Project for Public Spaces » Training

The 10 Greatest US Public Markets That Met the Wrecking Ball

David K. O'Neil — Sun, 05 May 2013 17:25:18 +0000

This guest post features a collection of wonderful historic postcards and photos from the private collection of PPS markets consultant David K. O’Neil. We thank him for allowing us to share them with you here!

It is no secret that market halls, market sheds, and market districts were once more prevalent in American cities than they are today. Hundreds of markets burned down, were demolished, were removed for “higher and better uses” (oh, how I hate that term), or were replaced with empty “market squares”. Most towns, large and small, had at least one market that usually served as one of the most important, centrally located institutions in a growing city. Local economies were built around markets, which offered affordable opportunities to people who were looking to start a small business and vital lifelines connecting consumers and producers.

Many of these old markets were also quite beautiful, and as we prepare for our How to Create Successful Markets training workshop, we decided to reflect on some of our favorite old markets that are now gone forever…

The demolition of this genteel Southern market hall sparked the preservation movement that saved central Savannah / Photo: David K. O’Neil

City Market, Savannah, GA

Built on an earlier market site, this Romanesque style market hall was erected in 1872 and served as the central gathering place for the city until it was demolished in 1954. The market’s demise was seen as a turning point in the preservation movement. A band of seven women who fought unsuccessfully to ‘save the market’ vowed to never lose another big battle, and they formed the Historic Savannah Foundation, which has gone on to save over 350 buildings in their city.

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The centrally located Washington Street Market was the largest in Buffalo at a time when the city was one of the most prosperous in America / Photo: David K. O’Neil

Washington Street Market, Buffalo, NY

Block between Chippewa, Washington and Ellicott Streets

Also known as the Chippewa Market, it was built in 1856 in the Romanesque revival style and measured 395 feet by 36 feet wide with a 24 foot veranda on each side. Hundreds of vendors sold their wares both indoors and out, anchoring a larger market district of jobbers, suppliers, warehouses and storefronts. Washington Market was the largest retail market in Buffalo, occupying a 2.5 acre site. The others included the Clinton Street Market, Elk Street Market, and Broadway Market. After the market was demolished in the 1960s, the site was briefly occupied by a smaller market, but is now empty and serves as a parking lot.

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The fact that a grand market hall once stood on the National Mall underscores the importance that markets once played in cities across the US / Photo: David K. O’Neil

In this photo, food is unloaded next to the market with the Washington Monument rising in the background / Photo: David K. O’Neil

Center Market, Washington, DC

7^th St. NW and Pennsylvania Avenue

This grand market occupied one of the premier locations in Washington, DC, right on the mall! The market was built on a site chosen by George Washington himself. A market operated here, in various forms, from 1801 until the 57,000-square-foot brick market hall was developed by a group of private citizens. Their architect was Adolph Cluss (who also designed DC’s still-operating Eastern Market) and the original part of the building went up in 1871, with an expansion added in the 1880s. It was also known as the Marsh Market, since the site was totally underwater at one time in the late 19^th century. A canal on the mall facilitated the delivery of goods from local and distant farms.

Center Market was destroyed in 1931, and the site is now occupied by the National Archives Building.

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This view of the old Maxwell Street Market shows a market district at its colorful, vibrant height / Photo: David K. O’Neil

Maxwell Street Market, Chicago, IL

Halsted Street from Taylor to 16^th Street

A classic market district, Maxwell Street Market was where waves of immigrants went for Sunday bargains, music, and cheap eats. Outdoor vendors would set up on tables, or sometimes just sell things right off the sidewalk itself. The market was home to many famous (and infamous) Americans: Benny Goodman, Muddy Waters, William Paley, and even the notorious killer Jack Ruby. In its heyday, the market ran for nearly a mile. Its slow demise began in the 1950s when the eastern part of the market was cut off for the freeway. The expanding University of Illinois at Chicago dealt the final blow when it demolished the last of the market for athletic fields and parking lots. The ‘new’ Maxwell Street Market—aka Maxwell Street “lite”—still takes place on Sundays at Canal Street, but has little of the character of the old place.

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The Sheriff Street Market was an ornate, stunning building that was Cleveland’s largest until the West Side Market opened in 1912 / Photo: David K. O’Neil

Sheriff Street Market, Cleveland, OH

Sheriff Street (E 4^th) between Huron and Bolivar

Built in 1891 by a private investor group, the Sheriff Street Market was Cleveland’s largest market until the West Side Market opened in 1912. The market was being remodeled to incorporate a bus terminal when it caught on fire and was largely destroyed. A small part of the building was left, and operated as a market until it finally closed for good in 1936. The site was released to a group of 170 tenants from the old Central Market (which had also suffered a fire) and continued until 1981 when the number of tenants had dwindled to a few dozen and the site was sold to make way for the Gateway sports and entertainment complex.

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While it didn’t stay a market for very long, the Dreamland Pavilion was an important local landmark in San Diego’s history / Photo: David K. O’Neil

City Public Market, San Diego, CA

First and A Streets

This market was truly more of a dream than a reality. Built at the turn of the last century, the market was intended to give San Diego an amenity enjoyed by other large cities and entice new residents to the growing municipality. The market did not last long, however, and the first floor was soon converted into a boxing arena while the upstairs became a dance hall. One well-known traveling woman evangelist, Mrs. Aimee McPherson, thought San Diegans were in need of saving and rented the first floor to conduct revival meetings that were very well attended.

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This aerial view shows the market on the edge of Portland’s densely packed downtown–a location that caused quite a bit of controversy / Photo: David K. O’Neil

The building’s stately Streamline Moderne facade must have been quite an impressive site up close / Photo: David K. O’Neil

This view of the market’s interior belies the struggle its developers faced in making it profitable. The market was open for less than a decade before it was sold off to the Navy / Photo: David K. O’Neil

Portland Public Market, Portland, OR

SW Front Avenue, between SW Salmon and SW Yamhill

Opening to great fanfare on December 14, 1933, the 220,000-square-foot market was billed as the largest in the United States. Controversial from start, the market was seen as being in the wrong location and undercutting the city’s other public markets. With room for over 200 vendors, a 500 seat auditorium, on-site parking, elevators, and modern storage facilities, the market was developed by a group of private businessmen who planned to sell it to the City once it became profitable. Success never came, and the market closed in 1942 and was leased to the US Navy. Subsequently, it was sold to the Oregon Journal Newspaper, which finally sold it to the City in 1968. It was demolished in 1969 to make way for the McCall Riverfront Park.

