Creating Great Communities through Placemaking

What If We Built Newport CityAround Places?

CommunityMatters WorkshopNewport, VT

38 years of Placemaking

50 U.S. States, 40 Countries 2500+ Communities 3 Million annual web visitors 37,000 people get our

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We shape our public spaces, thereafter our public spaces shape us. –adapted from Winston Churchill

Contrasting 1

“Lowly, unpurposeful and random as they may appear, sidewalk contacts are the small change from which a city’s wealth of public life may grow”. ─ Jane Jacobs

When you focus on creating a “place,”

you do everything differently.

If you plan for cars and traffic…you get more cars and traffic.

If you plan for people and places…you get more people and places.

A study of three generations of 9 year olds found that over a recent 20 year period, the radius around the home that children were allowed to play had sunken almost 90%.

Richard Louv

6. Sit and relax

1. Read the paper

8. Take a break from a bike ride

3. Learn about upcoming events

2. Window shopping for books

4. Go inside!

10. Have a conversation

7. Read someone else’s book

5. Walk

9. Pet a dog

SOCIABILITY: The Power of 10

What is Placemaking? Placemaking is turning a neighborhood, town

or city from a place you can’t wait to get through to one you never want to leave.

Placemaking is the creation of a built environment that creates community, stimulates interaction, encourages entrepreneurship, fosters innovation and nurtures humanity.

What is Placemaking?

Placemaking is creating for everybody. The seed of democracy. Placemaking is the process of giving space a

story that is shared by many.

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

Placemaking Tools to Transform Communities

Place Performance Evaluation Game

Power of 10 Crowd-Sourcing APPS Placemaking Plan Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper

CulturalCapital

HealthCapital

Social Capital

Built Capital

Human Capital

Financial Capital

Ecological Capital

Place Capital

Phases of Development Evolution

Phase 1: Project-Driven

Phase 4: Place-Led 

Phase 3: Place-Sensitive

Phase 2: Discipline-Led

From Adequate to Extraordinary

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

Main Street

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

Develop a Vision, and Experiment! Main Street, Littleton,

NH

EXISTING

VISION

INITIAL EXPERIMENT

EXPERIMENT REVISED

WITH MORE REVISIONS TO COME…

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

Cottage Street

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

EXPERIMENT DESIGN & PLANNING

EXPERIMENT INSTALLATIONBEGINS

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

Streets as PlacesPPS in Brunswick, Maine

Streets as Places Typologies

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

Example Typologies Brunswick

Brunswick

Brunswick

LIGHTER, QUICKER, CHEAPER Comfort, Amenities & Public Art Activation Events Interim Public Spaces Light Development

Bringing Back the Buffalo Waterfront

Buffalo

Waterfront

Multi-Use Marketplace

Inner Harbor

Multi-Use Square

Daily Programs for Children & Adults

Seating with Umbrellas

Moveable tables and chairs

Potted trees, plants

Street Performers

Small Bandstand

Bike Racks

Arts , Culture, Food Market

Containers, Tents, Work/Sell/Show

Spaces

Observation Deck [“Ghost Structure”]

Flags/Banners

Water-Uses

Water Shows

Floating Docks

Boardwalk BeachInner Harbor

Central Square

Info Kiosk

Restrooms & Showers

Kayak/Bike Rental

Signage: Historic &

Wayfinding

Moveable Tables and Chairs

Beer Garden

Restaurant

Seating with Umbrellas

Beach

Volleyball

Lounge Seating

Umbrellas

Water Feature, Misters

Inflatable paddle pools

Potted trees, plants

Flexible LawnInner Harbor

SkyWay Swing Park

Artist Designed Swings

Picnic Tables

Public Art

Bike Center

Rental, Repair, Retail

Picnic Lawn

Picnic Tables & Adirondack Chairs

Games

Arts and Crafts Trailers

Flexible Event Space

Stage

Liberty Pole

Dog Park

Urban Agriculture

Demonstration

Bio-Intensive Farm

Educational Center

Naval Park & Commercial Slip

Inner Harbor

Veterans’s Walk

Gateway Landmark and Signage

Floating Docs

Uplighting of Boats

Naval Museum & Hangar

Bistro with Dockside Seating

Boat Building

Community Room

Boardwalk

Military Music

Colorful Flags and Banners

Light and Sound Show

Food Concessions

Commercial Slip

Highlight History

Restrooms

Boatbuilding

Access to Water and Historic Boats

Hands on Education on Aquatic Life

Planning is no substitute for Placemaking:

Inventory your assets and resources and then build on them

Leverage community partnerships and grassroots support

Consider what you want your city or town to be known for in the future.

Create great places

• People attract people attract people.

• When you focus on place, you do everything differently.

• It takes many disciplines and skills to create a place.

• It takes a place to create a community, and a

community to create a place.

• Amenities that make a place comfortable are critical.

• You can’t know what you are going to end up with.

• Each place has its own identity.

• You can’t have anything less than excellence

• You have to have zealous nuts.

Some Key Principles…