Project for Public Spaces » Elena Madison http://www.pps.org Placemaking for Communities Mon, 13 May 2013 20:45:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5 Pop-Up Placemaking: Connecting the Dots in Detroit http://www.pps.org/blog/pop-up-placemaking-connecting-the-dots-in-detroit/ http://www.pps.org/blog/pop-up-placemaking-connecting-the-dots-in-detroit/#comments Tue, 04 Dec 2012 15:55:34 +0000 Project for Public Spaces http://www.pps.org/?p=80362 What do you want to see happening in your favorite public spaces? This is one of the questions at the core of the Placemaking process, and getting responses from as many different people as possible has always been central to what we do at the Project for Public Spaces. But now, as our work in [...]]]>

Detroiters crowd the Placemaking Hut to vote for their favorite ideas for improving downtown spaces / Photo: PPS

What do you want to see happening in your favorite public spaces? This is one of the questions at the core of the Placemaking process, and getting responses from as many different people as possible has always been central to what we do at the Project for Public Spaces. But now, as our work in Detroit evolves, we’re taking our own oft-given advice about thinking Lighter, Quicker, and Cheaper, and testing out some new ways of gathering input and getting more people excited about shaping their public spaces.

Over the next few weeks, PPS’s Steve Davies, Elena Madison, and Meg Walker will be conducting a series of “Pop-Up Placemaking” workshops with Detroiters at the Downtown Detroit Partnership’s D:hive, an innovative social gathering space along the city’s famed Woodward Avenue corridor. Packing the punch of a standard day-long Placemaking workshop into a few hours, these specially-designed sessions will offer participants a unique opportunity to be intimately involved with the continued transformation of downtown Detroit. Workshops will take place from 5-6:30pm on December 5, 11,12, & 18.

And based on the response that we’ve been seeing at events in the Motor City recently, we’re on the edge of our seats, excited to see what people come up with. Recently, Davies, Madison, and Walker set up a “Placemaking Hut” at the Christmas Wonderfest tree-lighting ceremony and holiday market in Campus Martius Park, where people were invited to share what kinds of amenities and uses they wanted to see more of in downtown public spaces.

Upon entering the Placemaking Hut, everyone was given eight dot stickers. They were then able to peruse images of 12 different amenities and 12 different uses, and place their dots next to the images of the things that they wanted most (four from each of the two categories). This visual voting system not only made the important data-collection phase of the Placemaking process fun and interactive, it also built off of the festive atmosphere at the Christmas Wonderfest event (which attracted tens of thousands of Detroit-area residents) and generated a steady dialog between people about how downtown should evolve, putting place at the center of the discussion that evening.

The Placemaking Hut proved to be so popular, in fact, that we ran out of dots just a few hours into the festival! Considering that there were 3,000 stickers on-hand, an estimated 150 people moved through the hut per hour, providing a wealth of feedback about desired uses. That information, along with results from the upcoming Pop-Up Placemaking workshops, will be used by PPS and D:hive to craft a Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper plan for the activation of Downtown Detroit this coming summer.

Dog parks were a popular request / Photo: PPS

In case you’re thinking that 16 amenities and uses sounds a bit too prescriptive, fear not: plenty of crayons were available, and participants young and old were welcome to draw things that they wanted to see in their public spaces on a large flip chart if they couldn’t find a corresponding image on the hut’s walls. “We forgot to include a dog park image,” Davies recalled while recounting the story in the office this week. “Big mistake! So many people were using the crayons to ask for that; if you flipped through the chart, it was ‘dog park, dog park, dog park!’”

We’ll keep you posted on how things turn out at the pop-up sessions this coming month; if Detroit lives up to its burgeoning reputation as a hub of urban innovation, these Pop-Up Placemaking sessions could soon be making their way to a public space near you!

]]> http://www.pps.org/blog/pop-up-placemaking-connecting-the-dots-in-detroit/feed/ 3 Houston Library Plaza: Building Knowledge, Building Community http://www.pps.org/blog/houston-library-plaza-building-knowledge-building-community-2/ http://www.pps.org/blog/houston-library-plaza-building-knowledge-building-community-2/#comments Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:35:37 +0000 Project for Public Spaces http://www.pps.org/?p=79980 Library culture in the city of Houston is undergoing an exciting shift as the Houston Public Library reconsiders its public role. Instead of thinking of its programming as needing to remain within the building’s four walls, recent efforts are pulling the activity into outdoor spaces. Building upon the momentum of other successful downtown [...]]]>

Children play on the central library’s “front porch” during LibroFEST / Photo: Houston Public Library

Library culture in the city of Houston is undergoing an exciting shift as the Houston Public Library reconsiders its public role. Instead of thinking of its programming as needing to remain within the building’s four walls, recent efforts are pulling the activity into outdoor spaces. Building upon the momentum of other successful downtown projects, Director of Libraries, Dr. Rhea Brown Lawson, reached out to PPS to help them realize their new vision.