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The solid, brooding old city hall towers over this scene of the market in full swing during its heyday / Photo: David K. O’Neil

An image of the original market’s demolition to make way for a new WPA-funded facility that still operates today / Photo: Claude Page

City Market, Kansas City, MO

4^th and Grand Streets

Many early markets in the US were housed on the ground floor of town halls, following an ancient tradition that came to these shores from Europe. The old City Hall in Kansas City is a dramatic example of this co-location of politics and commerce. After the Depression, the complex was demolished and City Hall moved into ‘downtown’ while the market was rebuilt in the same location with assistance from the WPA. It continues to operate there today, and is once again experiencing record sales and crowds. The current market’s wish list includes seeing the trolley—which can be seen above—returned to service.

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The architecture of San Antonio’s market was downright delicate compared to some of the others seen above / Photo: David K. O’Neil

City Market, San Antonio, TX

Commerce Street at Milam Square

San Antonio’s market history goes back nearly three centuries, intertwined with the traditions of Spanish, Mexican, and American settlers. The historic market plaza was given to the people through a land grant by the King of Spain in the 18^th century. This elegant market house, designed by English-born architect-turned-rancher Alfred Giles, was erected in the plaza in 1900. Incorporating fanciful ironwork, cupolas, and verandas, the second story had a large auditorium used for concerts and (again!) boxing, all overlooking a landscaped park with a fountain. This was a far cry from the rough and tumble days of rowdy saloons, donkey carts, covered wagons, chili stands, and a hanging tree where horse thieves were strung up in the open plaza. This lovely old market house was torn down in 1938. A Mercado is operating on the site today.

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This postcard gives some sense of the Wallabout Market’s size; it went on for several blocks / Photo: David K. O’Neil

This historic photo is mis-labeled as the Gansevoort Market in Manhattan. Today, Gansevoort is home to the upscale Meatpacking District, while Wallabout’s site is occupied by Brooklyn Navy Yard facilities / Photo: David K. O’Neil

Wallabout Market, Brooklyn, NY

North of Flushing Avenue, between Washington Ave and Ryerson Street

Built in 1894, the Wallabout Market was a spacious and more convenient location for Long Island farmers who preferred not to travel all the way to the Gansevoort or Harlem Markets in Manhattan. Designed in the Flemish Revival style by architect William Tubby, the Wallabout Market was a series of gabled buildings with a large open area for farmers to sell from their wagons. As urban development accelerated in the early 20^th century, the number of farms in King County (Brooklyn) plunged from a high of 10,000 in 1890 to less than 200 by 1944. The market’s demise was made final when the Navy Yard took over the market property in 1941.

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Today, of course, New York (particularly in north Brooklyn) is one of many American cities experiencing a market revival. We’ll be visiting several new markets within a stone’s throw of the old Wallabout site during the How to Create Successful Markets training workshop that we are organizing this May 31st and June 1st, including the Fort Greene Greemarket, the Brooklyn Flea, and Smorgasburg. Interested in attending? Click here to learn more and register today!

Learning About Placemaking: You Can’t Do it Alone!

Project for Public Spaces — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:54:35 +0000

PPS President Fred Kent leads a tour of Times Square during a Placemaking training / Photo: PPS

Every spring and summer, we welcome people from all over the world—architects, planners, developers, academics, city officials, advocates, activists, engaged citizens—to our offices in Manhattan for our Placemaking Training programs. While we offer several different training programs that can be tailored to different types of public spaces, our core curriculum is made up of four courses that have become mainstays in our efforts to spread the tools of Placemaking to an ever-broadening constituency: How to Turn a Place Around, Placemaking: Making it Happen, Streets as Places, and How to Create Successful Markets. So how, you may ask, do these workshops really work? What am I going to get out of attending? What types of people actually attend?

How to Turn a Place Around (HTTAPA) is, put simply, “Placemaking 101.” The course is designed to introduce the core principles and fundamental tools at the heart of the Placemaking process. These tools will help anyone working on a public space project—whether you’re the architect designing a new plaza or a stay-at-home mom trying to rally neighbors to improve a local playground—to not only evaluate current uses of a site effectively and brainstorm for the future, but how to build community support and explain the mechanics of how great places work as well. As past HTTAPA participant Adele Gravitz (who works as the Sustainability Coordinator for Lenox, Mass., and Community Transformation Grant Program Coordinator for Tri-Town Health Department in Lee, Mass.) explains it, “The people running the training are remarkably precise about something that you’d think of as not just hard to explain, but to quantify! Everything you get is pure meat; there’s no fluff, no filler, no wasted time. I took away so many nuggets of tangible knowledge, as well as site-specific examples.”

Placemaking: Making it Happen (MIH) builds on the knowledge set up in HTTAPA and digs into the complicated and fascinating process of place management. At PPS, we’re fond of saying that the success of a public space is about 80-90% reliant on its management, so MIH offers critical insights for people who spend a good deal of their time working on spaces over the long term. “Most planners finish their plan and go on to another place,” says MIH alum Zvika Mintz, an urban planner from Kfar- Saba, Israel. “They don’t often stay and work on the maintenance of the place. Making it Happen shows the importance of maintaining the space. You’re never finished with a project.”

“I think the Making it Happen training is really helpful for anybody who is in need of outside-of-the-box concepts to help motivate them or drive a new process,” says Cara Salci, a Development Project Manager with the National Capital Commission in Ottawa, Canada, who participated in MIH last spring. Salci, whose job was to manage the implementation of a series of projects along the Rideau Canal this past summer, utilized the principles of Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper. She noted that her experience with the Making it Happen training was especially helpful in giving her tools and a framework for approaching a project that was based upon ideas from the public: “Consulting the public isn’t a big, bad, scary thing. The public has a lot of positive input to offer and, when you empower them to do things, it can work out in a good way.”

