What if…

We Built Pittsburgh

around Places ?

Creating and Sustaining Destinations

Through Placemaking
© 2008 Project for Public Spaces. All Rights Reserved
33 years of Placemaking

• 48 U.S. States
• 28 Countries
• 2000 Communities
• 3 Million annual visitors to our web
sites
 Project Areas

Squares Transportation Downtowns

Public Markets Mixed-Use Civic Centers
Parks New Development Campuses
 Initiatives

Building Community through Transportation, Community Anchors, Public

Markets & Local Communities, Great Places, Great Cities
 Planning Education Research
& Design & Training & Outreach
Over 2000 place-based Train over 10,000 Over 60,000 page
projects in 28 countries people annually views daily on pps.org

• Public Space Audits • Context Sensitive • 20 publications

• Community Visioning Solutions • 6 videos
• Conceptual Designs • Public Markets as
Economic Development • Database of 500,000
• Management • “How to Turn a Place images of public
Programs Around” seminars spaces
• Conferences
 When you focus on a place,
you do everything differently.
What is Placemaking?
• Placemaking is a dynamic human function:
it is an act of liberation, of staking claim,
and of beautification; it is true human
empowerment.
• 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.
It is difficult to create a space that will not attract
people; what is remarkable is how often this has been
accomplished. ─William H. Whyte

Contrasting 1
It’s hard for people to realize that place is more
important than design. ─Fred Kent
What attracts people most it would appear,
is other people. ─William H. Whyte
 Key Attributes
What Makes a Great Place? Intangibles
Measurements

street life business ownership

evening use property values
volunteerism land-use patterns
Fun retail sales
Welcoming
Cooperative Active Vital
Neighborly Special Real

sociability uses & activities

PLACE
access & linkages comfort & image
Connected Safe
Walkable Charm Clean
Convenient Attractive
Accessible Historic crime stats
transit usage sanitation rating
pedestrian activity building conditions
parking usage patterns environmental data
Return of the Civic Square - Detroit
 Principles of Creating
Great Public Spaces
1. The community is the expert

Underlying Ideas 2. You are creating a place not just a design

3. You can’t do it alone
4. They always say it can’t be done
Planning & Outreach 5. You can see a lot just by observing
Techniques 6. Develop a vision
Translating Ideas 7. Form supports function
Into Action 8. Triangulate
9. Start with the petunias
Implementation 10. Money is not the issue
11. You are never finished
 The Benefits of Place
Nurtures a Sense of
Community
Builds Local
Economies Improves Safety
and Security

PLACE
Enhances
Accessibility Fosters Meaningful
for All Interaction
Draws a Diverse
Population
 Local Placemaking Opportunities
• Bus stops
Transportation & • Train Stations
Downtowns • Main Streets
• Local streets and roads
• Parks (greenways, recreation, play areas)
Parks & Squares • Plazas & squares (performances, events)
• Markets
• Waterfronts
• Libraries and hospitals
Civic Institutions • Civic buildings
• Schools (universities, primary schools)
• Religious institutions
• Cultural institutions (theaters, museums)
Private development • Mixed-use – housing, retail and office
 Why don’t we have
better Centers, Streets or
Public Spaces today?
• Fear
• Narrow Development
Goals
• Project-driven vs. Place-
driven Planning
• Discipline-Based
Planning/Design vs.
Community-Based
Placemaking
• Governmental Structure
Place / Community Driven Approach Project/Discipline
Driven Approach
• Empowers Communities
• Attracts partners, money
& creative solutions
• Professionals become
resources
• Design supports uses
• Solutions are flexible
• Engagement and
commitment grow
The Power of Ten
City/Town 10+ major destinations/
districts
Districts/
10+ places
Destinations

10+ things to do
Place

Layering of uses to
create synergy
(Triangulation)
PPS Initiative: Building Community Through Transportation
Streets as Places
Thinking Beyond the Station
When you design your community
around cars…you get more cars.
The erosion of cities by
automobiles proceeds as a
kind of nibbling. Small
nibbles at first but eventually
hefty bites. A street is
widened here, another is
straightened there, a wide
avenue is converted to one
way flow and more land goes
into parking. No one step in
this process is in itself crucial
but cumulatively the effect
is enormous.
─ Jane Jacobs, 1954
A study of three generations of 9 year olds
found that by 1990, the radius around the
home that children were allowed to play had
sunken to a ninth of what it had been in 1970.
Richard Louv
 When you design your community
around people … you get more people.
New York City Street Renaissance
Broken Streets
HEAVY TRAFFIC
16,000 vehicles per day

