Can Eye Contact Enhance Road Safety and a Sense of Place?
Is it possible to build community through transportation? Bjarne Winterberg, an architect and urban planner from Copenhagen, has brought road design and the goal of creating places together in ways that may be unmatched by anyone practicing in this field today. He will share his views at PPS’ upcoming Conference on Sustainability and Placemaking in Norway this September.
Gary Toth, PPS' Senior Director of Transportation Initiatives, feels so comfortable on this shared street in the Netherlands that he sets up a chair.
The simple idea behind his work is that for a street to become a place, it needs to be designed to support the uses and activities that occur there. Bjarne uses street and road design to affect the behavior of motorists and pedestrians by increasing the possibility for interaction- what he terms “interpersonal activities”- thus transforming streets into places that enhance urban life.
Bjarne believes that a road’s “environmental context” can have a larger influence on a drivers’ behavior than legislation, rules and signs. The goal is to create a situation in which as people reach the intersection, they move slowly enough to make eye contact with each other. For example, in the town of Christiansfeld in Denmark, Bjarne and the engineering firm Rambøll tackled the high casualty rate on the town’s central traffic intersection by designing the road in a way that encourages drivers to slow down to consider how they relate to other “users” (pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers of transit vehicles etc) of the space.
Bjarne Winterberg
Bjarne, like Hans Monderman, is an innovator of the shared space concept from the Netherlands. Instead of using the traditional traffic engineering methods of controlling the movement and behavior of cars (warning signs, road markings, traffic signals, etc.), he removes these elements from the roads at key intersections. David Engwicht, too, writes about similar concepts in his book “Mental Speed Bumps: The Smarter Way to Tame Traffic.”
Physical changes to the intersection – the surface treatment, lighting and the modifications to the corners of the pavement- help drivers to slow down. The result is a change in not only how people use the intersection but how they perceive it. In other words, the changes help to create a “place” for people at the center of the community. The result has been improved capacity for traffic and fewer delays than traffic signal control systems.
Is Stockholm in Danger of Losing Its Waterfront?
It’s not easy to make a great urban waterfront and many cities have made numerous mistakes that they regret later. For example, adjacent land uses that are private versus public, the size and location of roads limits pedestrian access to the water, the design of the open spaces along the waterfront provides few opportunities for activities to occur, all of which limits the potential for the waterfront to add to the identity and image of the city.
The site of the Slussen Urban Redesign Competition is an opportunity to reinvent Stockholm's center, for better or worse.
Alexis Pontvik, a Stockholm-based architect will share his insights and ideas about why the Stockholm waterfront is so successful and how its potential for improvement could easily be missed at the Waterfront Synopsis Conference in Stavanger, Norway this September 15-17, hosted by Project for Public Spaces (PPS) and the Nordic Urban Design Association (NUDA). He will use the Stockholm waterfront as a case study to talk about some of the “rules” for successful waterfront development today. Ponvik believes that when these rules are broken, a city’s waterfront is lost in terms of its identity, image and meaning for its citizens.
Stockholm, Sweden currently has one of the most successful waterfronts in the world. It has a pedestrian promenade along the harbor and a wealth of destinations that include a combination of transportation, cultural and commercial uses and activities. It is also an exciting example of a fast growing city with big plans for its waterfront. In just 20 years, the city expects its population will increase by 150,000 people. To satisfy the need for more housing, workplaces and infrastructure, the city is planning several new developments in sites across the city, including a new waterfront.
One of the most controversial and complicated new projects is the Slussen Urban Redesign Project, a proposal to create a major multi-use destination and transportation hub on the central part of the Stockholm waterfront. Many futuristic designs were among the finalists and Foster and Partners ultimately won the competition.
Alexis Pontvik
Pontvik believes that issues such as architecture clearly play a role in waterfront development but what is often missing is a broader vision clearly defined by the city at the outset that details the way the project fits into the surrounding area and how it addresses the unique issues that exist there. Pontvik will discuss ways that cities can use unique assets to define the vision for a project instead of relying solely on design solutions. PPS outlines this concept in its ideas for the city of the future. As PPS President Fred Kent says, even renderings reveal a design-driven rather than a people-driven approach.
Pontvik is both a local resident and architect: he founded his architecture studio in Stockholm where he is currently at work on a wide range of international projects, from a master pan for a Palestinian border crossing to a new art gallery in Uddevalla.