Over the past few years, we’ve been listening, learning, and iterating to improve our Placemaking training programs by getting participants out into public spaces around New York City for hands-on evaluation exercises like the “Place Evaluation.” If it’s true that the best way to learn about a place is to manage it (and it is!), it follows that the best way to learn about the Placemaking process is to interact with other people around a real site. Mee Kam Ng, a professor of Geography & Resource Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, explains the benefits of this social approach thusly: “As an academic, participating in such a hands-on workshop was very useful for me to ground some of the theoretical discussions in my field in practical, real-life situations. We can all contribute our own experience and perspective in producing a better city; that’s my fundamental belief. That coincides with how PPS does this work. We can all learn from one another. Placemaking is also a learning process in itself, that’s really more about tapping into one another’s perspectives. It’s about figuring out how to make a shared place better, but also making ourselves better along the way.”

Norman Mintz speaks to training participants last spring in Manhattan’s Bryant Park / Photo: PPS

Truly, one of the great strengths of the Placemaking trainings is the diversity of the participants. In addition to representing a wide variety of professional backgrounds and perspectives, attendees tend to gather from all corners of the globe. “As much as we bring our own expertise,” notes Norman Mintz, one of the PPS training leaders (and no relation to Zvika), “we find that when people have more time to get to know each other, it’s made the course even better. It’s more than just sitting down and taking notes, it’s sharing experiences. We’ve noticed that the caliber of people is very high; by and large these are people who are very knowledgeable. Being able to share their knowledge, with PPS and each other, is a big strength. To be able to do it with people from across the world is wonderful.”

From the participant side, Gravitz echoes this: “I was so impressed by the people who participated in the workshop; they really had something to offer. Everybody had such clarity and was so sharp about why they were there, what they wanted to get out of it, and what they could contribute. It was one of the few workshops I’ve attended where I really did get something out of listening to the other participants. The conversations were quite elevated.”

More often than not, one of the most interesting results of this cross-cultural exchange is the realization amongst participants that people all over the world are dealing with many of the same issues they are. There are unique challenges at every site, but the common problems that the people working to create great places share offer the greatest opportunities for participants to jump in and start applying the Placemaking principles that they’re learning. Everyone gets to know each other through exchanging their own tips, tricks, and lessons learned. The trainings provide the tools and framework to facilitate these kinds of place-based discussions by illustrating simple but hard-to-pin-down principles in ways that just make sense.

“One of the key takeaways that I brought home and have used in my work since the trainings,” says Salci, “is to always keep an open mind. You have to give your projects the flexibility to breathe a little bit. If someone throws out an idea, take the time to really consider it. It may not be the right solution, but it might lead you to the right one. Sometimes we’re so quick to judge whether something is a good idea or a bad idea, but within the Placemaking process, there’s more of a spectrum. With a project like the one I was working on—we hadn’t done something like it before, so it was great to have these tools and concepts to back up the decisions we were making.”

“I went to grad school already passionate about Holly Whyte’s work,” says Gravitz, “and that was years ago. But I found that going through the exercises we did at PPS’s workshop really armed me with an understanding—and the vocabulary—to explain with a clear certainty things that I always knew in my head, in a sort of fuzzy way, to someone who knew nothing about Placemaking.”

Zvika breaks it down in even more straightforward terms. “People like to watch people,” he says. “It’s very simple, but the way that Fred and the other instructors at PPS show and talk about ideas like this helps you to truly understand the importance of simple things.”

Interested in seeing for yourself how valuable PPS’s training workshops can be to your advocacy efforts and/or professional practice? Our next round of Placemaking training workshops is never too far away! Click here to visit the trainings page of our site to learn more about upcoming programs.

We’re looking forward to seeing you in New York!

Ready to Turn Your Place Around? Let’s Make it Happen!

Project for Public Spaces — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 20:17:40 +0000

PPS President Fred Kent leads a Placemaking tour of Times Square during the April 2012 How to Turn a Place Around training. / Photo: PPS

It’s almost that time of year again: every fall, we host Placemaking trainings at PPS HQ. These two- and three-day sessions are designed to help anyone working on creating great places learn how to authentically engage with community members and other constituents around the shaping of public space. The How to Turn a Place Around and Making it Happen programs not only give participants hands-on experience with a variety of tools for observation and evaluation of a of different places–they also give you the opportunity to meet and work with other planners, advocates, developers, architects, and local change agents who are facing similar challenges in cities around the world.

This fall, we will be hosting two training sessions at our New York City office: How to Turn a Place Around will take place on November 1-2; and Making it Happen will take place on November 7-9. We are also excited to be able to offer a special West Coast edition of How to Turn a Place Around shortly before that, during the Pro Walk/Pro Bike: Pro Place conference in Long Beach, CA, this September 14-15!

How To Turn a Place Around (New York, NY / Nov. 1-2, 2012)
This two-day bread-and-butter course offers a comprehensive introduction to the wide world of Placemaking. Through discussions and case studies, participants will learn about strategies for creating extraordinary places out of ordinary urban spaces. HTTAPA is a great opportunity to meet PPS staff–our veteran Placemakers–and to gain insight and inspiration for implementing your own Placemaking efforts, whether for a business project or your own community. The course will be led by Fred Kent, Kathy Madden, Phil Myrick, and other PPS staff.
Making it Happen (New York, NY / Nov. 7-9, 2012)
This three-day course picks up where How To Turn a Place Around leaves off. For people eager to jump into action, participants will learn tools and best practices for implementing and sustaining vibrant places through management techniques. This interactive workshop includes site visits to successful places in New York City and teaches participants how to evaluate places using key Placemaking principles. The course also allows time for participants to share and receive feedback on their own projects. MIH will be led by Fred Kent, Kathy Madden, and Norman Mintz, with guest presentations by Eldon Scott, Alan M. Hantman, and Andy Manshel.
How To Turn a Place Around (Long Beach, CA / Sept. 14-15, 2012)
Exciting news for West Coast Placemakers: PPS will be teaching its core intro to Placemaking course in Long Beach. In collaboration with the Pro Walk/Pro Bike: Pro Place conference, the course will focus particularly on transportation and streets, and will incorporate many elements of both HTTAPA and the Streets as Places training course.

