What If We Built Our Communities Around Places

WHAT IF WE BUILT OUR COMMUNITIES AROUND PLACES?
As both an overarching idea and a hands-on approach for improving a neighborhood,

city, or region, placemaking inspires people to collectively reimagine and reinvent
public spaces as the heart of every community. Strengthening the connection between
people and the places they share, placemaking refers to a collaborative process by
which we can shape our public realm in order to maximize shared value. More than just
promoting better urban design, placemaking facilitates creative patterns of use, paying
particular attention to the physical, cultural, and social identities that define a place and
support its ongoing evolution.
With community-based participation at its center, an effective placemaking process

capitalizes on a local community's assets, inspiration, and potential, and it results in the
creation of quality public spaces that contribute to people's health, happiness, and well
being.
When Project for Public Spaces surveyed people about what placemaking means to

them, we found that it is a crucial and deeply-valued process for those who feel
intimately connected to the places in their lives. Placemaking shows people just how
powerful their collective vision can be. It helps them to re-imagine everyday spaces, and
to see anew the potential of parks, downtowns, waterfronts, plazas, neighborhoods,
streets, markets, campuses and public buildings.
Placemaking begins at the smallest scale.
Placemaking is not a new idea. Although Project for Public Spaces began consistently
using the term "placemaking" in the mid-1990s to describe our approach, some of the
thinking behind Placemaking gained traction in the 1960s, when our mentors like Jane
Jacobs and William H. Whyte introduced groundbreaking ideas about designing cities
for people, not just cars and shopping centers. Their work focuses on the social and
cultural importance of lively neighborhoods and inviting public spaces: Jacobs
encouraged everyday citizens to take ownership of streets through the now-famous idea
of “eyes on the street,” while Holly Whyte outlined key elements for creating vibrant
social life in public spaces. Applying the wisdom of these (and other) urban pioneers,
since 1975 Project for Public Spaces has gradually developed a comprehensive
Placemaking approach.
Throughout our experience working with over 3,500 communities—in all 50 U.S. states
and in over 50 countries—Project for Public Spaces continues to show by example how
adopting a collaborative community process is the most effective approach for creating
and revitalizing public spaces. For us, placemaking is both a process and a philosophy.
It is centered around observing, listening to, and asking questions of the people who
live, work, and play in a particular space in order to understand their needs and
aspirations for that space and for their community as a whole. With this knowledge, we
can come together to create a common vision for that place. The vision can evolve
quickly into an implementation strategy, beginning with small-scale "Lighter, Quicker,
Cheaper" improvements that bring immediate benefits both to the spaces themselves
and the people who use them.
WHEN YOU FOCUS ON PLACE, YOU DO EVERYTHING DIFFERENTLY

Unfortunately, the rigid planning processes of the 20th century have become
so institutionalized that community stakeholders rarely have the chance to voice their
own ideas and aspirations about the places they inhabit. Placemaking can break down
these silos by showing planners, designers, and engineers the broad value of moving
beyond the narrow focus of their own professions, disciplines, agendas. Experience has
shown us that when developers and planners welcome this kind of grassroots
involvement, they spare themselves a lot of headaches. Common problems like traffic-
dominated streets, little-used parks, and isolated or underperforming development
projects can be addressed—or altogether avoided—by embracing a model of
placemaking that views a place in its entirety, rather than zeroing in on isolated
components.
Even though cities ultimately fail or succeed at the scale of "place," this is the scale that is so
often overlooked.
KEY PRINCIPLES OF PLACEMAKING

