The General Services Administration (GSA) and Project for Public Spaces are currently partnering on an initiative to improve federal plazas that extend into urban communities in 24 American cities.  The partnership has resulted in a free publication titled Achieving Great Federal Public Spaces: A Property Manager's Guide.

The tools and initiatives developed through this partnership have recently made impacts in cities of Syracuse, NY, and Denver, CO.

 In Denver, the Byron G. Rogers Courthouse plaza had become a sterile and inefficient locale during the Timothy McVeigh trial.  As part of the plaza's revitalization, the city added an "ambassador" to assist in directing visitors, as well as new benches and planted flowers.  The once hectic waiting area to enter the building's security checkpoint has been enclosed under a light-filled atrium that now includes a calming water feature.

 In Syracuse, The GSA involved the surrounding community for input on upgrades to The Plaza at the James M. Hanley Federal Building, a long-time locale for weekly live music, food and entertainment on summer evenings.  The Plaza's upgrades include an oval green space, as well as benches, picnic tables and improved signage.  The new design also incorporates design elements from the nearby, recently upgraded Clinton Square Corridor, creating cohesion between the two spaces.

 Incorporating local communities is key to decision-making.  "The broader outreach, the better," says Project for Public Spaces Vice President Cynthia Nitikin.  "It's all sort of also geared toward having these federal buildings or municipal buildings or civic institutions start coalescing into districts and civic centers. This process is really about civic institutions taking a lead once again in helping revitalize communities."

Related Articles:
Achieving Great Federal Public Spaces: A Property Manager's Guide [PPS Project Experience]
Improve Your Building's Public Spaces[Buildings Magazine]

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.

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.

Fred Kent and Kathy Madden led a group of planners, architects and community activists in Placemaking training session in developing public spaces that are appealing and safe.

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)

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

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.

"After months of public consultation, the City of Mississauga is unveiling its vision for the revitalization of public spaces in and around downtown Mississauga, with particular focus on new parks and public spaces in the City Centre.

The City has been working with Project for Public Spaces (PPS) -- a non-profit organization which specializes in working with cities to create and sustain lively public places -- to draft a concept plan that will see the City Centre develop into a vital community destination with programs, people-friendly settings, and social and economic rejuvenation. The plan is built on the principles of "Placemaking" - creating successful public spaces through access, activities, comfort and sociability."

 

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.

 

"What makes or breaks an urban park like Downtown's Republic Square Park is how well it's used by people."

PPS will be involved in the programming and design for Republic Square, to help ensure that this historic downtown park is a place for people.

 

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.

Cynthia Nikitin, Director of PPS's Civic Centers Program, addressed an audience at the University of Waterloo (Ontario) last week about the city's plans for a new public square and library. The Waterloo Record published this article about Cynthia prior to her talk. Among the questions she tackled were how to overcome the fixation on parking and what to do with a public space once it's been built. 

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.

The News Tribune extends a welcome to PPS in Tacoma, WA.

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.

PPS is excited to announce to you an exhibit we have just opened at the Urban Center Galleries at the Municipal Art Society. The exhibit Livable Streets: A New Vision for New York is the public kick off of the New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign that PPS is running with Transportation Alternatives and The Open Planning Project.

The experience most associated with New York, and perhaps most loved about the city, is that of the pedestrian--walking city sidewalks, strolling around neighborhood streets--yet we still plan our streets mainly to enhance the speed of the automobile.

We strongly believe that the biggest obstacle--and biggest opportunity--to achieving better public spaces in New York is our streets. The myopic focus of New York transportation officials on moving vehicles has had serious consequences for the city, limiting its potential as a vibrant place where public activity can flourish and all modes of transportation are balanced. The city is now at a point where it can either stay the course of worsening traffic and perilous streets or re-define itself with great public spaces and lively street life. Almost every street in the city can better meet communities' needs for greater accessibility, health, safety, and economic activity.

"If we continue to plan our streets for cars and traffic we will only get more cars and traffic, but if we start planning for people and places, we will get people and places."
-- Fred Kent

The New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign is challenging the city's auto-centric transportation policy at every level, shedding light on the broader opportunities to support great streets and neighborhoods through smart investment in transportation and public space. We are working to connect neighborhood and city-wide leaders with each other and with powerful information and training. We are also getting short-term wins by working with communities to achieve specific street restructuring projects that bring significant benefits to pedestrians, neighborhoods, and the city as whole.

We hope that you will join the many people and organizations who are signing on to express their support for this campaign. You can also tell your stories or seek help for your community here.