Please note that enrollment in all Placemaking trainings is limited to 35 participants in order to ensure a personalized experience and close-knit environment, and registration is now open for all three of the trainings listed above. We look forward to working with you! Click here to register for one of our upcoming trainings.

How to Turn Dún Laoghaire Around

Project for Public Spaces — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:14:07 +0000

Abandoned public baths along the Dún Laoghaire waterfront / Photo: Gary Toth

Places, like many things, go through cycles—and even the grandest of public spaces can wind up looking a bit worn and forlorn. Last month, PPS’s Fred Kent, Gary Toth, and Kathy Madden traveled to the wonderfully bucolic community of Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, to conduct one of our How to Turn a Place Around training workshops. The area between Dún Laoghaire’s waterfront and high street is picture-perfect at first glance, but the 30 workshop participants quickly identified many underlying flaws. Led by the PPS team, these locals recognized assets that together represented a “gold mine” of Placemaking potential, and developed some wonderfully creative ideas for knitting together the area’s public spaces to create a truly extraordinary destination.

Dún Laoghaire, a suburban seaside town about 7.5 miles south of Dublin along Dublin Bay, has long been nourished by its access to the sea—first as a sea base for Ireland to carry out raids on Britain and Gaul, and later as a commercial shipping center. In 1821, Ireland decided to build a harbor here due to increasing difficulty for ships to navigate, berth and transfer cargo along the River Liffey in Dublin (at one point, shipwrecks rose to literally hundreds per year off the coast). As a result, a new town center developed uphill along a former military road, and came to be called George’s Street. Ireland’s first railway started in Dublin and terminated in Dún Laoghaire (then called Kingstown), establishing Dún Laoghaire as a preferred suburb of the capital. Ever since, the fortunes of the town’s waterfront and its high street have been tied together.

George's Street, briefly pedestrianized, was re-opened to auto traffic in 2008 / Photo: Gary Toth

Dún Laoghaire was one of the Irish centers that began to experience decline when Ireland accelerated its construction of big freeways like the M11 and the M50 in the 1990s (just a few decades after the same strategy destroyed Main Streets across the US). George’s Street now suffers from over 30 vacancies along its length. The street was briefly pedestrianized at the start of the new millennium. Due to shop owners’ complaints and a lack of a sufficient revitalization of the street, one way traffic was restored in 2008. The waterfront has, similarly, lost a lot of its luster. Elements like the public baths, which flourished until 1997, are no longer functioning; some are falling into disrepair.

How to Turn a Place Around (HTTAPA), which is designed to enhance the impact of designers, planners, and other professionals by illustrating how their efforts to revitalize public spaces can strengthen existing communities, got a few tweaks for its first Irish audience. The course included a session on Streets as Places and a Street Audit. The focus was on George’s Street and a parallel strip of the harbor between the East Pier and City Hall, an area that provides a solid foundation for a great waterfront district, but that faces a lot of challenges. HTTAPA focuses on the idea that, because people are holistic thinkers and see their world in an integrated way, engaging the people who live and work in a space is the best way to turn everything upside down, and take places from inadequate to extraordinary.

A panoramic view of the harbor from the Grand Marine Hotel / Photo: Gary Toth

On the first afternoon, the attendees evaluated six distinct sites in the downtown area of the waterfront via a process we call the Place Game, which helps attendees to better understand these sites and the connections between them from their own perspective. The sites included: Carlisle Pier and its entrance area; entry areas in front of the East and Ferry Terminal Piers; the Pavilion, a newer public space created when the airspace over the train line to and from Dublin was covered over and landscaped; and a plaza alongside the new library, currently under construction.

Kent, Madden, and Toth guided participants through the Placemaking process, helping them to identify challenges and brainstorm a range of solutions, from short-term, inexpensive fixes that could start to change the way that other residents of Dún Laoghaire thought about the waterfront and start building local momentum immediately, all the way up to creating a long-term vision for the area.

On the following day, participants conducted a Street Audit at five sites—three along Marine Road and two on George’s Street. Guided by the Streets as Places concept and observation of these sites, the team came to understand the important role that streets could play in knitting together the various destinations within the vibrant downtown district that they’d imagined. The broad corridor of Marine Drive was identified as a critical lynchpin in their vision, as it represents the greatest opportunity for linking George’s Street to the waterfront.

Harsh streetscaping on Marine Drive, between the water and George's Street / Photo: Gary Toth

Below, we’ve mapped the ideas that were generated for central Dún Laoghaire during the HTTAPA training. If you are working on a public space project in your own city, take a look—and if you’re interested in learning more about the Placemaking process and the various strategies and concepts behind creating a great place, you’re in luck! We’ll be offering another HTTAPA training here in New York City in just two weeks (April 19-20). If you’re interested, email Casey Wang: cwang@pps.org.

View How to Turn Dún Laoghaire Around in a larger map

MAP KEY
DARK BLUE AREAS: Sites analyzed on during the waterfront Place Game evaluation
LIGHT BLUE AREAS: Sites analyzed on the second day of HTTAPA through PPS’s Street Audit process
PINK LINES: Existing streets and paths that need to be re-engineered to restore balance & re-thought via the Placmaking process
YELLOW LINES: New paths that could be engineered to improve connectivity throughout the downtown

Make Your Place Great: Register for Our Spring 2012 Trainings Today!

Project for Public Spaces — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:07:48 +0000

Spring is here at last, and that means it’s time for another round of PPS’s bi-annual Placemaking Training programs. We love doing trainings because, even after 37+ years of working with communities around the world to make great places, we still discover new things while working with each group of attendees, who bring knowledge and insights from their projects in cities all over the world. If you are working on a place-based project or just want to learn more about our placemaking approach, we hope that you will join us on April 19-20 for How to Turn a Place Around, or the following week, on April 25-27, for Placemaking: Making It Happen.