0.9 friends per person

3.1 acquaintances per person

MEDIUM TRAFFIC
8,000 vehicles per day

1.3 friends per person

4.1 acquaintances per person

LIGHT TRAFFIC
2,000 vehicles per day

3 friends per person

6.3 acquaintances per person

Donald Appleyard, UC Berkeley Professor of Urban

Design, quantified the impact of traffic on social ties.
Broken Streets
New Yorkers deal with traffic in the following
ways: 56.5% LIGHT TRAFFIC STREET

52.2% MEDIUM TRAFFIC STREET

HEAVY TRAFFIC STREET

43.5%

26.0%

21.7%
18.5%

7.7% 7.4% 7.4%

5.1%
2.6%
0.0%

I keep my I spend more time I forbid my I go out on the

windows shut in the back of my children to play street less often
house in the streets
Broken Streets
Undemocratic Use of Space

2 in 5 New Yorkers owns a car 1

in 5 Manhattanites owns a car

Yet New York City streets are

almost entirely dedicated to cars

* square feet used per traveler

The Truth About Traffic
Driving is a choice,
not a necessity
90% of auto commuters have an existing
transit alternative

30-60% of cars entering Manhattan

below 59 Street are going “through” the district
th
and have no economic purpose

69% of all trips below 59th Street in

Manhattan are on foot
 The Truth About Traffic
Cars Can Disappear
West Side Highway collapse in 1973
• 110,000 cars daily before collapse
• 50,000 cars daily after redesign as urban boulevard
Lt. Petrosino Square - Before
Lt. Petrosino Square - After
Finn Square - Before
A funnel for downtown traffic...
Finn Square - After
...can be a defining space for Tribeca.
 Spring Street - Before

New York’s most successful neighborhoods…

 Spring Street - After
…can better serve the pedestrians that bring their success.
 Kenmare Square - Before

An unused square and roadway…

Thinking Beyond the Station
The Placemaking
Process around
Transit
Before After
San Bruno, CA
Belmont, CA
 Roadways adjacent to transit facilities are
6 pedestrian-friendly boulevards.
Community & Economic Development
through Greenways & Public Spaces
A Placemaking Program for Serbia and Montenegro

An Initiative of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund & Balkan Community Initiatives

Fund & the USAID / Community Revitalization through Democratic Action
With the Balkan Communities Initiative Fund (Serbia)
May 22, 2004, Čenej
Placemaking / Greenways
workshop • More than 70 participants
– Farmers
– Decision makers
– Tourist agencies
– NGOs
– Media
– City planners
March, 25 2005

Marking possible
destinations
along the bicycle
paths in Čenej

• They link:
-Salaš’s
-Protected
cultural heritage
-Protected
natural wealth
-Hunters’ Lodge
-Small airport
-Hop-field
VIA PACIS
PANNONIAE
Evaluating the center of Čenej
 Moj Salas

FARMERS’ MARKET

Novi Sad
 PPS Initiative
Community Anchors
A Tale of Two Libraries
Bryant Park Winter Program
 Civic Institutions Today
Hospital Theatres/
Coffee
Shop Museums

Community
Parks Center

Transit
Library

Schools City Hall

Civic Institutions of the Future

Schools
City Hall Community
Center
Library Civic Spaces,
Community Gathering Parks
Coffee Spaces/Markets
Shop
Theatres/
Hospital Museums
Transit
 PPS Initiative
Great Places, Great Cities

•Power of 10
• What are the 10 major destinations of Pittsburgh?
• What are the 10 major places of downtown?
• What 10 things can you do in each of these places?
•Partnerships to Revitalize Multiple Spaces
•Integrate Placemaking into city policies and processes
•Inform changes in federal and state policies and
funding, especially transportation policies
 It has to be a Campaign
Develop
a vision Attack
Complacency
Produce
Become great short term
wins Connect change
communicators Organize a to the culture
strong team of the
Take on community
Search for bigger
impediments challenges

People Who Make Dramatic Change By John Kotter

 www.pps.org
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