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ABOUT PROJECT
FOR PUBLIC SPACES
 PPS
is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and sustaining
public places that build communities. We provide technical
assistance, education, and research through programs in
parks, plazas and central squares; buildings
and civic architecture; transportation;
and public markets. Since
our founding in 1975, we have worked in over 1,000 communities
in the United States and around the world, helping people
to grow their public spaces into vital community places.
 Our
multi-faceted "placemaking" approach to planning
and design is rooted in the communities we serve and the
places that are important to them. Building on the techniques
from William H.
Whyte's ground-breaking Street Life Project, it involves
looking at, listening to and asking questions of the people
in a community to discover their needs and aspirations.
We work with them to create a vision around the places
that they view as important to community life and to their
daily experience. Then we help them to implement their ideas,
beginning with small-scale, do-able improvements that can
be phased in quickly and immediately begin bringing benefits
to a community.
 One
key to this process is reaching out to people - including
those who might not otherwise participate in an improvement
effort - where they live, work and congregate. We use systematic
on-site observations, time-lapse filming, and customized
interviews and surveys to gather people's input and document
and analyze their activities.
Our process also utilizes placemaking workshops, facilitated
public forums, and other types of meetings and partnerships
to give people an opportunity from the outset to identify
issues, contribute ideas, and make decisions about improvements
that can address their concerns. Using this multifaceted
approach, we are able to help people enhance the places
where they live and work, and rebuild communities both in
spirit and as places.
 Besides
our work in communities, PPS' placemaking mission is reinforced
through a membership
program and a host of other initiatives, resources, and
activities. These include:
Our growing schedule of "How
to Turn a Place Around" workshops; a history
of producing national and international conferences that
bring together experts and innovators in urban parks and
public markets; and a training course that shows traffic
engineers how to think "beyond the pavement" to
the role that streets and roads can play in enhancing communities.
In addition to a range of publications,
our web-based Urban Parks
and Better Buildings
resource centers and image database
help people transform public spaces into true community
places.
Finally, our Great Public Spaces
website, the Great
Public Spaces Awards, and our family of
listserves
nurture a growing community of people who, like us, are
committed to placemaking in their professions and their
communities. |
