PPS Timeline: 1975-2005

1975

• Fred Kent, a community activist who had organized the 1970 Earth Day events in New York City, founds Project for Public Spaces to build upon William H. Whyte's pioneering studies of how people use public spaces. He had worked with Whyte on a number of projects. Architect Don Miles, Director of the Office of Midtown Planning for the City of New York, and Bob Cook, an attorney specializing in urban issues, were also instrumental in the formation of PPS.

• Environmental designer Kathy Madden joins PPS after working for the New York City Parks Department on a special street furniture project. Today, she is vice-president and runs the parks program.

• Rockefeller Center provides free office space to PPS's staff of five in exchange for advising its Real Estate Marketing Department on how to improve the buildings' public spaces.
• Where We Were: Houston, TX • New York, NY

1976

• In the first of many collaborations with the National Park Service, PPS evaluates Brooklyn's Jacob Riis Park and Gateway National Recreation Area.
• Where We Were: Brooklyn, NY • Queens, NY • New York, NY

1977

• PPS films President Carter's Inaugural Parade as part of a pedestrian study of Pennsylvania Avenue, part of the successful preservation and revitalization campaign for the street that has been carried out by the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation since 1972.
• Where We Were: New York, NY • Seattle, WA

1978

• Architect Steve Davies joins the staff of PPS to work on improvements to West 46th Street in Manhattan. Today he is vice-president and runs the markets program and international projects.
• Where We Were: New York, NY • Seattle, WA

1979

• PPS moves to corner of 6th Avenue and 31st Street. The new location is so noisy that when staff members make calls, people on the other end often ask if they are calling from a phone booth.
• Where We Were: Bronx, NY • Boston, MA • Hartford, CT • New York, NY • Washington D.C. • Williamsburg, VA

Behind the Scenes

1980

• Together with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, PPS helps found the National Main Street Center, producing the original training manual for the Center and a companion film titled What Do People Do Downtown? Main Street in Focus.

• PPS produces its first film for public distribution, Waiting for the Bus, beginning a longstanding commitment to promote the value of amenities in improving both streets and public transit.

Where We Were: Bronx, NY • New York, NY • Seattle, WA

1981

• PPS's report, Bryant Park, Intimidation or Recreation?, sets the park's storied turnaround in motion.
• Kathy Madden begins an epic trilogy of public restroom studies, evaluating use and condition of the facilities in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park.
• Where We Were: Bellevue, CA • Bronx, NY • Denver, CO • Eugene, OR • Miami, FL • New York, NY • Philadelhipa, PA • Portland, OR • Whitestone

1982

• PPS publishes its first "how-to" book detailing several techniques it developed to analyze public use of parks. Called User Analysis: An Approach to Park Planning and Management, the book caps off another fruitful partnership with the National Park Service.
• Where We Were: Bellevue,CA • Bronx, NY • Denver, CO • New York, NY • Queens, NY • Seattle, WA

1983

• Putting "Context-Sensitive Solutions" to use before the phrase has even been coined, PPS's streetscape improvements spur the dramatic comeback of New Haven's Chapel Street (link to greatest hits)
• In the News: Metropolis, March 1983.The staff of PPS earn a new nickname, "The Space Doctors," drawn from the title of a profile published in Metropolis magazine.
• Where We Were: Dallas, TX • Kansas City, MO • Los Angeles, CA • Meriden, CT • New Haven, CT • New York, NY • Portland, OR • Queens, NY • Rochester, NY • Seattle, WA • Wilmington, DE

1984

• PPS and its staff of 15 move to the curiously improbable corner of Waverly Place and Waverly Place in Greenwich Village (153 Waverly Place), where they will reside for the next 21 years.
• PPS publishes Managing Downtown Public Spaces, one of the first-ever studies of public space management.
• During a project to redesign the Times Square subway station, Kathy Madden completes the second installment in her triptych of public restroom studies, counting people and timing their length of stay.
• Where We Were: Atlanta, GA • Dallas, TX • Denver, CO • Houston , TX • New York, NY • Philadelphia, PA • Pheonix, AZ • San Francisco, CA • San Juan, PR • Seattle, WA

1987

• PPS hits the Sun Belt for the first time, preparing a master plan for a new mixed-use government complex in downtown Orlando, including a City Hall, a commons, and commercial office space. The City Hall and plaza opened in 1991.
• In the News: New York Times, December 13, 1987. PPS in favor of autos? The answer was a hearty "Yes" when it came to the revitalization of fading downtown pedestrian malls that had suffered from the lack of multiple transportation modes.