How to Turn a Place Around
This course serves as a comprehensive introduction to the practice of placemaking. We’ve learned through our work that placemaking is a sacred community process. People take the shaping of their blocks and neighborhoods very seriously, and have much to offer to planners, architects, designers, and local leaders who are ready to ask the right questions–and to listen. Through the discussion of key case studies like the Perth Cultural Centre’s Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper activation plan, as well as opportunities to get out into the streets of New York City to experiment with tools like the Place Game and Power of 10, attendees develop a deeper understanding of what really makes public spaces function. The course is conducted by PPS president, Fred Kent, along with Kathy Madden, and Phil Myrick, and other PPS staff. For more details about this course, click here.

Placemaking: Making It Happen
Making It Happen takes things a step further by teaching people who are ready to take action–especially people who are embarking on a new project–about best practices for developing an effective public space management and implementation strategy. Over the course of three days, we’ll travel around New York City to visit some of its best-managed spaces with the people who helped make them happen. This course will also give participants the opportunity to discuss and get feedback on their individual projects during facilitated, interactive workshop sessions. Kent, and Madden, and Norman Mintz from PPS will all present, and we’ll also be joined by Urban Space Management director Eldon Scott, Alan M. Hantman, FAIA,10th Architect of the US Capitol and former Vice President of Architecture, Construction, and Historic Preservation at Rockefeller Center, and Andy Manshel, the Executive Vice President of the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation (GJDC). For the first time, we’ll be expanding the course to take place over three days instead of two, and will include site visits to some of New York City’s best managed public spaces along with a dinner at PPS the first night and a reception the second night and more time for participants to present and get input on their projects. All of this will also allow for more of the networking and collaborative learning that past participants have found so beneficial to their work.

We’re thrilled to be welcoming Andy as a new addition to the Making It Happen training team. Before joining the GJDC, Andy served as the Associate Director and Counsel at the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation and General Counsel and Director of Public Amenities to the Grand Central and 34th Street Partnerships. He is currently the treasurer of PPS’s board of directors. He will be talking about the practical elements of public space management, successful strategies used in Bryant Park as well as the more challenging environment of Jamaica, and what is generally applicable to other places. To learn more about Andy, and for other details about this course, click here.

Please note that enrollment in all placemaking trainings is limited to 35 participants in order to promote a close-knit environment where participants can learn techniques for implementing and managing public space improvements that are practical, economical and meet the community’s needs. We’re looking forward to working with you to help you discover new ways to make your place great. Click here to register for one of our upcoming trainings now!

Placemaking Goes to Ireland!

Project for Public Spaces — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:13:07 +0000

Dún Laoghaire's beautiful harbor is one of its main attractions. Photo: William Murphy via Flickr.

In conjunction with the “Place Making Place Branding” conference in Ireland (March 6-7, 2012), PPS is offering a special two-day training program, “How to Turn a Place Around in Ireland” on March 8 and 9.

The conference will be held at the Royal Marine Hotel and the training will be held in the County Hall in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland. It’s designed to help decision-makers, activists, and others who work at the local level to improve the places where they work and live.

The training program will include presentations by PPS President Fred Kent, Senior Vice President Kathy Madden, and PPS Director of Transportation Initiatives Gary Toth. It will also feature an on-site “place evaluation” exercise and interactive discussions about critical public space issues facing cities of every size.

Dún Laoghaire (or Dún Laoire, sometimes anglicised as “Dunleary”) is a seaside town in County Dublin, about 12 kilometers south of Dublin, at the foot of the Dublin Mountains. It is a popular tourist spot well-known for its vast selection of activities, its brightly painted villas, its parks and palm trees, its many restaurants and pubs, and the view of the sea from the walk along the piers.

“How to Turn a Place Around in Ireland” will introduce new ways of thinking about public spaces and how Placemaking can be used to bring communities together and revitalize underperforming spaces. Participants will explore the principles of making places through presentations, case studies of public space innovations, on-site evaluation and interactive discussions of critical issues and challenges. Discussion sessions will focus on the particular issues of participants.

Topics include: why public multi-use destinations are the best attractors of downtown activity; using public markets as generators of local economies; implementing an architecture of place strategy; and building community through transportation. Transportation issues will be explored in a special “Streets as Places” session which will focus on how to rebalance the transportation system for people versus vehicles. It will give participants insight into the parameters and thought processes of decision-makers who plan streets, and provide tools for evaluating streets and working with designers.

Drawing on PPS’s work in cities across the globe, this training course will provide case study examples of successful solutions that unlock both the social as well as economic potential of public spaces.

For more information and to register, click here, or email cwang@pps.org.

Photo: William Murphy via Flickr.

10 Communities Selected to Receive Technical Assistance

Project for Public Spaces — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:52:29 +0000

Livability Solutions are pleased to announce the 10 communities selected to receive free technical assistance this year, thanks to a grant to Project for Public Spaces from the United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Sustainable Communities under their Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program.These governments and organizations represent a diverse group of communities from across the United States, from large cities to rural counties. All have a strong commitment to sustainability and smart growth and are poised to implement positive change by making use of the assistance we are offering.The communities are:

University City District, Philadelphia
West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, Eau Claire, Wis.
Lower Eastside Action Plan, Detroit
Toledo-Lucas County Sustainability Commission, Maumee, Ohio
Colfax on the Hill, Inc., Denver, Colo.
City of Blue Springs, Mo.
Charlotte County, Fla.
Arkansas Coalition for Obesity Prevention, Little Rock, Ark.
Anthithesis Research, Wellpinit, Wash.
Gulf Regional Planning Commission, Gulfport, Miss.

Each community will receive a one- or two-day training session with a livability expert from Project for Public Spaces or one of our Livability Solutions partners on the issue of their choice. Our partners who will be delivering technical assistance this year include:

Project for Public Spaces and our partners at Livability Solutions received 64 applications from local governments and community organization for this technical assistance. While all of the applications were worthy, the 10 communities selected represented the strongest commitment to, need for, and capability to achieve livability solutions using the tools we offer.