At PPS’ Conference in September, Alexis will join a group of speakers, including PPS President and Senior Vice President Fred Kent and Kathy Madden as well as the executive director of Seattle’s Pike Place Market, the founder of Urban Space Management, and the Chief Executive of the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau who will share their “out of the box” ideas about sustainable development practices.
PPS Park Projects Spur Downtown Development in Houston and Detroit
A recent Washington Post article by JoAnne Greco of The City Traveller focuses on the power of parks to spur economic growth for an entire city- and uses two PPS projects, Houston’s Discovery Green and Detroit’s Campus Martius, as benchmarks for success.
Park features like this fountain at Discovery Green keep visitors of all ages coming back year-round to Houston's once quiet downtown core. Flickr photo by AlphaTangoBravo/Adam Baker
Often, downtowns hard-hit by disinvestment turn to sports arenas or performing arts venues for an economic boost. Yet as this article shows, parks, not stadiums, are responsible for invigorating depressed cores. Alive with year-round programming and activities, these thriving Public Multi-Use Destinations are treasured by the local community and generate millions of dollars of investment, proving there can be an Upside of a Down Economy, as PPS President Fred Kent explains in this Urban Land Institute article.
The Washington Post is not the first major newspaper to highlight the potential for parks like Campus Martius to generate true prosperity over the long-haul: just last fall The Boston Globe wrote about how Discovery Green has drawn over a million visitors to downtown Houston while Boston’s new Rose Kennedy Greenway still seems “placeless” and deserted.
From our experience working in more than 2,500 communities around the world, PPS has known for years that the missing ingredient in many discussions about economic revitalization, job creation, and sustainability is the fact that secure jobs are tied to a place.
To learn more about models for sustainable success, join us in Norway at PPS’ upcoming Conference on Sustainability and Placemaking next month where PPS and “out of the box” Placemakers from around the world will share their secrets to creating great destinations.
Scott Taylor Enlivens Glasgow with “Place Based Experiences”
Until a few years ago, no one could have imagined that Glasgow, a city of about 588,000 people, located on the Clyde River, could become one of the hottest destinations in Europe. The secret, according to Scott Taylor, Chief Executive of the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, is a “place based” marketing strategy that is focused on the simple idea that people crave interesting and unique experiences in cities whether they are locals or tourists.
At PPS’ upcoming Conference on Sustainability and Placemaking, Scott Taylor will shed light on a new way of thinking about creating great multi use destinations that attract visitors, businesses, and other investment.
Glasgow's Downtown Draws Visitors from Across Europe. Flickr photo by Ray Devlin
Scott’s talk will focus on how “Place Marketing” creates a visual identity for cities and has transformed Glasgow by using the city’s history, heritage and culture to define destinations that are authentic and attractive to both locals and tourists. For Scott, “Place Marketing” emerges naturally from the shift to the “experience economy” where people no longer value commodities, goods, or services, but experiences. The future of successful places and projects will be defined on the ability to host and market these exchanges.
Scott Taylor
Scott setup the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB) four years ago and has been at the helm since the beginning. A recent interview in Drum Magazine lays out his strategy for taking advantage of the experience economy. The strategy has secured £140m worth of conference business for the city this year, and £4 billion of investment money is being spent in the city at the moment, a figure Taylor describes as unthinkable only a few years ago.
Investments have come under Scott’s guidance, from the branding “Glasgow, Scotland with style.” The city’s style grew out of the architectural movement of 1910 which has helped define the city for over a century. The brand offers opportunities for experiences related to arts, culture, and shopping and has succeeded in creating a sense of place where bookstores, outdoor markets, and coffee houses act as places where locals and tourists can gather around a combination of activities, keeping local retail alive and creating a wonderful experience for visitors.
At PPS’ upcoming Conference on Sustainability and Placemaking in Norway, Scott will join other a remarkable group of international placemakers, including Carol Binder and Eric Reynolds. Register now for your chance to meet and learn from these and other pioneers in building great places.
Carol Binder, Leading Pike Place Into Its Next 100 Years
Known as the “Soul of Seattle,” Pike Place Market draws more than 10 million visitors each year to its colorful stalls and lively streets, making it one of the most frequently visited destinations in all of Washington State. Founded in 1907, Pike Place is much more than a market and stands at the center of the 7-acre Market Historic District neighborhood. Join us in Norway next month where Carol Binder, Executive Director of the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority, will share the market’s unique formula for sustainability and success at the Waterfront Synopsis Conference on September 15th 2010, organized by Project for Public Spaces (PPS) and the Norwegian Urban Design Association (NUDA).