Earlier this year, PPS’s Cynthia Nikitin and Elena Madison traveled to Houston to train more than 150 people—library staff as well as community partners and stakeholders—on how libraries can maximize the role they are inherently equipped to fill. Libraries are natural hosts of community life. They are recognized as broadly accessible places, intentionally inclusive, and welcoming for everyone seeking knowledge and cultural enrichment. Throughout the workshops, participants explored the potential of libraries to be active centers of public life and creativity, not merely static warehouses for books.

Today, the staff at the Houston Public Library’s central branch is directing their attention toward the plaza out in front of the building. In little time, this space has been transformed from a barren expanse of concrete into a public stage par excellence. Taking the core Placemaking principles to heart, the library has begun implementing a Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper strategy to attract more people to the space through a variety of programming and design improvements. With an eye toward connecting the plaza to what already exists in the surrounding area, particularly the weekly Farmers’ Market that takes place in front of City Hall across the street. The Central Library plaza now provides seating to accommodate spillover from the market, hosts a library card sign-up at the farmers’ market, and organizes book sale events. Lunch-hour readings are also creating an inviting gathering spot for the community of surrounding office and business workers.

It is important to note that much of the new programming is being organized without great additional strain on the library’s resources. For an institution that habitually deals with limited funds and staff capacity, community partnerships have been key in helping to implement the vision for the plaza. The mix of activities that’s taking place in this exciting new downtown destination—from simple events like readings all the way up to major celebrations like the recent LibroFEST, organized with Arte Publico, the Society for the Performing Arts, and Writers in the Schools—directly serves the needs of the business and residential communities that had heretofore stayed off of the streets, preferring to frequent the shops in the climate controlled underground tunnels instead.

Getting ready to perform during LibroFEST / Photo: Houston Public Library

Madison and Nikitin agree that the project has benefited enormously from the fact that Houston has been a forward-thinking city in terms of combining institutions and city services with the aim of creating great places. Strong early partners included the Houston Arts Alliance and Green Houston, and the City of Houston’s sustainability department in charge of the farmers’ market. As the plaza’s transformation has begun, additional partners like the Houston Public Library Foundation, Friends of the Houston Public Library, and a mix of local cultural organizations have helped to generate public and political interest. Collaboration has, from day one, been a critical component of the plaza’s success.

By positioning the plaza as an open and flexible platform, the library is now able to mingle with and integrate itself into the daily rhythm of its corner of downtown. In the long term, this will help to build support for more capital-intensive plans for the plaza, including a resurfacing and the construction of a water wall, an amenity at the top of locals’ list to provide relief from Houston’s hot, muggy summers. And although the new activities taking in plaza have necessarily been focused on the audience of the central branch, the seeds for change have been planted across the city’s network of libraries. It is hoped in the near future that more branches will start building out their own “front porches.”

In the information age, it is important to remember that we gain knowledge not just from the page (digital or print), but also from our interactions with other people. By taking the lead in Houston, the staff of the central library has proven themselves to be indispensable advocates of community life. Their example is one that other libraries would be wise to follow!

]]> http://www.pps.org/blog/houston-library-plaza-building-knowledge-building-community-2/feed/ 1 The Cure for Planning Fatigue is Action http://www.pps.org/blog/the-cure-for-planning-fatigue-is-action/ http://www.pps.org/blog/the-cure-for-planning-fatigue-is-action/#comments Wed, 30 May 2012 19:16:19 +0000 Project for Public Spaces http://www.pps.org/?p=77865 Detroit has become a media darling in recent years, as the story of its rapid de-industrialization and population loss has given way to a new narrative: one of entrepreneurial arts groups, neighborhood farmers markets, and corporate investment downtown by the likes of Quicken Loans and Compuware, catalyzed in part by the new public square at [...]]]>

The Peaches & Greens market played host to a Placemaking-themed Harvest Festival last fall / Photo: PPS

Detroit has become a media darling in recent years, as the story of its rapid de-industrialization and population loss has given way to a new narrative: one of entrepreneurial arts groups, neighborhood farmers markets, and corporate investment downtown by the likes of Quicken Loans and Compuware, catalyzed in part by the new public square at Campus Martius. America loves a good underdog story, and after seeing Motown emptied out, and staring at so many decadently macabre “ruin porn” photos of the city’s deteriorating train station and empty Deco office towers, Detroit is an underdog par excellence.

