The Perth Cultural Centre is seen here in full bloom during CHOGM 2011 / Photo: Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority

As much as we prize creativity in cities today, the cultural centers that we’ve built to celebrate it rarely hit the mark. Culture is born out of human interaction; it therefore cannot exist without people around to enjoy, evaluate, remix, and participate in it. So why do our cultural centers so often turn inward, away from the street, onto an internal space that is only nominally for gathering, and is mainly used for passing through? Why do these cultural centers physically remove culture from the public realm and plop it on a curated, often “visionary” pedestal instead of providing a venue for promoting more interaction among the people who create it? “Big Cultural Centers–think of Lincoln Center in Manhattan–they need to turn themselves inside-out and become about culture for all instead of culture for a few,” says PPS President Fred Kent. “Elitism is a big part of what’s going on in some of these places. They exude a subtle sense of who ‘should’ and ‘should not’ be there.’”

Perth’s Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority had a different vision. Their vision was to connect the 23 institutions within the Perth Cultural Centre (PCC) to each other by improving the public spaces that surrounded and connected them, and to extend the precinct past its formal edges, with cultural activity reaching out into the surrounding area like an octopus.  The PCC  is a cluster of institutions located at the hinge point between the city’s central business district and one of its burgeoning nightlife districts, Northbridge. The centre features a mix of historic buildings from the 1800s and Brutalist structures built in the 1960s and 70s, and includes art museums, theaters, a history museum, a major library, and a compact college campus.

The MRA got involved in 2008 by buying and renovating a number of storefronts along William Street, a major shopping corridor on the edge of the PCC precinct, and then carefully managing the selection of tenants. When PPS’s Kathy Madden, Alessandra Galletti, and Josh Kent were brought in back in 2009, the MRA’s understanding of the importance of careful management and cohesive vision proved to be key to developing a Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper (LQC) plan that’s completely changed the public’s perception of the space in a very short period of time. “Compare something like Lincoln Center with the center of culture and diversity they have created in Perth,” says Fred, and you’ll find that the latter is “all about engagement, people, social interaction, a hundred different things to do–maybe nobody wins a design award for it, but that diversification of uses is a really big deal for the people who use that Place, and for their local culture.”

“One of the big things for us was to take the focus off the buildings and put it on the things that happen in the spaces between them,” MRA Executive Director of Place Management Veronica Jeffery explains. “That’s why what we call the ‘quick wins’ strategy was so important: it basically went from planning straight to implementation, and was really powerful. It didn’t leave time for contemplation, which meant that people could see their ideas transform into action.”

Volunteers work on the PCC's amazing "urban orchard" built atop a parking deck / Photo: CPSU/CSA via Flickr

The LQC plan included a working orchard on top of a parking deck, a wetland and play space focused on nature-based discovery, a large screen for projecting movies and digital art, seating, food vendors, etc. Major events like the Perth International Arts Festival and Fringe World Festival relocated to the center’s grounds, which also had the honor of hosting CHOGM 2011.

The culture of risk-taking and experimentation encouraged by the LQC plan has allowed for the MRA team to try some things that failed, learn from them, and move on. This has been greatly aided by the fact that, as part of the Placemaking process, the many once-isolated institutions located within the PCC have come to see their participation in the way that the site is managed as an opportunity to collaborate and enhance their own missions and events. As Alec Coles, Chief Executive Officer of the Western Australian Museum, explains it:

“The recent redevelopment of the Perth Cultural Centre as a ‘people space’ has helped us create the permeability around the Museum that we have long desired. The softening of the edges, not least with the popular sound garden, is making our historic ‘edifice’ a much more welcoming proposition…Too often, cultural centres become cultural ghettos; we are determined that by working with MRA and our many partners that this will not be the case in Perth.”

The good news, today, is that shifting attitudes are chipping away at the austere walls of yesterday’s “culture ghettos,” with people demanding more inspiring, interactive gathering places. Creativity is becoming one of the most coveted social assets for post-industrial cities with increasingly knowledge-based economies–and this is good news for culture vultures and average Joes, alike. “This idea of the ‘Creative Class,’” says PPS’s Cynthia Nikitin, an expert on cultural centers, “is about culturally-based industries, and creatively-engaged people. They could be making clothing, they could be in web or media design. The public’s definition of creativity is really changing to be about celebrating the creativity in all of us, and creating a public environment that supports and encourages that.”