And don't forget to attend our exhibit and the many associated events at The Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue at 51st Street (details below). All of the events are free, however it is recommended that you RSVP to rsvp@mas.org or 212-935-2075.

PPS is very excited to be focusing more of our energy in New York after having successfully reformed transportation policy and practice in other parts of the country. We will be releasing our New York City Commentary (a follow up to city commentaries we have done for London, Paris and Barcelona.) in the coming month.

We hope to see you at one of the upcoming events!

________________________________________
EVENTS

Neighborhoods and Traffic: How Does Traffic Affect New Yorkers' Quality of Life?
Wed, Feb 15, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

High volumes of neighborhood traffic not only impact our health, but also the bonds that form strong communities. Hear the details of a groundbreaking study that shows how speeding, congestion and other traffic issues affect the relationships residents have with their neighbors, their children and the places they call home.

Karla Quintero from Transportation Alternatives will present the results from the new report Neighborhoods and Traffic. Learn how traffic and street design affect New Yorkers' perception, use and enjoyment of city streets. Karla examines the impact of traffic on New Yorkers' quality of life and confirms Donald Appleyard's findings first published in Livable Streets (1963).

Tom Samuels, leading traffic calming practitioner from Chicago (and former PPS employee), will discuss measures Chicago has taken to reconfigure their roadways and traffic control systems to balance pedestrian safety with traffic flow.

________________________________________
Better Streets, Better Business: Fiscal Benefits of Better Streets
Thurs, Feb 23, 8:30 - 10:00 am

Todd Litman, founder and executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, will discuss the economic benefits of creating spaces that favor walking and biking over driving. He will focus on measures city and local businesses can take to set modal targets for biking and walking within the city as well as more specific commercial and retail districts; define the value of walkability in a strong economy and successful retail center and explore a variety of methods that address specific parking problems and encourage more efficient use.

Bruce Shaller, President of Schaller Consulting, will release his groundbreaking new report "The Auto in Manhattan: Necessity or Choice?" It explores the role of automobile travel in Manhattan's economy, and the extent to which current auto commuters have existing transit alternatives. The report has far-reaching implications for how New York's streets are best managed, apportioned and designed.

________________________________________
Broadway as a Destination: What if We Redefined Broadway Around its Great Destinations?
Monday, Feb 27, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

While Broadway is the proud spine of Manhattan, in reality it is more of a thoroughfare than a great street. Broadway's major crossings create some of the most unfriendly intersections in the city, but these problematic spaces also have enormous potential to become pedestrian-oriented destinations. A panel of local leaders will discuss transforming Broadway into a street with great destinations and more effective pedestrian connections.

Discussion questions will include: Can Broadway become more pedestrian-oriented? How can Broadway better connect and support the destinations it intersects? Can it become a boulevard with amenities and wider sidewalks? Can through traffic be limited? Can traffic be two-way? Can vehicle access be limited, with priority for taxis and buses?

Confirmed Panelists:
Fred Kent, President, Project for Public Spaces
Savona Bailey-McClain, Executive Director, West Harlem Art Fund
Tim Tompkins, Executive Director, Times Square Alliance
Dan Biederman, President, 34th Street Partnership
Jeffrey Zupan, Senior Fellow, Transportation, Regional Plan Association

By looking at Broadway as a whole and highlighting current successes, obstacles and opportunities, this discussion is intended to be a catalyst for increased cooperation and vision, encouraging both small localized improvements and larger-scale rethinking of priorities and solutions for New York's most important street. The discussion will also be highly relevant to other streets and intersections around the city. Indeed, many of the city's major intersections, where important streets meet, are the least friendly places for pedestrians. If treated as squares and plazas (in more than just name), these car-dominated areas could become some of the most valuable destinations in New York City.

________________________________________
Stickball: Past, Present, and Future of the Quintessential NYC Street Game
Wed, March 15, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

Stickball was the ultimate New York street game, requiring only a broom handle, a ball, players and a safe street. Can it make a comeback?

________________________________________
Connecting Neighborhood Activists with Resources
Mon, March 20, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

Learn about resources - including technological tools, planning and advocacy assistance, videography, and media strategy - that the NYC Streets Renaissance provides neighborhood activists working to improve their streets and traffic.

________________________________________
A very special evening with...

Enrique Penalosa
Former Mayor of Bogota Colombia
Wednesday, March 22nd

"If you improve the pedestrian qualities of the city you get improved real estate values. My main worry is equality and happiness, but many people think real estate values are more important, so the interesting thing is that both of them are benefited."