Pike Place Market is the center of a vibrant and historic Seattle neighborhood
A hub of activity for the whole Seattle region, Pike Place hosts over 200 year-round commercial businesses, 190 craftspeople and approximately 100 farmers who rent table space by the day. The economic and social impact of this market extends beyond its role as a place to buy and eat fresh, local food. Pike Place also provides many cultural and community services. The neighborhood’s streets are alive with more than 240 street performers and musicians. There’s also a daycare and more than 300 apartment units, most of which are dedicated as housing for low-income senior citizens.
Carol Binder
Pike Place began as a city-sponsored experiment to help local farmers sell their produce directly to consumers, the Market was a huge success and more stalls and permanent structures were quickly added to meet the growing needs of consumers and farmers.
Carol’s work ensures that in its modern incarnation, Pike Place continues as an authentic a place that is treasured by the community, attracting locals and tourists in equal numbers.
Carol’s long history with Pike Place began with an eight-year term on the Market’s governing Council in the 1990s, serving as Interim Executive Director in 1999. She has applied her more than 20 years of experience in finance and nonprofit development to enrich Pike Place as a sustainable community center and has overseen the construction of the neighborhood’s new, low-income senior housing and senior center. She was also behind the building and creation of the capital planning program, funded by a voter-approved tax levy in 2008.
Treasured by the community, Pike Place Market draws tourists and locals in equal numbers.
Carol’s innovative efforts have helped sustain Pike Place as a lively market with myriad associated benefits that invigorates an entire district.
Come learn from this inspiring development model next month in Stavanger, Norway, when Carol joins many other revolutionary Placemakers, like Eric Reynolds, to share their “out of the box” development strategies at PPS’ Conference in Stavanger, Norway. Register now for your chance to learn first-hand from pioneering experts in building great, sustainable places.
7 Great Resources to Turn Your Waterfront Around
Industry still dominates many waterfront cities- but change is coming (Flickr photo by Sweethardt)
As PPS gears up to host its Waterfronts Synopsis Conference next month on sustainability and Placemaking in Stavanger, Norway (Sept. 15-17), waterfronts have been on our mind. In today’s evolving economy, many urban waterfronts have recently been liberated from heavy industrial uses and are on the verge of transformation. Often a central and beautiful part of any metropolis, urban waterfronts have enormous potential to provide an identity to cities and to host activities that attract diverse groups of visitors.
PPS pulled together seven great resources to help Placemakers everywhere turn their waterfronts around:
1. The Waterfront Renaissance Waterfronts are inextricably linked to the identity and vitality of cities. As many cities rediscover their roots on the river, lake or sea, we have a remarkable opportunity to create a new generation of great public spaces.
2. How to Transform a Waterfront As more cities envision their waterfronts as lively public destinations that keep people coming back, PPS outlines the following 13 principles to make that happen.
3. The Waterfront Hall of Shame Most of the world’s great cities boast exciting waterfront settings, yet have blown the opportunity to create lively public destinations where people will naturally want to gather.
Waterfronts thrive when they keep people coming back, like this promenade in Venice, Italy
4. Nine Steps to Creating A Great Waterfront Guidelines to help you avoid common mistakes and make your waterfront shine.
5. Ten Qualities of a Great Waterfront Look at your waterfront development with fresh eyes. Which of these qualities is it missing?
6. Putting Our Jobs Back in Place Authentic development along waterfronts can spur economic revitalization and create lasting jobs.
7. Great Waterfronts of the World: A truly great urban waterfront is hard to come by. PPS staff has examined more than 200 urban waterfronts around the world, here are a few dozen of the best.
We hope you’ll join us in Norway to meet pioneering Placemakers like Eric Reynolds and others as they share stories at the upcoming Waterfronts Synopsis Conference in Norway next month.
Tupelo, MS to Get a Dose of Placemaking
It’s official! Downtown Tupelo Main Street Association will be the site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Project for Public Spaces’ Placemaking Demonstration Project. A team of placemakers from the Trust’s National Main Street Center and PPS will travel to Tupelo to help this community capitalize on the assets that already exist on their Main Street. The project will engage a wide range of Tupelo stakeholders, community members and the Department of Transportation to enliven its Main Street corridor, a state highway which links downtown to the birthplace of Elvis Presley and other public spaces and local destinations. This Placemaking Demonstration Project is the next step in an ongoing Placemaking partnership between the National Main Street Center and PPS.
Tupelo seeks to connect existing destinations on their Main Street.