This technical assistance is made possible by a grant to Project for Public Spaces from the United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Sustainable Communities under the Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program. The Building Blocks program funds quick, targeted assistance to communities that face common development problems. Three other nonprofit organizations – Forterra (formerly Cascade Land Conservancy), Global Green USA, and Smart Growth America — also received competitively awarded grants under this program this year to help communities achieve their sustainable development goals.

We encourage interested communities to continue to check the Livability Solutions website for additional opportunities for technical assistance. We also welcome interested foundations, organizations, and individuals to contact us if they are interested in supporting assistance to one of the 53 other qualified applications we received.

Click here for information on other opportunities to work with Livability Solutions or here for training and technical assistance offered by Project for Public Spaces or our partners.

Want to Apply for Free Technical Assistance? Watch the Webinar!

Project for Public Spaces — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:55:46 +0000

Did you miss the webinar we had this week about applying for the technical assistance we’re offering under the U.S. EPA’s Building Blocks program? Never fear, we’ve got an archived copy that you can check out.

Click here to view the archived webinar.

PPS is proud to be one of four recipients of grants from the United States Environmental Protection Agency under their Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program. The Building Blocks program funds quick, targeted assistance to communities that face common development problems. Three other nonprofit organizations have received competitively awarded grants under this program this year to help communities get the kinds of development they want – Forterra (formerly Cascade Land Conservancy), Global Green USA, and Smart Growth America.

This grant will enable us and our partners at Livability Solutions to offer FREE technical assistance to communities that have set goals for achieving improved livability, smart growth, or sustainability, but have run into barriers in achieving these goals. You can read more about the opportunity and see the application here.

The deadline for applications is coming up. Candidates must complete and submit the application by Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 8pm EST. Late applications will not be accepted.

Apply Now for Free Technical Assistance from PPS and Livability Solutions!

Project for Public Spaces — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:39:24 +0000

Has your community set goals for achieving improved livability, smart growth, or sustainability?

Are you running into barriers in achieving these goals?

Applications for free technical assistance are now available on the Livability Solutions website!

PPS is excited to announce that applications for free technical assistance to address this challenge are now available on the Livability Solutions website. We will be offering this technical assistance with our partners at Livability Solutions thanks to a grant from the EPA Office of Sustainable Communities’ Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program.

We are looking for applications from communities with a strong interest in and commitment to livability, smart growth, and sustainability principles, but who face a significant challenge or barrier to moving forward. This targeted technical assistance will provide selected communities with tools and improved capacity to achieve the livability, smart growth, and sustainability goals they have set, and engage them with a network of other communities working toward similar goals and facing similar challenges.

We will be working with our partners at Livability Solutions to lead one- and two-day workshops to assist selected communities in implementing sustainable and smart growth development and programs. We’ll be using time-honored approaches — such as our Power of 10 method of inventorying and mapping a community’s place-based assets — as well as innovative new strategies for transportation and land-use planning that create better places, such as the Center for Neighborhood Technology’s Housing and Transportation (H+T®) Affordability Index. With our unique suite of tools, we can help communities through the process of implementing better places to live that are also more sustainable. For more information on this technical assistance, and instructions for how to apply, please see the Livability Solutions website. For inquiries, contact livabilitysolutions@pps.org.

This assistance is funded by US EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities under their Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program. The Building Blocks program funds quick, targeted assistance to communities that face common development problems. Three other nonprofit organizations have received competitively awarded grants under this program this year to help communities get the kinds of development they want –Cascade Land Conservancy, Global Green USA, and Smart Growth America.

Our partners in this project are the members of Livability Solutions, a coalition helping communities succeed:

The Center for Neighborhood Technology
Reconnecting America
The Walkable and Livable Communities Institute
National Center for Biking & Walking
The Local Government Commission
The National Charrette Institute
The Congress for New Urbanism
Paul Dreher of the Newport City Renaissance Corporation
Leigh Lane of the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) at NC State University
The Surface Transportation Policy Partnership

For more information on PPS’s other technical assistance and training programs, visit our website.

PPS Wins Sustainable Communities Grant from the EPA

Project for Public Spaces — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:10:57 +0000

We’re excited to announce that PPS has received a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to provide technical assistance to communities seeking to implement sustainable and smart growth development and programs.

With our unique suite of tools, we can help communities implement better places to live that are also more sustainable.

This project is funded by US EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities under their Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program. The Building Blocks program funds quick, targeted assistance to communities that face common development problems. Three other nonprofit organizations have received competitively awarded grants under this program this year to help communities get the kinds of development they want — Cascade Land Conservancy, Global Green USA, and Smart Growth America.

This grant will make it possible for us and our partners at the newly formed coalition Livability Solutions to work with even more communities around the country, helping them to enhance livability, to create lasting economic and and environmental improvements, and to effect positive change in the public and social health of their residents.

Working with our partners to lead one- to two-day workshops made possible by this grant, we’ll be using time-honored approaches — such as our Power of 10 method of inventorying and mapping a community’s place-based assets — as well as innovative new strategies for transportation and land use planning that creates better places, such as the Center for Neighborhood Technology’s Housing and Transportation (H+T®) Affordability Index. With our unique suite of tools, we can help communities through the details of implementing better places to live that are also more sustainable.

More information on the project, including how to participate, will be coming soon. For inquiries, contact livabilitysolutions@pps.org.

Our partners in this project are:

The Center for Neighborhood Technology

Reconnecting America

The Walkable and Livable Communities Institute

National Center for Biking & Walking

The Local Government Commission

The National Charrette Institute

The Congress for New Urbanism

Paul Dreher of the Newport City Renaissance Corporation

Leigh Lane of the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) at NC State University

The Surface Transportation Policy Partnership

For more information on PPS’s other technical assistance and training programs, visit our website.