Limited space is available for this event. Location to be determined. If you would like more information about this event please contact info@transalt.org

"...What we did, I like to emphasize, is nothing extremely expensive. It's not great public works, I mean, maybe just to make a wide sidewalk on a bikeway, you know, it's not something that is going to cost billions."

The town of Hamilton, Ontario, looks to PPS's lists of the
best squares in North America and the squares most in need of improvement for inspiration to improve the public spaces in their community, and to plan for a downtown that is a great place for people.

Jay Walljasper writes on the emerging movement to reclaim public spaces, from Copehagen to Bellevue.

PPS's vision of transforming Mississauga's city centre and civic square into a lively public space - complete with parks, a tea house, a farmers' market and a wedding chapel - is being hailed as an effective way to revitalize some very dead space.

"These seem like very good suggestions," said Ken Greenberg, a Toronto urban designer who is also the interim city planner in Boston. In Greenberg's mind, the plan, developed by New York City-based Project for Public Spaces, is all about animating the square and making it active year-round.

PPS's Kathy Madden and Meg Walker led the group around the site, and conducted a Placemaking workshop to illicit the community's vision of what the new park in Oviedo, FL, will be.

"More cities are realizing that skywalks are not what they were cut out to be," said Fred Kent, president of Project for Public Spaces, a New York City-based nonprofit organization that helps communities create and sustain public places. "Instead of drawing additional people and retail to a second level, skywalks have left streets lifeless, presenting a cold and alienating environment."

When it comes to creating great places that inspire the public, it's the spaces between buildings - not the structures themselves - that matter most. Fred Kent and Benjamin Fried discuss how flashy, iconic design often gets in the way of creating great public spaces in this editorial in Newsday.

To set apart the development of a downtown block in Orlando, FL from other office towers and condos, Project for Public Spaces was hired to turn the area into a people-friendly public place that will enhance the sense of community. The complex will include a sculpture garden, rooftop garden, a courtyard with a fountain, and an expansive lawn that will provide the opportunity for a range of activities.

PPS Senior Fellow Jay Walljasper is this month's guest blogger at On the Commons.org, a website that is part of a growing movement to preserve the commons. Read Jay's column on the grassroots movement that is spreading across North America to infuse a new spirit of public life into neighborhoods and towns.

Boston's City Hall Plaza landed the top spot on PPS's list of civic squares most in need of improvement, and the ranking sparked some discussion among Bostonians.

If you've ever spent time wandering the concrete jungles of any city, or if you've been lost in a soulless suburb, you've probably felt that certain sort of lifelessness -- that distinct lack of heartbeat inherent to the crabbier corners of our urban oases.

Listen to Fred Kent's interview on CBC Radio (click on Part 3).

PPS held a public workshop at Denver's Union Station to elicit ideas from the community that will result in a vibrant and attractive plaza that will be a destination that will draw people year-round.

PPS is working with the the City of Mississauga in an ongoing effort to create a vital downtown core. As we've spoken to and trained the people who work for the city, we've found they really understand public spaces and embrace the need for Placemaking.

PPS prepared a report for the first phase of this project in Mississauga (which is located outside of Toronto), and this article in Novae Rea Urbis describes the project's goals.

Listen to Fred Kent and Ethan Kent's interview on Prime Time Radio, discussing the ideals and realities for good public spaces, and how to create great places where environment, people, and community join together.

PPS is working with Mississauga, a city outside Toronto, on a city-wide Placemaking effort to help shape the city center into a vibrant downtown area. The public is invited to participate in a workshop, which will be held on October 12th.

PPS is working with David Barley, founder of the Palm Beach Land Trust, to improve the public spaces in Orlando, FL. In this interview, David discusses how he is working with PPS to apply the principals of Placemaking to foster community development and create destinations in Downtown Orlando.

Fred Kent visited Orlando in the late 1980's and recommended that the city create places where people can gather and enjoy themselves. Two decades later, he says the town center still does not have these community gathering places.

"He spoke Tuesday to about 150 downtown leaders about the need to make the urban core more attractive.

The city center has "dead buildings" that repel people rather than invite them with something to do, he said."

In this month's KLM "Holland Herald," Fred Kent answers the question: "What makes us return to a city?" In short, local flavor, small businesses, and great neighborhoods distinguish truly great places from one-trick ponies.

This begs the question: What is the world's most re-visitable city (and why)?

(for inspiration, try our Great Public Spaces site)