Currently, downtown Tupelo has a number of desirable attractions but these individual elements are not integrated to create a vibrant district. Sections of wide roadways downtown alienate pedestrians and bikers, limiting multimodal mobility in the area. The outcomes of the project will focus on providing Tupelo residents and officials with new tools to create streets as places and link destinations throughout the downtown. Tupelo is but one of many American towns struggling to create a sense of Place along Main Street. Both PPS and the National Trust hope that the lessons learned from this pilot program will serve to inspire Placemaking across the country.
The heart of the project will be a 2-day Placemaking workshop centered on a four-block section of downtown Tupelo which has seen increased truck traffic, higher traffic speed, and growing concerns about pedestrian safety. Working collaboratively with Mississippi’s Department of Transportation, the project will demonstrate new opportunities to engage state DOT’s and local Main Street programs.
The Placemaking Demonstration Project will help balance modes of transportation downtown.
But the training doesn’t stop with Tupelo. To enable communities around the state to benefit from the principles presented in the 2-day training, PPS and Mississippi Main Street Association will host a Placemaking training program for managers of its 49 programs across the state. With Tupelo as a case study, the State Main Street Association as well as the local programs will be equipped to apply Placemaking principles to their own projects.
Local press is already buzzing about the announcement!
Eric Reynolds, Master of Low-cost, High-return Public Space Interventions in London and NYC
Eric will be speaking at PPS’ upcoming “Waterfront Synopsis” Conference, Sept. 15-17 in Stavanger, Norway. Watch our blog: we’ll introduce you to more of the innovative Placemakers who will come to the Conference to share what they’ve done to bring life to public spaces.
Eric Reynolds
“Lighter, quicker, cheaper:” three words to sum up a revolutionary, low-cost, high-impact strategy to development, one behind all of Eric Reynolds’ projects at Urban Space Management (USM), a firm known for driving the economic renewal of run down or under-utilized spaces in imaginative and cost effective ways. At PPS’ Conference next month, Eric will use real-world projects to highlight his company’s “out of the box” practices. Eric’s talk will cover the decline of “mega-schemes” for development- they’re unsustainable because they require long time frames to assemble large sites, large teams and large sums of money- all of which can be risky in today’s volatile economy.
Eric and his business partner, Eldon Scott, promote and use an entirely different development model; one that is lower risk and lower cost and which can be an interim solution for a site that is in transition- techniques especially relevant to the thousands of evolving post-industrial waterfronts around the world. Eldon used Urban Space Management’s approach in his work setting up the Union Square Holiday Market in New York City.
At this market at Camden Lock, Eric Reynolds kept rents low to attract a wide range of tenants
Urban Space Management’s Projects (which include Camden Lock, Gabriel’s Wharf, and Chelsea Farmers Market in London, and several seasonal markets in New York City) have not only been able to not only “catch the moment” but also have created greater profit per dollar of capital expended than other, traditional development schemes. Last June, Eldon Scott shared USM’s unique approach at a PPS Forum attended by developers of Public Multi–Use Destinations at Granville Island in Vancouver, British Columbia. Eldon shared his years of experience on how a combination of creativity and local talent can be used to add uses to a site and make money in the short term, even in small spaces.
USM brought in set designers to add colorful facades to concrete structures at Gabriel's Wharf, a former parking lot.
Gabriel’s Wharf, now one of London’s thriving public multi-use destinations, was just another parking lot until USM asked a set design company to create colorful facades to decorate the concrete garages already present on the site, transforming them into studios for local artists who began displaying (and selling) their creations. The same concept was used at other USM developments, including The Chelsea Farmers Market, located off Kings Road in London: USM began by adding temporary structures, both timber and re-used containers, to keep costs low and attract an interesting group of tenants. USM uses the concept of a “Coral Reef” in their development practices. In other words, for USM, high design is not the focus. The color and vibrancy of their developments come from the tenants and visitors who occupy the space.
Are you in the middle of turning your waterfront around? Looking for time-tested strategies for low-cost development that generate big returns? Come to PPS’ Conference on Waterfronts and Sustainability in Norway to meet Eric and learn from him and from other Placemakers at the cutting edge of their fields.
Markets for All: Celebrating National Farmers Market Week
Rows of brightly colored produce; freshly baked breads and blueberry pies; mingling of friends, neighbors and strangers: there’s no limit to the joys of a local farmers market.
