Join PPS on September 15-17, 2010 for “Waterfront Synopsis”, an international gathering around the topic of “Placemaking and Sustainability” on waterfronts hosted by Project for Public Spaces, Inc. (PPS) and the Nordic Urban Design Association (NUDA) in Stavanger, Norway.

The goal of the Synopsis is to [...]]]>

Join PPS on September 15-17, 2010 for “Waterfront Synopsis”, an international gathering around the topic of “Placemaking and Sustainability” on waterfronts hosted by Project for Public Spaces, Inc. (PPS) and the Nordic Urban Design Association (NUDA) in Stavanger, Norway.

The goal of the Synopsis is to bring the forces of environmentalism, climate change and sustainability together with the ideas of community, livability, health and Placemaking. There are many new ways of realizing a different future as the impact of “Place” and “Placemaking” take hold in cities around the world. For more and more people, Placemaking is being viewed as a transformative agenda for creating changes in how government is structured, how communities are engaged, how new processes around civic engagement are developed, and how professionals can be repositioned as leaders in these important times.

Why Norway?

Norway is one of the world leaders today in determining how to assess, develop and improve cities so that they provide sustainable assets for their citizens in the future. The “Future Cities Program” currently being undertaken by the Ministry of Environment in Norway has the potential to provide a replicable model for connecting cities, governments and people around sustainable development models.

Stavanger is one of the best waterfront cities in the world. This setting, along with Norway’s vision and the idea of Placemaking, could make the Waterfront Synopsis the beginning of a major shift in the way we view waterfronts and communities in the future. It will be an opportunity to connect agendas for the first time and will give leaders from all over the world the opportunity to both learn from and inspire others.

Why PPS?

For the last 35 years, PPS has been committed to facilitating the development of successful public spaces in cities throughout the world.  Although waterfronts are one of the most important public spaces in cities, the majority of leaders have not yet been able to raise the discussion about waterfront development to a level where new models are being  considered  and implemented based on the community’s vision. If Placemaking was truly integrated into waterfront planning processes, citizens throughout the world would be equipped and empowered in ways that are natural, traditional, and time-honored – the way that communities organized themselves historically in cities around the world before the 1850’s.

Why NUDA?

NUDA’s goal is to provide a setting in which the challenges involved in undertaking waterfront development are presented and discussed candidly so that the international audience can learn from others experiencing similar challenges on waterfront development.  NUDA advocates for an understanding of urban design as more than just designing streets and public spaces through traditional design principles.

What are the themes that will be discussed at “Waterfront Synopsis”?

The important themes of the conference include creating “Multi-use Destinations”,  forging an “Architecture of Place”, expanding the idea of accessibility and the role of transportation on waterfronts and the important potential impact of markets on local economies.

• Creating “Multi-use Destinations” on Waterfronts: Multi-use destinations define what a city is about and are the premier public spaces in a city that attract and highlight the local assets and unique talents and skills of the community.  The combination of uses – educational, cultural, retail, and commercial – are open and available for visitors to freely partake in and are accessible physically, and in terms of how they are perceived.  Successful multi-use destinations are always changing because they are flexible enough to easily adapt to different times of day and year and they are proactively managed to take advantage of these differences.

• Forging an “Architecture of Place”: In many ways, iconic buildings have defined the past 50 years of modern architecture in cities. However, as cities and waterfronts evolve, a new idea of design is emerging called an “architecture of place”, which indicates that cities will become more livable, sustainable and authentic in the future. Public institutions such as museums, government buildings and libraries will become important anchors for civic activity that host a broader range of activities than they currently do and a new type of design will support that quest.

• Expanding the Idea of Accessibility and the Role of Transportation: In the last 100 years cities, (particularly waterfronts), have been defined by transportation decisions that were geared largely in favor of the car. The result is a system of streets and highways that reinforce a design ethos that is more about seeing or viewing rather than participating in communities. However, we are now seeing a massive shift in cities throughout the world where people want to get back to the idea of place, connecting within communities, supporting local services, spending time in public spaces and being part of local communities rather than in disjointed, unconnected places with no local character. In this new vision, the automobile plays a secondary role to transit, bicycles and the pedestrian.  Waterfronts are the key place in cities where these issues are enacted.

• Understanding the potential impact of Markets and Local Economies on Waterfronts: Historically, markets have played an important role in the development of waterfronts and continue in this role today.  From small neighborhood farmers markets to urban market districts, public markets are not only great community gathering places, they can also be economic generators that have a broad impact on their community’s overall development.  Markets located on waterfronts play a particularly important role in establishing a connection between the waterfront and the rest of a community.

For more information about the Waterfront Synopsis Conference, and to register, click here.