According to Richard Florida, author of Rise of the Creative Class, pressure is mounting on traditional Cultural Centers–what he calls SOBs for ‘symphony, opera and ballet’–forcing more and more of them to adapt to meet the needs of an ever-broadening audience that is looking for ways to engage creatively with each other, and actually participate in culture instead of merely consuming it. “The real challenge for the ‘Big C’ centers,” he explains, “is how to reposition for this shift…these institutions are in trouble. Many teeter on the verge of bankruptcy.  They have to get with it, like universities and all the old school organizations. They have to become more fluid, more open, more accepting.  Less imposing. Think of it sort of like the difference between haute cuisine and great food trucks.”

The MRA's focus on becoming a place for people has created a destination where people can connect and learn from each other / Photo: Fred Kent

Put another way, great, engaging centers of culture are the product of great Placemaking. In Perth, various activities and institutions had co-located, but they hadn’t come out of their respective buildings to interact and make use of their shared space. The Placemaking process allowed the various stakeholders to come together and develop a collaborative vision for their shared site. “We think it’s important to debunk the myth around Culture with a Capital C and make the place inclusive and welcoming to different kinds of people,” Jeffery explains.

That inclusiveness–of organizations, of individuals, of businesses–is the lynchpin in the process of creating great places. Florida notes that Gallup & Knight’s Soul of the Community survey found that the quality of a place’s social offerings was the #1 factor that people said creates emotional attachment to their community. Openness to all sorts of people was #2. “I say the two go together,” he argues. “Our public spaces are perhaps the last vestige of democratic space in our cities.”

Today, we need those kinds of comfortable social environments more than ever. Encouraging creative exploration and experimentation is a great way to develop local talent. As studies (popularized by the writing of Ken Robinson) have shown, while the vast majority of children will answer enthusiastically in the affirmative when asked if they are creative, by the time most people reach high school just as great a majority will say that they are not. For our cities to thrive, we must develop participatory public spaces to re-spark latent creative spirits.

The PCC's openness and flexibility make the precinct ideal for everything from meeting a friend for coffee to meeting a few thousand friends for a concert. / Photo: Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority

“When a cultural institution does programming out in public space,” says Nina Simon, an expert who consulted at museums around the world before taking the helm of the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz last year, “there’s a really powerful shift in the context.” Still, she cautions, it’s important that institutions remember that the shift is as important for them as it is for neighbors who attend an event or activity. “If you’re going to be out in public space, you have to have the attitude that this is about connecting to the community that you’re in, rather than just trying to figure out how to plug what you do inside the museum in somewhere else. When TV was invented, people didn’t just say ‘let’s put radio on the television.’ They had to re-think the way programming that was made in order to be successful.”

Over the years, PPS has seen how pulling cultural programming out into streets and squares has transformed not just those public spaces, but the cultural institutions that participated in their renewal as well: from Wade Oval in Cleveland, to Tucson’s Congress Street, to the Bronx River Arts Center in New York. And, of course, there’s the Perth Cultural Centre, where the MRA’s pioneering approach to transforming its precinct lights a new way forward for the formal, inward-focused capital-C Cultural Centers of yore.

“It’s been a challenging process, but the results have exceeded all of our expectations,” Jeffery says. “Ultimately, the centre is a public space, and we want everybody to feel comfortable here. They should be able to come in and feel like it’s theirs. If they happen to have a cultural experience in the process, that’s even better!”

Kris Snibbe/Harvard News Office

The memorable experiences of one’s education often take place in the most comfortable and socially engaging places on a campus. Campus planning has sometimes been neglectful of allowing for and creating such places, instead focusing more narrowly on single-use facilities and isolated design statements.

Harvard University has been quietly challenging this pattern and opening up to our Placemaking approach. PPS worked with the university’s North Campus – which previously felt disconnected from the school’s well-known Harvard Yard – to develop recommendations in 2005 regarding seasonal uses and short-term experiments to activate the campus and make it feel more connected to the Yard. In 2006, Harvard announced plans for a new Allston Campus, which will be built over the next 50 years. With PPS’s help, this plan is being framed, in part, around key campus destinations and connections to the surrounding community.

This semester, Harvard brought Placemaking to its main campus, establishing a Steering Committee on Common Space to make campus life even better. The Committee, dedicated to making sure the campus’ physical environment better supports the intellectual and social vitality of the University, has already installed colorful movable chairs and tables in Harvard Yard and the Radcliffe Quad. A variety of foods will be offered nearby, and student performances will further activate the spaces. For such a revered space, which never had any seating simply because there never was any historically, this is a big move and we applaud Harvard’s willingness to have a little fun with their most sacred space.