The spectacular resurgence of markets, which have grown more than 80 percent over the last decade in the United States, is truly cause for celebration. Their rise has been fueled not only by greater public awareness of the joys of eating local food, but also the myriad spin-off benefits that markets provide–economic opportunities for immigrants and entrepreneurs, safe and vibrant social gathering spaces, decreased dependence on fossil fuels–and so on.
Free Download
In lower income communities, where healthy food and economic opportunity are often difficult to come by, the benefits of markets are even more pronounced. This week, PPS is excited to release a new free publication that assists market managers in accommodating the needs of all of their customers: SNAP/EBT at your Farmers Market: Seven Steps to Success.
The publication can be downloaded for free as a PDF or purchased as a hard copy through Lulu.com.
Buy Now
Citizens interested in becoming a vendor at a local market also have a new tool to guide them along the way: How to Start your Business at a Local Market: A Vendor Handbook, available for download in the PPS bookstore.
To see a thriving market in action, check out our brand-new video on East New York Farms in Brooklyn, NY.
For more information on National Farmers Market Week, visit the Farmers Market Coalition website.
What’s your favorite thing about your local farmers market? Any videos of a great market near you? Tell us, and share with other placemakers!
Creating Safe Community Gathering Spaces in South Africa
One of the most important elements of any public space is safety. When spaces are physically unsafe or perceived to be so, they do not draw the people necessary to make them vibrant and successful. But by embracing community engagement in the planning process, public spaces can best accommodate the needs and concerns of their users, thereby creating an environment that is most likely to succeed.
Creating safe public spaces in poor and disadvantaged communities is a special challenge, but their power to revitalize communities is no less great. This is one of the primary goals of PPS Vice President Cynthia Nikitin’s upcoming trip to South Africa, where she has been invited by the UN Habitat: Safer Cities program to participate in various workshops and forums related to public spaces and safety.
Youth playing soccer in South Africa. Photo credit: Development Works Photos, Flickr
Cynthia will travel to Johannesburg to participate in an Expert Group Meeting, convened by UN-HABITAT’s program in Youth Empowerment and Safer Cities, that will evaluate sports as a tool for youth development and safety. Thereafter, she will facilitate a workshop for fifty learners from poor communities in Johannesburg who will share their experience of sports, sporting events and unsafety in their communities, with the goal of proposing ways to integrate sports for safety and urban upgrading.
For more information on Cynthia’s trip, please do not hesitate to contact her.
Discovering Common Ground through History and the Built Environment
Building community around a deep appreciation of shared history creates the momentum for a strong future, a belief that lies at the heart of PPS’ new partnership with the National Trust. Creating a link between history and the physical environment is also one of the main goals of Common Boston, a free, city-wide festival held annually to celebrate the role of design, architecture and neighborhoods in strengthening community bonds and connecting Boston’s diverse populations.
The Sidewalk Sam chalk event at Common Boston. Photo credit: photos.juliechen, Flickr
The mission of the annual Common Boston week is to “expand public awareness of the Boston area’s built environment through interactive programs, encourage collaboration between design professionals and those for whom they design, and promote good citizenship and action toward a better built environment”- laudable goals for a city-wide Placemaking effort.
One of America’s oldest cities, Boston’s neighborhoods have been shaped (and in some cases, divided) by centuries of development. Yet Boston’s physical environment has also been formed by inspired efforts to connect the diversity of its residents, a topic which was the focus of this year’s public forum. The forum addressed ways that physical barriers can become points of connection, ultimately considering how to turn corridors and boundaries into places at which people can share their neighborhood and city.
An interactive piece from Common Build, a design/build competition part of the larger event. Photo credit: fullercrane, Flickr
The forum was just one of 40 events open to the public at this year’s festival, which included a Chinatown tour on how landscape architecture has created successful public spaces, an architect-led exploration on the intersection of security and public space at Boston’s Logan Airport, youth-led neighborhood showcases, a water-taxi tour of placemaking and development on the waterfront, garden walks, and much more. Learn more about the event at CommonBoston.org.
Where is PPS Working Today?
Every year, PPS travels all over the world in our mission to help communities improve their public spaces. In the last few weeks alone, we have been in Norway, Abu Dhabi, Hawaii, Vancouver, Alabama, Italy and Texas, among other places.
Interested in connecting with a PPS staff member in your city or town? Here’s a list of where a handful of our staff will be travelling in the coming weeks.
Fred Kent + Kathy Madden
Corpus Christi, TX: August 27-29
Waterfronts Synopsis Conference–Stavanger, Norway: September 15-17
Ethan Kent
Las Vegas, NV: July 20-22
Baltimore, MD: August 2-6 Continue…