibit, Livable Streets: A New Vision for New York, has moved from the Municipal Arts Society to the lobby of 4 Times Square, the Conde Nast Building.

The exhibit will focus on a vision for Broadway as a grand boulevard containing more than 20 unique destinations, with Times Square as the most iconic. The exhibit will also examine some of the "Best Practice" models already being employed by the Times Square Alliance to transform Times Square into one of the finest public spaces in the world.

Please join the Streets Renaissance team - PPS, Transportation Alternatives, and the Open Planning Project - and the Durst Organization for an opening reception on Thursday, May 25th, 6-8 pm. Enter the lobby of 4 Times Square on the north side of 42nd Street, near Broadway.

Please RSVP to streets@transalt.org.

Project for Public Spaces invites you to its popular "How to Create Successful Public Markets" workshop on May 11-12, 2006 and "How to Turn a Place Around" workshop on May 4-5, 2006 in New York City.

HOW TO CREATE SUCCESSFUL MARKETS www.pps.org/info/ppsnews/markets_training_course

Is a two-day workshop led by our own public market experts Steve Davies and David O'Neil. Cities and towns across the US are rediscovering the benefits of public markets.

At this workshop, you will:

Learn how to start a market in your neighborhood or town; look at case studies and explore the market planning process, including goal-setting, concept development, economic feasibility, management, site selection and design; visit and analyze some of New York's most famous markets -- both indoor and outdoor; and meet other folks from around the country working on a variety of public market projects.

The registration fee covers two days of tuition, including tours, in-depth presentations and discussions, on-site evaluation, case studies, and training support materials. Light lunch and refreshments will be provided on both Thursday and Friday. There is a reception Thursday evening (included) and an optional dinner Friday night (please note, the dinner is not included in the fee.)

Sign up now and join a small, dynamic group of people which in past workshops has included mayors, planning officials, community development officials, neighborhood organizers and market sponsors.

About the instructors:

STEVE DAVIES, as senior vice president of PPS, has directed nearly 500 major projects in the U.S and abroad and is sought out as one of the foremost thought leaders in public markets. He oversees the activities of PPS's Public Market Program, where he currently works on a multi-million dollar grant-making and policy initiative for public markets and farmers markets with the Ford Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

A specialist in all phases of market development, DAVID O'NEIL has worked on over 200 market projects around the world and has directed four international public market conferences, the most recent in October, 2005 in Washington DC. David recently published "Reading Terminal Market: An Illustrated History," a beautifully illustrated narrative about one of the country's largest public markets located in Philadelphia, PA.

For more information about the workshop, or to register online now, go to http://www.pps.org/info/ppsnews/markets_training_course

For additional inquiries, please contact Chris Heitmann at 212-620-5660.

HOW TO TURN A PLACE AROUND
http://www.pps.org/info/ppsnews/httapa_training_course

How to Turn a Place Around is a two-day workshop designed for professionals and non-professionals who help shape towns and cities -- from highway engineers and real estate developers to community garden advocates and housing specialists. Based on PPS's 30 years of experience in Placemaking, and inspired by our popular book, "How to Turn a Place Around," the course shows step-by-step our unique approach to revitalization.

During the course, participants will spend two days exploring the principles of making places through walking tours, presentations, case studies, PPS's Place Performance Evaluation Game, and the close examination of several contrasting neighborhoods. The sites will be used to illustrate complexities in making places, encourage a user's point of view, and to provide insight into how public spaces function.

The registration fee covers two days of tuition, including a neighborhood tour, in-depth presentations and discussions, on-site evaluation, case studies, a copy of How to Turn a Place Around, and training support materials. Light lunch and refreshments will be provided on both Thursday and Friday. There is a reception Thursday evening (included) and we will make recommendations for dinner Friday night should you want to continue the discussion (not included in the fee).

To register and for more information, please visit the workshop webpage, www.pps.org/info/ppsnews/httapa_training_course or contact Kathleen Ziegenfuss at 212-620-5660.