• Where We Were: Albuquerque, NM • Austin, TX • Boise, ID • Boston, MA • Brooklyn, NY • Cedar Rapids, IA • Corning, NY • Eugene, OR • Hempstead, NY • Hoboken, NJ • Los Angeles, CA • Minneapolis, MN • Morristown, NJ • New York, NY • Phoenix, AZ • Queens, NY • Staten Island, NY

1988

• PPS submits a position paper titled "Rebuilding the American Community" to Presidential candidates George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis. Including recommendations from nearly 100 experts and activists on how to draft federal policy to help cities and towns strengthen their community-building capacities, the report draws interest from members of the departing Reagan Administration.
• Where We Were: Brooklyn, NY • Buffalo, NY • Camden, NJ • Couer D'Alene, ID • Jersey City, NJ • Miami, FL • New York, NY • Newark, NJ • Oak Park, IL • Orlando, FL • Phoenix, AZ • Springfield, MA • St. Paul, MN • Tucson, AZ • Washington, DC

Behind the Scenes

1989

• PPS exports lessons learned from American main streets to the UK, taking on a role in the redevelopment of High Street in Oxford. The project marks PPS's first foray outside North America.
• With a grant from HUD, PPS works in five cities to establish new public markets and revitalize existing ones, signaling the beginning of our public markets program.

• Where We Were: Bridgeport, CT • Bronx, NY • Columbus, OH • Miami, FL • New York, NY • Orlando, FL • Oxford, UK • Pasco, WA • Portland, OR • Salt Lake City, UT • San Antonio, TX • Stamford, CT • Staten Island, NY • Worcester, MA • Yonkers, NY

1990

• Earth Day New York is organized from the PPS office.
• Kathy Madden celebrates her 40th birthday in style, conducting a marathon pedestrian count outside the restrooms of New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal, bringing her triumvirate of restroom studies to a dramatic conclusion at 1 AM.
• Where We Were: Boston, MA • Chicago, IL • Elizabeth, NJ • Houston, TX • Long Beach, CA • Mesa, AZ • New Orleans, LA • New York, NY • Oneida, NY • Sacramento, CA • Salt Lake City, UT • Springfield, MA • Washington, DC

Behind the Scenes

1991

• PPS collaborates with Partners for Livable Communities and the Public Library Association to develop a new model for America's public libraries that emphasizes their potential as civic gathering spaces and catalysts for downtown revival.

• In Seattle, Fred Kent is issued his third jaywalking ticket while leading a tour as part of a conference on walkable streets. He was previously busted in Santa Monica and Dallas. All three tickets remain outstanding.
• As the frenzy builds around the massive redevelopment of tawdry Times Square, PPS throws its hat into the ring with a proposal for the "42nd Street Entertainment Concept." This collaboration with George Lucas's LucasArts Attractions puts forth the "revolutionary" idea that Times Square should be for entertainment rather than just office towers.
• Where We Were: Camden, NJ • Corpus Christi, TX • Hartford, CT • Houston, TX • Los Angeles, CA • New York, NY • Ottawa, ON • Queens, NY • Riverside, CA • San Bernardino, CA • San Rafael, CA • Seattle, WA

1992

• Cynthia Nikitin, public art expert and aspiring stand-up comic, joins staff of PPS. Today she is an assistant vice-president and leads programs in public buildings and transportation.
• Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, PPS meets with property owners and the official government planning body for the Alexanderplatz square in East Berlin, urging adoption of a process that addresses community needs in the development of Alexanderplatz.

• Steve Davies and other participants at a community meeting in Los Angeles are forced to vacate the building, as riots break out across the city following the acquittal of police officers accused of assaulting Rodney King.