“Placemaker Profiles” highlights the individuals who have captured our imagination about the need to create great places in every community. By bringing together their valuable stories, key insights, and compelling visions, we hope to share their wisdom with our readers, honor their accomplishments, and acknowledge their profound influence on the Placemaking [...]]]>

“Placemaker Profiles” highlights the individuals who have captured our imagination about the need to create great places in every community. By bringing together their valuable stories, key insights, and compelling visions, we hope to share their wisdom with our readers, honor their accomplishments, and acknowledge their profound influence on the Placemaking movement.

For more Placemaker Profiles, click here.

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ALAN BARBER

“Greenspace networks are not the space left over after planning, or the spaces between buildings. They are a vital component of ever-larger urban settlements in all developed countries. We neglect them at our peril.”

Alan Barber is an advocate, activist, and critic who has worked tirelessly on behalf of Britain’s public parks and greenspaces for decades. Barber’s efforts at all levels – within communities, through university teaching, and in local and national government positions – has made real and lasting change in the way public parks are managed and prioritized in the United Kingdom. Barber is unfailingly passionate and unafraid to speak his mind. His recent appointment as a member of the Order of the British Empire stands in testament to his years of devotion and commitment to Britain’s public parks.

Biography

Alan Barber was born in Lancashire, UK, in 1942. His love of greenspace was cultivated at an early age; he apprenticed with a local parks department at age 16, and at 21 he began a two-year term of study at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Throughout the rest of his twenties, Barber learned about parks management by working “on the ground” jobs in Lancashire and Manchester.

Barber then became Parks Manager for the city of Bristol, UK. Working in this position, he came to hold many of his current positions on parks management and the role of parks in urban social life. In this role, he founded important and lasting public-private partnerships, increased parks programming, and introduced goal-based management systems imported from industry.

Barber repeatedly witnessed budget cuts leading to the ruin of parks programs and historic greenspaces. This inspired him to begin campaigning and consulting nationally for dedicated parks funding and management. In this role, he served as President of the Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management. In 1996, Barber co-wrote a position paper for Lord Rothschild that spurred the creation of a new grant-making parks initiative, funded by the national lottery, that became the largest investment in public parks in the UK; to date, over £300 million has been invested in revitalizing public greenspaces.

Barber went on to help found GreenSpace, a charity devoted to improving parks and involving communities in their care. He also has held several advocacy and teaching positions within government and universities, all devoted to better parks management and preservation.

In 1998, a House of Commons Select Committee – akin to a Congressional investigative hearing – met to consider the plight of public parks in the UK. Barber, who considered this a “real breakthrough,” served as a special advisor to the inquiry, and later to the government Urban Green Spaces Taskforce formed as a result. Barber helped to persuade both these bodies of the need for a national agency devoted to parks issues; in 2003, CABE Space – an addition to the UK’s Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) – was formed, and Barber was appointed a member of the Commission.

On April 7, 2009, Alan Barber was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen in recognition of his decades of advocacy on behalf of public parks. Upon receiving the prestigious award, Barber noted that: “I am still campaigning and writing about urban parks because I believe they are so important to the life of towns and cities. Their neglect in recent years has been scandalous, especially when they can do so much to encourage healthier lifestyles.”

Barber believes the biggest remaining challenge for greenspaces in the UK is “to reverse the steady decline in budgets for maintaining park systems in our towns and cities. Democracy is a much weaker force in the UK than in the USA. So much is dictated by Whitehall bureaucracy, rather than the wishes of local people. The silo-mentality in Whitehall means that nobody can link the welfare of children, which is a priority, to the care of the environment which children inhabit. A bit more attention to the latter and many of our serious problems with childcare would be reduced.”

Perspectives

The Role(s) and Management of Greenspace

Barber sees public parks and greenspaces as inherently multifunctional, and believes that their management must (but too often doesn’t) acknowledge this characteristic. He views parks as part of a larger ecological, cultural, social, and educational system.

This understanding of parks’ multifunctionality leads to Barber’s CLERE model for parks management. The model highlights what Barber sees as the five key interrelated functions of urban greenspace – its role in Community development and education; as a Landscape with conservation requirements; as an Ecosystem that provides natural services to a city; as a resource for Recreation; and finally, as a contributor to the local Economy. Each of these functions implies an accompanying set of management issues and goals, all of which must be addressed holistically for the greenspace to achieve its fullest potential.

The proper management of urban greenspace has farther-reaching benefits, as well. It contributes positively to national and global problems, including environmental issues like climate change and air quality, human well-being, and economic prosperity. Moreover, quality public space fosters and supports civic engagement and community spirit. If citizens feel alienated from their public spaces and institutions, they are less likely to participate (formally or informally) in governance of their communities. Thus, careful stewardship of public space is integral for guaranteeing meaningful democratic participation. This is a cyclical pattern: the less democratic the governing bodies, the more institutionally dysfunctional, bureaucratic, and self-interested the government – and in turn, a government of this sort won’t be a good steward of green space.

