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PPS's program to build parks, plazas and central squares as community places PPS is building livable communities through placemaking around transit stops and context sensitive design of streets PPS is transforming public buildings and civic institutions from isolated design objects to centers of community life. Building strong economic, civic and cultural environments through development of public markets and local business.

Fred Kent
President

Kathy Madden
Vice President

Steve Davies
Vice President

Philip Myrick
Assistant Vice President

Cynthia Nikitin
Assistant Vice President

 

©2001, Project for Public
Spaces Inc.
153 Waverly Place, 4th Floor
New York, NY, 10014
Tel.: (212) 620.5660
Fax: (212) 620.3821
E-mail: pps@pps.org

ABOUT PPSAffection is a good indicator of a healthy public space.
Project for Public Spaces' is a nonprofit technical assistance, research and educational organization. PPS' mission - to create and sustain public places that build communities - is achieved through programs in parks, plazas and central squares; transportation; public buildings and architecture and public markets;. Since its founding in 1975, the organization has worked in over 1,000 communities, within the U.S. and abroad, helping people to grow their public space into vital community places.


PPS' Approach
Social interaction that contributes to the life of great public spaces could be considered loitering in bad ones!PPS helps accomplish these changes through a community/place-based approach to planning and decision-making that we have developed and broadened in the 25 years since our organization evolved from William H. Whyte's Street Life Project. This approach involves looking at, listening to and asking questions of the people in a community about their needs and aspirations. We work with them to create a vision around the places they view as important to community life and to their daily experience; and we help them implement their ideas beginning with small scale, doable improvements that can be phased in quickly and immediately begin to benefit a community.

William H. Whyte taught us how to understand public spaces through observationThis process is carried out with such tools as systematic on-site observations, time-lapse filming, customized interviews and user surveys, that allow us to go out to people in the places where they live, work and congregate to gather their input, document and analyze their activities, and reach those who otherwise might not participate in an improvement effort. The process also includes facilitated public forums, workshops, meetings and committees that give people an opportunity from the effort's outset to identify issues, contribute ideas and make decisions about improvements that can holistically address their manifold concerns and enhance the places where they live and work. Using this approach, we are able to help rebuild communities both in spirit and as places.

 

PPS Initiatives
PPS's "place-making" mission is reinforced on a broader level through three major programs: the Urban Parks Institute, an initiative to educate and involve people and promote public/private cooperation in improving urban parks through research, conferences, workshops, a web site, a newsletter and training sessions; the Public Market Collaborative, created by PPS in 1987 to further the preservation and establishment of public markets and to assist communities in market development, design and operations through technical assistance, an international market conference, publications, classes and forums; and Building Livable Communities through Transportation, an effort to advance the community building capacity of transportation, through workshops, an exchange program, educational outreach, research, information dissemination, policy discussion and demonstration projects.

Join us in our mission to preserve public space as the nexus of community life.


PPS has worked in 1,000 neighborhoods, 46 states & 12 countries

 

Last year, over 10,000 people attended our 250+ presentations and workshops

 

Our latest book – "How to Turn a Place Around", sold 2,500 copies in 5 months, and is in its 2nd edition

 A handbook for creating successful public spaces

Our websites attract over 1 million page views a year

 

Our slide library consists of 600,000 images of public spaces from over 50 countries around the world -- all taken by PPS staff

 

 Our staff has written and published over 50 books and articles

 

 

 
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Copyright © 2001 Project for Public Spaces, Inc.
153 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10014
Problems? Questions? Comments? Email us: pps@pps.org