The green shoots of renewal have generated so much interest that we’ve heard that  many Detroiters are beginning to develop a sort of “planning fatigue” as a rush of independent efforts launched to help turn their city around have left some wondering when the analyses, studies, and public input forums will produce some real results. “This is where PPS’s Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper approach comes in,” according to PPS’s Elena Madison. “There are a lot of great initiatives going in the city, but it is hard to connect them to a larger vision. The fact that farmers markets are often temporary and flexible means that they can spark immediate improvements and build local confidence today, while also informing strategies for long-term change at both the site and neighborhood levels.”

Last year, with the support of the Kresge Foundation, Madison and a team of PPS Placemakers (including Senior VP Steve Davies and Senior Director of Markets David O’Neill, both of whom previously worked on developing the plan to revamp the city’s iconic Eastern Market) traveled to Detroit to work on food markets in two very different neighborhoods. One market, sited in a church parking lot in the Grandmont-Rosedale neighborhood on the city’s northwest side, was located in a relatively stable, middle-class area. The second site was around Peaches & Greens, a non-profit produce market in Central Detroit, an area with high rates of vacancy, unemployment, and a population in greater need.

As Davies explains, “Markets often arise to address existing food deserts—in Detroit, a lot of the markets are citizen-driven: they sprang up because people were responding to a local need. But another major issue that we’re addressing is that many Detroit neighborhoods are also Place deserts. These are communities where there’s just nowhere to go; you have all of these people living near each other, you have schools, churches, and social services, but there’s little public civic life to speak of.”

In Grandmont-Rosedale, market vendors and the neighborhood association (which owns North Rosedale community park) came to realize how Triangulation could lead to a more symbiotic relationship: the park can galvanize support for its new capital campaign by incorporating site preparations for the market into its plans, while the market vendors will benefit greatly from relocating to a multi-use site with a strong sense of Place. Over in Central Detroit, meanwhile, people were more than ready for a change. “They basically said to us, ‘Anything we can do to create a stronger sense of place, we are willing to try,’” Madison recalls. The PPS team wound up organizing a Harvest Festival with local partner Central Detroit Christian CDC, which runs Peaches & Greens, in order to test out different uses and develop a strategy for how the market’s building, a once-abandoned storefront, can become the heart of a “mini Main Street” with a variety of services, parks and gardens on vacant land, and even traffic calming measures.

Markets often arise when residents living in a food desert take action to get more healthy food into their neighborhoods / Photo: PPS

Today, both markets are working to implement their Placemaking visions. Peaches & Greens will soon begin cleaning up vacant sites and next year construction will start on a small addition to accommodate more programming and a commercial-grade community kitchen, where it will offer community dinners, cooking classes, and job skills training. At North Rosedale Park, plans call for moving the farmers market to its new home as early as  mid-summer. Madison attributes progress being made at both sites to the fact that Placemaking is a process that produces projects that communities can really act on: “We’re not talking with people abstractly about how to ‘improve their food system.’ We’re working with them to implement very specific, concrete improvements.”

Recently, PPS began working with another group of markets in Detroit, this time in partnership with the Kellogg Foundation. The three sites involved are all part of the nascent network known as the Detroit Community Markets, with smaller markets learning from each-other and receiving support from Detroit’s spectacularly successful Eastern Market.  Two of the markets are currently located on hot and unattractive parking lots, but this summer will open with new “Place Makeovers” featuring new tents, seating areas, and greenery that were planned during recent Placemaking workshops with local residents.  One of Kellogg’s goals is for this new initiative to plan strategically for including markets into Detroit’s long-term planning efforts–meaning that markets could play an integral role in the city’s turnaround not only as places for commerce and healthy food for families and children, but as anchors and destinations for their surrounding neighborhoods.

In a city like Detroit, where needs far outstrip resources, public markets offer a lot of bang for the buck. Markets need people, and plenty of them–vendors, customers, volunteers–meaning that they offer plenty of easy ways for people to interact and take part in changing the way that their public space is used. “The people we worked with in Central Detroit kept saying, ‘We want more places to get together, to just be together,’” says Madison, echoing Davies’ observation about the importance of addressing Place deserts. “They’ve been really responsive and productive; what’s happening at that site is a great example of how people can help themselves.”

Through our work on markets across Detroit, we’ve also witnessed all the ways that Detroiters are working rebuild their public spaces from the bottom up–creating farms and gardens, walking and biking paths, and restoring community parks.  And since the only cure for planning fatigue is action, that’s the best news we’ve heard about the city yet.

 

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Big thanks to all of our partners in Detroit, who are making amazing things happen on the ground every day: The Kresge Foundation, CDCCDC, Grandmont-Rosedale Development Corp, North Rosedale Park Civic Association, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Eastern Market Corp, Warren/Conner Development Coalition, CHASS, Joy-Southfield Development Corp, and. last but not least, the Detroit Community Markets.

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