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Looking north from a darkened Lower Manhattan / Photo: NY Daily News

Community Resilience, Post-Sandy: Share Your Stories

By Project for Public Spaces on Oct 30, 2012 | 3 Comments

During and after a natural disaster, we truly see the value of community, up close and personal. Neighbors band together to help each other, providing shelter, supplies, and comfort to those who are less-prepared. The bravery shown by first responders drives the point home; seeing so many public servants risking their lives to help those [...]

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Great places foster human interaction & economic opportunity / Photo: Fred Kent

Place Capital: Re-connecting Economy With Community

By Project for Public Spaces on Oct 28, 2012 | 11 Comments

“We’ve been wrong for the last 67 years,” Mark Gorton, founder of OpenPlans, announced in his closing address at last month’s Pro Walk/Pro Bike: Pro Place (PWPB) conference. “Ok. Time to admit it, and move on! We have completely screwed up transportation in this country. We can never expect to see the legislative [...]

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Citizen Placemakers: Elizabeth Hamby & Hatuey Ramos Fermín Use Art to Bring People Together

By Patra Jongjitirat on Oct 24, 2012 | 2 Comments

Elizabeth Hamby and Hatuey Ramos Fermín are people connectors. As artists, activists, and Bronxites, their creative collaborations are all about gathering information from neighbors and presenting it in ways that allow communities to better understand themselves and the urban spaces they create. The two have worked in all kinds of public spaces, from major [...]

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The Long Beach Convention Center, site of Pro Walk/Pro Bike: Pro Place 2012 / Photo: PPS

Reflections From an Engineer on Advocacy for Transportation Reform

By Project for Public Spaces on Oct 23, 2012 | 18 Comments

It is hard to believe that it has already been six weeks since we convened Pro Walk/Pro Bike: Pro Place 2012. The conference inspired a multitude of ideas, forged new partnerships, and reinforced existing ones. The tone was mostly upbeat; however, owing to the frustration of those who have been calling for change for years [...]

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Observing the South Street Seaport’s Soundscapes: Holly Whyte Revisited

By Alan Grabinsky on Oct 18, 2012 | Add Comment

William “Holly” Whyte’s studies have helped us understand how people interact in public spaces. The studies, however, were performed during the 1970s, before there was such a strong presence of electronic media as there is right now. Inspired by Holly’s methods and curious to determine how speakers affect the use of public space, I [...]

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“I Would Let My Kids Walk to School, But…”

By Brendan Crain on Oct 12, 2012 | Add Comment

Last month, at Pro Walk/Pro Bike: Pro Place, I sat in on the session “Sh*t Parents Say and What Kids Want: Safe Routes to School,” which opened with the rather charming video posted above. Created by NJ Safe Routes with support from NJDOT and the FHWA, it features common responses [...]

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A dance troupe performs in the Andrew Freedman House during No Longer Empty's "This Side of Paradise" / Photo: NLE

For Great Public Art, Bring in the Public

By Patra Jongjitirat on Oct 10, 2012 | 3 Comments

Since ceasing operations as a grand retirement home in the 1980s, the Andrew Freedman Home had been standing quietly inconspicuous on its spacious lot off the Bronx’s famed Grand Concourse. Just a handful of activities had been taking place on-site, mostly in the basement: a Head Start preschool program, a food bank, a thrift shop. [...]

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A lonely swing looks out over a missed opportunity. / Photo: jennyrotten via Flickr

Whom Does Design Really Serve?

By Fred Kent on Oct 3, 2012 | 53 Comments

Professionals are against participation because it destroys the arcane privileges of specialization, unveils the professional secret, strips bare incompetence, multiplies responsibilities and converts them from the private into the social. – Giancarlo De Carlo

On a recent trip to Toronto, I visited Sherbourne Common, a waterfront park designed by Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg. Walking [...]

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The Urban-to-Rural Transect allows for a much wider variety of street types than many road design guides.

If You Want New Solutions, Give The Problem-Solvers New Problems

By Project for Public Spaces on Oct 2, 2012 | 2 Comments

“Street design manuals and land use plans are the moulds that our cities come out of,” noted Ryan Snyder during a presentation on the Model Design Manual for Living Streets at the Congress for New Urbanism’s Transportation Summit, which took place last month in Long Beach, CA. “What we need to be [...]

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

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

By Project for Public Spaces on Sep 27, 2012 | Add Comment

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 [...]

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The right performance measures can make great streets for all users as ubiquitous as the American arterial highway / Photo: karmacamilleeon via Flickr

Placemakers Speak Up: the DOT Wants Your Performance Measures

By David M Nelson on Sep 26, 2012 | Add Comment

The new transportation bill, Moving Ahead with Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), became law in the US on July 6th. Since then, MAP-21 has spawned a series of mini-riots in cyberspace.  Every group of professionals and advocates seems to be able to find their reasons to gather up and start lobbing rocks at [...]

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Interested in Free Livability Solutions Technical Assistance? Apply by November 2nd!

By Project for Public Spaces on Sep 25, 2012 | Add Comment

Through a grant from the EPA Office of Sustainable Communities’ Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program, the Livability Solutions coalition will be offering free technical assistance workshops for up to 12 communities around the US; applications are due by Friday, November 2nd. Livability Solutions is a coalition of professionals [...]

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