The Projectfor Public Spaces placemaking approach can be a springboard for
community revitalization. Emerging from forty years of practice, our 11 Principles of
Placemaking offer guidelines to help communities (1) integrate diverse opinions into a
cohesive vision, (2) translate that vision into a plan and program of uses, and (3) ensure
the sustainable implementation of the plan. Turning a shared vision into a reality–into a
truly great place–means finding the patience to take small steps, to truly listen, and to
see what works best in a particular context.
Just as community input is essential to the placemaking process, it is equally important
to have a mutual understanding of the ways in which great places foster successful
social networks and benefit multiple stakeholders and initiatives at once. The 11
Principles, along with and other tools we’ve developed for improving places (such as
the Power of 10), have helped citizens bring immense changes to their communities–
changes that are often far more extensive than the original vision had imagined.
The Place Diagram is one of the tools Projectfor Public Spaces has developed to help
communities evaluate places. The inner ring represents a place's key attributes, the middle ring
its intangible qualities, and the outer ring its measurable data.
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE: PLACEMAKING GROWS INTO AN

INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT
Learn more about Placemaking and how it can help transform public spaces. Download
the booklet.
Placemaking is at the heart of Project for Public Spaces’s work and mission, but we do
not trademark it as our property. It belongs to anyone and everyone who is sincere
about creating great places, and who understands how a strong sense of place can
influence the physical, social, emotional, and ecological health of individuals and
communities everywhere. We do feel a responsibility to continue protecting, practicing,
and advocating for the community-driven, bottom-up approach that placemaking
describes. To be successful, this process requires great leadership and action on all
levels. Leaders need not, and certainly should not, have all the answers, and by
acknowledging this, and providing space for experimentation and collaboration,
Placemaking allows an even bolder process to unfold.
Today, the term "placemaking" is used in many settings–not just by citizens and
organizations committed to grassroots community improvement, but also by planners
and developers who use it as a “brand” to imply authenticity and quality, even if their
projects don’t always live up to that promise. But using “placemaking” in reference to a
process that isn't really rooted in public participation dilutes its potential value. Making a
place is not the same as constructing a building, designing a plaza, or developing a
commercial zone. As more communities engage in placemaking and more professionals
come to call their work “placemaking,” it is important to preserve the meaning and
integrity of the process. A great public space cannot be measured by its physical
attributes alone; it must also serve people as a vital community resource in which
function always trumps form. When people of all ages, abilities, and socio-economic
backgrounds can not only access and enjoy a place, but also play a key role in its
identity, creation, and maintenance, that is when we see genuine placemaking in action.
Placemaking pays close attention to the myriad ways in which the physical, social,

ecological, cultural, and even spiritual qualities of a place are intimately intertwined, and
we continue to be inspired by the visionary placemakers who have worked to promote
this vision for generations.
Placemaking belongs to everyone: its message and mission is bigger than any one
person or organization. As a "backbone organization," Project for Public Spaces
remains dedicated to supporting the movement, growing the network, and sharing our
experience and resources with placemakers and allies everywhere.
Placemaking is
 Community-driven
 Visionary
 Function before form
 Adaptable
 Inclusive
 Focused on creating destinations
 Context-specific
 Dynamic
 Trans-disciplinary
 Transformative
 Flexible
 Collaborative
 Sociable
Placemaking is not
 Top-down
 Reactionary
 Design-driven
 A blanket solution or quick fix
 Exclusionary
 Car-centric
 One-size-fits-all
 Static
 Discipline-driven
 One-dimensional
 Dependent on regulatory controls
 A cost/benefit analysis
 Project-focused
Small-scale producers often find themselves with too little time to produce and direct
market their locally grown products. Food hubs provide another marketing option to
producers who do not have time to participate in a farmers market or other direct
marketing venues.
Research has indicated that consumers are willing to pay a premium if they know
about the origins of local and regional food. However, finding access to distribution
into mainstream markets is challenging for local, small-scale producers. Food hubs
can help overcome this challenge.

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WHAT IF WE BUILT OUR COMMUNITIES AROUND PLACES?

As both an overarching idea and a hands-on approach for improving a neighborhood,

With community-based participation at its center, an effective placemaking process

When Project for Public Spaces surveyed people about what placemaking means to

WHEN YOU FOCUS ON PLACE, YOU DO EVERYTHING DIFFERENTLY

KEY PRINCIPLES OF PLACEMAKING

FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE: PLACEMAKING GROWS INTO AN

Placemaking pays close attention to the myriad ways in which the physical, social,

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