The Design Profession

Barber considers the landscape design profession to have “lost the plot,” in his words; he thinks landscape architecture education must refocus on natural and ecological features, rather than cold, sterile architectural elements. He says he “would remove all [landscape architects’] paving catalogues and replace them with plant catalogues. I would ask them to contemplate a world of beautiful colours, of three dimensions and with no geometrical shapes.”

With characteristic wit, Barber describes the need for design professionals to truly listen to the public that will use these spaces, and (echoing William H. Whyte) to have a role in arranging their own spatial experience: “I must have read a thousand articles on seats in public places but I never once read that anyone had asked people which they liked to sit on. I like Paris’s Jardin du Luxembourg because visitors are given a choice of seat, and how they are arranged. In English public places immovable benches are always placed next to trash bins because the architect presumes the public like to sit next to stale food and wasps.”

Design and Management

Barber argues in favor of a closer, more collaborative working relationship between designers and managers of public spaces, and finds that design too often occurs without consideration of how people will actually use the space. Parks, in particular, must be well-maintained and well-programmed to live up to their potential as useful public spaces. He says: “Design and management have to be brought much closer together. I have found good design solutions to management problems but only where designers and managers speak the same language and where they can both communicate with people.”

Good management gives public parks the ability to adapt in response to changing user needs. Fixed architectural elements are not easily adaptable and are “incapable of self-renewal,” in Barber’s words; however, parks can be continuously renewed when managers intervene in an informed, thoughtful, publicly-minded manner.

“People-Power”

Rather than depending on government to make necessary changes to public space, Barber puts his faith in grassroots “people-power” movements. He notes the importance of local community groups (often “friends of the parks” organizations) in influencing the political agenda and engaging with public space. Barber also extols tools like PPS’s Place Game and CABE’s Spaceshaper, both of which involve communities in critically appraising their own local spaces.

Architecture

Though Barber’s writings and work focus primarily on public parks and greenspace, he commends recent architectural innovations like green roofs and walls, noting that “[t]here are few modern buildings in the world that wouldn’t look better covered in plants.” Barber also praises Prince Charles and his views on architecture: “He has a real understanding of the subject, much greater than many of his architect critics. I wish he would champion parks and public places more often. His interventions are well judged and very influential.”

Quotable

“I love public parks; the best seem to effortlessly capture the essence of civilized living in modern urban society.”

“Nothing repays its investment as well as a good public park.”

“In my writing, I am often found campaigning and confrontational, mostly towards an establishment, which does not seem to care.”

“Campaigning for better public parks is my life and I don’t intend to stop until I collapse in a heap.”

Selected Publications

Around the World in Twenty-One Parks. This annotated collection of films of Barber’s favorite parks provides wonderful insight into what makes parks work.

Green Future. Greenspace, 2005.

Time to Bite the Bullet. Green Places, March 2009.

How Green is My Eco-Town? Green Places, November 2008 (with Junfang Xie).

The Final Assessment. Green Places, March 2008.

See also Sarah Jackson’s excellent profile of Alan Barber in Parks and Gardens UK, on which the Biography section of this Placemaker Profile draws.

Contact Info

Alan Barber may be reached at: alan.barber@blueyonder.co.uk. He particularly welcomes contact from students.

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–written by Karen Levy

This particular workshop, being hosted in Blind River, is to [...]]]> Cynthia Nikitin will kick off a full-day workshop with an inspirational keynote on the importance of everyday walking and walkable communities. Included in the presentation will be examples of communities who have embraced walkability and placemaking, with a special emphasis on small, rural communities.

This particular workshop, being hosted in Blind River, is to serve communities scattered throughout Northern Ontario. Blind River is located on the north shore of Lake Huron, roughly half way between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie.

Click here for more information.

Join experienced local leaders and professionals as they explain, step-by-step how to achieve innovative, high-quality, community-minded redevelopment in light of current economic and environmental constraints. Workshops are structured in a hands-on, case-study format, featuring instructors who have faced the challenges of redevelopment in communities throughout New Jersey. [...]]]> Hyatt Hotel and Conference Center, New Brunswick, NJ

Join experienced local leaders and professionals as they explain, step-by-step how to achieve innovative, high-quality, community-minded redevelopment in light of current economic and environmental constraints. Workshops are structured in a hands-on, case-study format, featuring instructors who have faced the challenges of redevelopment in communities throughout New Jersey. For details, clickhere.

Admission is $75 for members and $115 for non-members. There will be an additional fee of $25 for registration after February 15. Registration at the door is $150. We are seeking AICP Certification Maintenance credits for the conference; there will be an additional $25 fee assigned to attendees interested in the CM credit program.

The Roadmap will hopefully create [...]]]> Gary will participate in a discussion as a part of the National Center for Bicycling and Walking’s Active Living Resource Center. The purpose of the meeting is to create a roadmap to both encourage communities to become more pedestrian and bicycle-friendly, and provide them the technical assistance to do so.

The Roadmap will hopefully create a guide to using and implementing the wide range of active living tools, projects and programs that put communities on the path toward fashioning themselves as active living environments.