Upcoming PPS workshops and trainings related to sustainability and smart growth:

Tools for Building Community: From Place Making to Policy Changes Through Public Engagement and New Partnerships

October 11, 2011, in Lincolnville, Maine, and October 12, 2011, in Belfast, Maine.

Sponsored by Friends of Midcoast Maine and the Orton Family Foundation.

E-mail info@friendsmidcoast.org or call 207.236.1077 for more information.

How to Turn a Place Around October 27-28, 2011, in New York City.

Please contact Casey Wang at cwang@pps.org for more information.

Placemaking: Making It Happen November 3-4, 2011, in New York City.

Please contact Casey Wang at cwang@pps.org for more information.

Streets as Places November 10-11, 2011, in New York City

Please contact Casey Wang at cwang@pps.org for more information.

Register Now for Fall Trainings at PPS

Project for Public Spaces — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:00:33 +0000

We’ll be doing our next round of trainings this fall at our brand-new office space on Lafayette Street in New York — and we’ll be using the city around us to help illustrate the work we’ll be doing.

Here’s what some past participants had to say after completing one of our trainings:

“The concrete examples of changes made were most interesting in opening one’s mind to new possibilities and feeling empowered to making change happen.”

“It was so helpful — the information presented as well as meeting other participants.”

“I really enjoyed the course. The speakers were engaging and informative.”

“It really touched the basis of the topics I’m most interested in and stimulated ideas.”

“It far exceeded my expectations.”

We’re offering three different workshops this season, “How to Turn a Place Around,” “Placemaking: Making It Happen,” and “Streets as Places.”

How to Turn a Place Around, October 27-28

A two-day PPS training course, How to Turn a Place Around introduces new ways of thinking about public spaces and how Placemaking can be used to bring communities together and revitalize underperforming spaces.

We know from our work in more than 2,500 communities around the world that the Placemaking approach is emerging as a revolutionary development paradigm that reflects community history, needs, and aspirations. Instead of focusing development on shopping destinations like shopping centers, strip malls, and “lifestyle centers, “Placemaking creates authentic, multi-use destinations that have the potential to define the identity of cities and communities in the future.

Key issues that will be discussed in How to Turn a Place Around include how to evaluate a place and translate that into a place-based vision and management program; strategies for best implementing the Placemaking process; and how to use concepts like the Power of 10 to revitalize a city, region, destination, or neighborhood place.

The workshop is designed for professionals and non-professionals alike who help plan towns and cities — from landscape architects and real estate developers to park managers and community activists. Enrollment is limited to 35 participants in order to promote a close-knit environment that fosters a deep understanding of what makes public spaces function and of PPS’s innovative methods for analyzing them.

You can read more about the How to Turn a Place Around here, or contact Casey Wang at cwang@pps.org for more information.

Placemaking: Making It Happen, November 3-4

Placemaking: Making It Happen is a new two-day training course focused on how to move ideas into reality by using a place-based management and implementation strategy. Joining PPS in teaching the course are individuals who have direct, hands-on experience in applying a placemaking approach to their work.

Creating great public spaces that relate to the community and user depends on an effective implementation strategy, including how those spaces will be managed. In the end, good management is why a public space succeeds or fails and why people come to it or why they stay away. This training course will describe the roles that different types of public space management organizations play, complemented by lessons learned from experts with hands on experience implementing improvements and managing public spaces. Also included are narrated site visits to a few of the best-managed spaces in New York City and numerous opportunities for networking, including an optional welcome reception the evening of November 2.

The course will feature presentations by PPS staff, along with Norman Mintz, industrial designer, historic preservationist and designer of public space amenities, Eldon Scott, Director of Urban Space Management and developer of “lighter, quicker, cheaper” projects, and Alan M. Hantman, FAIA,10th Architect of the US Capitol and former Vice President of Architecture, Construction, and Historic Preservation at Rockefeller Center.

The workshop is designed for anyone who wants to make things happen in their communities, as well as those who need the tools to inspire and persuade others of the importance of public space improvements and management.

You can read more about the Placemaking: Making It Happen workshop here, or contact Casey Wang at cwang@pps.org for more information.

Streets as Places, November 10-11

All around the country, communities are becoming increasingly concerned about the consequences of designing streets exclusively for automobiles. We have built residential streets that parents are reluctant to allow their children to cross and that make senior citizens feel unsafe walking in their own neighborhoods. Fast-moving traffic on commercial streets has a negative impact on shopping. The dramatic decrease in walking by people of all ages has contributed to high rates of obesity. Increased fossil fuel use has contributed to increased concerns about energy security and global climate change.

Sadly, when taken together, streets, sidewalks, transit centers and parking lots take up the majority of outdoor space in most urban and metropolitan areas.

To address the pressing issue of how our streets are impacting our communities, PPS is offering Streets as Places, a two-day workshop about how to redirect future investment in transportation and streets to build communities, not simply to move cars.

Presentations and discussions will focus on policy, design, community process, and implementation strategies, all of which will emphasize how participants can work within their community to influence the creation of their transportation system. The training will describe and equip participants with practical tools for assessing a variety of types of streets including case studies of cities and towns that have moved beyond simply trying to address mobility to building community. Participants will also share their experiences, both positive and negative, with each other, and work together on our unique group exercises, in order to find solutions.

This workshop is intended for anyone who is interested in creating a great street, learning more about how streets can contribute to better communities, and understanding the social and economic benefits that can result from changing the way that we think about and design streets. The course is also intended for transportation and health professionals, civic and elected officials, street designers, citizen advocates, city planners and designers, downtown managers, and people who understand that the time for change is now!

You can read more about the Streets as Places workshop here, or contact Casey Wang at cwang@pps.org for more information.

A Placemaking Testimonial From Côte Saint-Luc, Montreal

Andrew Lappin — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:34:32 +0000

This past November, the city of Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec invited PPS President and founder Fred Kent and Senior Director of Downtowns and Main Streets Norman Mintz to spend two days observing and guiding elected officials and community leaders through a Placemaking workshop. Tanya Abramovitch, the Côte Saint-Luc City Manager and Library Director, recently wrote to PPS to express her enthusiasm about the experience and its impact in terms of transforming the city’s center.