We are excited to see Placemaking being embraced on many college campuses. A former PPS intern has been leading campus Placemaking efforts on the campus of Colorado College. PPS has also been applying Placemaking to campuses in the development of new student unions, gathering areas and master plans on for institutions including, University of Madison Wisconsin, Stanford University, Duke University, George Mason University and University of Michigan Flint. Please share with us any examples that you may be involved with.

With Harvard taking these bold but simple steps, we are hopeful that campuses around the world will be inspired to find innovative ways to make their campuses more inviting and more memorable, and better contribute to the public realms of the communities they serve.

From June 3 through July 27, 2009, entrants can e-mail original photos or videos showcasing their favorite public places across Chicagoland, along with a 250-word-or-less description, to placemakingchicago@metroplanning.org. (Complete rules and submission criteria are available at PlacemakingChicago.com. Entrants may feature places in the City of Chicago or in Chicago suburbs located in Boone, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties in Illinois; or in Lake, Porter, and La Porte counties in Indiana; or in Racine and Kenosha counties in Wisconsin.)

“Show and tell us not only why your favorite place is special to you, but also how it contributes to your community,” said MPC Associate Karin Sommer, who manages the Placemaking Chicago project. “Is it somewhere people go to relax or meet up with friends? What are some unique ways people use the space? And what is it about this place that keeps you and your neighbors coming back day after day, and year after year?”

PPS has its own catalog of Great Public Spaces, featuring the best places from around the world.  Nominate your favorite here!

More Information:

The Best Places in Chicago [Chicago Journal]

Known for its skyline and natural setting, Seattle is organizing to re-envision its streets as places for people.

‘What’s your street for?’ is the motto of Seattle’s new Streets for People Campaign.  Modeled in many ways after the ‘Open source’ NYC Street Renaissance Campaign that PPS helped to found, Streets for People’s approach to advocacy is to connect, convene and inspire a new conversation about how streets can best be used as public spaces for people.

The campaign will be coordinating with a broad range of local organizations, as well as with the city, on bike and pedestrian Master Plans, a Summer Streets program, Seattle’s new plan for light rail transit (LRT), as well as a Low Impact Vehicle Exhibition (aLIVE) which invites the public to submit installations for display and demonstrations during a one day exhibition.

PPS’ Renee Espiau traveled to Seattle to help launch the Streets for People campaign in February.  Espiau gave a presentation on PPS’s work and approach to generating demand and creativity for the higher use of our road space and how that placemaking approach translates into city-wide advocacy.  The event was covered by the Worldchanging blog.

In New York City, PPS partnered with The Open Planning Project and Transportation Alternatives to create the New York City Streets Renaissance (NYCSR) which has ignited a powerhouse of change for pedestrian oriented redevelopment in various NYC locations such as Gansevoort Plaza and Madison Square. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced plans to reclaim vast stretches of Broadway through Times Square and Herald Square which realizes dreams set early in the campaign.  Look out for more reclaimed pedestrian space and great streets in Seattle.

This momentum in Seattle further reflects the ripe Placemaking movement that PPS has participated in and chronicled over recent years.

Appleseed projects, the first of which is slated for McKinney, Texas, will be located at an intersection of two well-traveled arterials. Its focus will be a multi-purpose plaza and a family restaurant with outdoor dining, rather than the sea of parking usually found at malls and shopping complexes.  The plaza will be available to the community for a wide-range of programs that respond to their needs – everything from farmers markets to small performances and community events.  It will also offer permanent attractions such as a play area, fountain or water feature and game tables.  The small complex will be managed by a well-trained team that will work with a local steering committee to create a lively program of home-grown events.

Retail and business space will be used for local mom-and-pop shops and small businesses, adding to local vitality and providing residents with walkable options for entertainment, dining and employment. The developments will also provide small, incubator-type office space so that local residents can work close to home.

PPS will be working with the community to develop the program for the prototype in McKinney.  Seven more Appleseed projects are slated for the suburbs of Fort Worth and Dallas in the next few years.

Links:

• The Appleseed Project

• McKinney Appleseed project aims to bring development to residents [Dallas Morning News]

Click here for the full job descriptions and information on how to apply.

His theory is that attractive, non-automobile dominated public spaces layered with multi-use functions will pump vitality back into communities that have become too isolated.

“As an internationally known advocate for public spaces, Fred Kent, founder of the New York-based  Project for Public Spaces (PPS), sees cities – and the people who inhabit them – through the measured senses of an urban provocateur.”

Museum Mile Festival, 5th Avenue

Read this special issue of PPS’s newsletter Making Places, which includes the city commentary, New York great public spaces and hidden gems, and the places that provide the biggest opportunities for improvement.