Urban planners, economic developers, and community builders spend quite a bit of energy, public money and political capital on the idea of placemaking. National non-profit the Project for Public Spaces defines placemaking as “a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces…the art of creating public places that uplift and help us connect to each other.”
At its core placemaking is about creating places people want to be. I believe the operative word in any discussion on place should always revolve around people. Designing spaces and places with people in mind, be they a citizen, a customer, a tourist or any number of other hats we all wear, is the most often overlooked and important piece of the development process public and private. Quite simply, people make place.
Traditionally, placemaking and the science therein seeks to understand dynamics associated with form, function and orientation to ultimately create an identity we can relate to. Placemaking has become a big industry, frequently employing methods involving complex analysis of data and demographics to identify the best opportunity for a return on our community’s investments. As professionals, we know what makes a functionally useful sidewalk. We appreciate and understand the complex relationship between building orientation, traffic patterns, and real estate value. Our process has been measured and methodical.
Today the idea of placemaking drives the design of public spaces everywhere. What placemaking has become is an essential component of any economic development program. There isn’t an economic developer in the country today that isn’t working to attract talent and innovation by prioritizing place. Placemaking principles have even become ubiquitous in commercial development. The lifestyle center is an excellent example. Private investors understand better than ever how the design of a project for example, can frame the customer/tenant experience.
The problem is, you can’t institutionalize authenticity…
Placemaking doesn’t have to be driven by public process or born in a committee meeting or driven by a commercial purpose. At its core placemaking is about civic and community pride. In that respect the idea of creating place is being open sourced all over the country. Movements toward tactical urbanism, active efforts on the part of people to make their places more interesting and functional and beautiful are happening everywhere.
One thing that often gets missed in placemaking strategies is the more connected and interpersonal aspects of community building. Creating an environment where people feel comfortable taking initiative for building place on their own can and will build momentum. Chuck Marohn with Strong Towns talks about this frequently.
Urbanism and traditional placemaking as defined and discussed above, while much more largely dissected, isn’t the only impactful path toward creating a great place where people want to be. Public spaces, both functional and beautiful are essential, but without people a well-designed public plaza, a perfectly planned sidewalk or any other place is worthless.
Intentional work to build “community” is essential to a successful placemaking program. The challenge is, try as we might, community in the “family you choose” sense of the word can’t be manufactured in a board room or a public meeting, but without it place doesn’t exist.
Ask anyone what makes their city, neighborhood or place special and the first two words out of their mouths almost without fail is: “the people.” To effectively support and accelerate sustainable communities we must work intentionally toward empowering people to build their own shared community identity.
Shared concerns and interests build on the foundation that proximity and place design create to make a successful place. In order to feel connected we all need a community that we seek and community that seeks us… this notion of mutuality is an important and often misunderstood two-way relationship.
Efforts that can support the development of true mutuality are driven to inspire community conversation, and ultimately give people a reason to love where the live.
With that here are some ideas for intentional efforts beyond traditional placemaking strategies that can help build community:
Tatical Urbanism: Make your place more beautiful and functional
- Community installations to meet a need
- More public art
- Purposeful street art
- Raise the bar on local design
Connectivity: Build a Creative Community
- Physical connectivity projects, wayfinding
- Community brand and shared identity
- Create opportunities to inspire community conversation, gatherings and networking
Inspiration: Do good things
- Inspire love, give as a citizen
- Give people a reason to stay
- Make your community famous for something
- Take time to explore
Entrepreneurialism: Create, Grow and Support Business that Advance the Goals of your community
Placemaking can be open sourced in the sense that there is no ownership in the effort to create a particular place, in fact it must be if we are to create successful places. Our work is to engage and enable those things to happen and then get out of the way when they do.
Finally, never forget that it takes forever to build a city.
Chris McGowan has spent 20 years working to successfully transform Texas cities and build community. His passion for place, inspired design, and innovation drive his work today.