“It’s amazing how much can change in a single day. In November, Fred and Norman from PPS came to our city, a suburb on the island of Montreal, to give a Placemaking workshop to our Council and staff from several different departments.

Fred Kent working with a municipal employee to re-envision the city center of Cote Saint-Luc

It started with how we work. The workshop was completely transformative in terms of our internal interaction and collaboration. People from various departments have started consulting with each other on a daily basis. Every department knows what every other department is doing. Staff members who attended have really been infused with a great deal of ideas and inspiration. Many came back from the weekend after the workshop with a list of things they wanted to do. Better still, they’ve been doing them. For example, in the spirit of lighter, quicker, cheaper, (the new mantra of our city), we put lovely Christmas lights outside of City Hall to spruce up for winter. A small change, but people have commented and love it.

Given that it has been budget time, we’ve added all sorts of items to ours to forward our Placemaking mission, which indeed has become just that – a mission. We see everything differently now through the Placemaking lens. Our Council so strongly believes in it that it has put its money where its mouth is. We’ve allocated about $25,000 to fix up the plaza in front of the City Hall/Library complex, the area where we did the place audit. We’ve also planned to change the intersection right in front of this complex, possibly with a roundabout or some pedestrian-friendly variation.

Workshop attendees discuss possible changes to the City Hall and Library complex

Now that half of the Mall across the street has been completely torn down, we wanted to get moving on the surrounding area. We met with the contractors about the Main Street plans and we completely changed them according to the principles we learned. Thanks to PPS.”

Côte Saint-Luc faces many of the challenges that other communities of similar size must confront – a lack of cooperation between public agencies, the need for upgrading its public spaces, establishing priorities and alleviating trafﬁc congestion, among others. Despite these issues, Tanya’s testimonial shows that with a place-based approach villages and suburbs can enact high-impact change rapidly and effectively despite limited resources.

Building Quality Communities Around Transit in the Tappan Zee Bridge Corridor

Craig Raphael — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:51:58 +0000

One of the most vital transportation links in the New York metropolitan region, the Tappan Zee Bridge is due for a major upgrade to satisfy growing travel demands. New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), New York State Thruway Authority and MTA Metro-North Railroad are working together to plan a new bridge that includes exciting possibilities for transit that will better meet the needs of Rockland and Westchester County communities along the I-287/I-87 corridor. Five design alternatives currently being evaluated by NYSDOT range from adding a bus-rapid transit (BRT) link across the bridge (both with and without a designated travel lane) to building a heavy rail link from Suffern to New York City.

A longtime proponent of “Building Communities through Transportation” and “Thinking Beyond the Station,” PPS was hired by NYSDOT, along with the Regional Plan Association and Reconnecting America, to conduct workshops with communities along the corridor to leverage the state’s transit investment and explore opportunities for transit oriented development. The Tappan Zee Bridge project is a terrific opportunity for communities to plan responsibly for future growth around transit and maximize the economic benefits of increased housing and transportation choices, as well as create jobs and improve overall quality of life. Proactive land use planning will also help preserve the state’s investment in new highway capacity.

PPS and its partners will hold two county-wide workshops around these issues this fall, with an open invitation to all interested communities. Specific topics may include creating great places around transit, smart parking, mixed-income housing, regulations and financing for transit-oriented community design, changing roadway design to support livable communities and optimizing transit service. Two-day workshops will then be held in the subsequent year in eight communities (four per county) consisting of in-depth discussion of local issues and local solutions, development of conceptual plans, and presentation of implementation tools. Communities interested in receiving this technical planning assistance must submit an application by July 17^th. This pilot project is also intended for eventual deployment to communities across the state.

For more information, please contact Craig Raphael at craphael@pps.org.

Nordic Urban Design Association (NUDA) Summer School 2009

dkitzes — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:22:16 +0000

The 3^rd Nordic Urban Design Association (NUDA) Summer School is set for June 15-16, 2009 in Bergen, Norway, and June 18-19, 2009 in Sandefjord, Norway. Fred Kent and Kathy Madden, experts in the field of public space and Placemaking, will facilitate the two trainings, introducing issues never before discussed within the Nordic countries. This is the first time that Project for Public Spaces will give a two day intensive training in Norway.

For more information, check out NUDA’s website at www.nuda.no.

Great Places, Great Cities 09: Glasgow, Scotland

jchao — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:47:44 +0000

Hosted by Greenspace Scotland

As more people digest the importance of sustainable living, conversations have mainly revolved around how to transform office buildings and homes, transportation habits and the choices that individuals make on the everyday basis. But, what about public space? Great Places, Great Cities 2009, a two-day conference, turns the question of sustainability towards public spaces this June 4-5 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Hosted by Greenspace Scotland, the conference will engage attendees from around the world in a discussion on “the role of public space and green networks in creating truly sustainable cities – cities which have a reduced impact on the environment, which cope better with the consequences of global climate change and where people want to live and work.”

Greenspace Scotland is an independent charitable company working with a wide range of national and local partners to improve the quality of life of people living and working in urban Scotland through the planning, development and sustainable management of urban spaces. Greenspace has been a strong partner in advancing the principles of Placemaking throughout Scotland. In 2007, the organization became a PPS licensee and now has a group of Placemaking Associates trained to implement projects throughout the country under the initiative Placemaking Scotland. Pilot projects have included Clyde Square in Greenock, Prince’s Street Gardens in Edinburgh, and Waterfront Park and Promenade in Girvan.

Great Places, Great Cities 2009 will feature a robust program of themed presentations, study tours, workshops and a range of keynote speakers. The wide range of topics will include discussions on green infrastructure, transforming cities through people-focused spaces, the role of civic leaders and communities in delivering sustainable cities and more. Keynote speakers include David Sim of Gehl Architects, Howard Frumkin MD and Miquela Craytor from Sustainable South Bronx.

The conference will take place in and around Glasgow City Chambers. Sign up before March 23rd for the Early Bird Rate of £295 or approximately US $414.

More information:

Placemaking in Scotland
Great Places, Great Cities website.