• In The News:Riverside Neighborhood Newsletter, January 1992. Residents of Riverside, California contributed enthusiastically to PPS's recommendations for creating a livelier, more attractive downtown.
• Where We Were: Bradley Beach, NJ • Bronx, NY • Bronxville, CO • East Orange, NJ • Los Angeles, CA • Maplewood, NJ • New York, NY • Orlando, FL • San Bernardino, CA • Springfield, MA • Tallahassee, FL • Woodbridge, NJ

1993

• Phil Myrick, a former sculptor who has called three continents home, joins staff of PPS. He is now an assistant vice-president and leads programs in parks and transportation.

• Re-imagining transit facilities as a new variation on the town center, PPS works with New Jersey Transit to improve five commuter rail stations so that they have a greater beneficial impact on neighboring communities.
• The New York Times publishes profile of Fred Kent titled "One Who Would Like to See Most Architects Hit the Road."

• In the News: Sag Harbor Express, March 20, 1993. PPS's efforts to make pedestrian-friendly streets in the Long Island village of Sag Harbor introduced readers of this local paper to the concept of traffic calming.
• Where We Were: Columbus, OH • East Hampton, NY • Margaretville, NY • New York, NY • Riverside, CA • Sag Harbor, NY • Toledo, OH

1994

• PPS receives a Federal Design Achievement Award for its work on the Staples Street City Hall Bus Transfer Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.
• Conducting research for The Role of Transit in Creating Livable Metropolitan Communities, PPS introduces the idea of Placemaking as a method to ensure that transit planning better meets community needs.

• With support from the German Marshall Fund and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, PPS helps establish the Czech Partnership for Public Spaces, a local civic organization dedicated to Placemaking in historic Czech towns and villages.
• Where We Were: Atlanta, GA • Bethesda, MD • Bellevue, CA • Boston, MA • Bronx, NY • Brooklyn, NY • Charlotte, NC • Grand Rapids, MI • New York, NY • Plainfield, NJ • Queens, NY • Riverside, CA • San Bernardino, CA • Seattle, WA • Tallahassee, FL

1995

• PPS establishes the Urban Parks Institute--the first body to promote parks as catalysts for community revitalization to a nationwide audience--thanks to a grant from the Wallace Funds.

• Public Markets and Community Revitalization published. PPS consolidates eight years of research to produce a guidebook covering all aspects of creating and running public markets--from simple, inexpensive farmers and crafts markets to large market districts.
• Where We Were: Bethesda, MD • Bronx, NY • Charlotte, NC • Chicago, IL • Grand Rapids, MI • Hempstead, NY • New York, NY • Newport, VT • Oakland, CA • Philadelphia, PA • Richmond, VA • San Bernardino, CA

1996

• Kathy Madden's impassioned speech to department heads of the federal Department of Transportation leads to establishment of the Transportation and Livable Communities Consortium, a strategic collaboration among 18 national organizations in the public and private sectors to promote streets and transit that enhance communities. Meeting organizers, wary that Fred Kent will insult the audience, assign him to slide projector duty.
• Molly the office dog bites Rick Marianni, an executive at New Jersey Transit and PPS's biggest client at the time. Marianni later says of the PPS office, "I don't know what it is you do here, but I like it."

• In the News: New York Times, March 17, 1996. This piece in the Times recounts how PPS's recommendations made New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal, once perceived as a chaotic mess, safer for people and more attractive for retail businesses.
• Where We Were: Brooklyn, NY • Hicksville, NY • Little Rock, AR • Los Angeles, CA • Meadville, NJ • Miami Beach, FL • New York, NY • Portland, OR • Red Bank, NJ • Wilmington, DE

1997

• Andy Wiley-Schwartz, reformed investment banker and featured expert on numerous nationally-televised personal finance programs, joins staff of PPS. He is now an assistant vice-president and leads efforts in program development, strategic planning, and communications.
• PPS launches its first websites: pps.org and urbanparks.org (Urban Parks Online). Today the PPS sites receive over 3000 visitors each day.

• In the News:Newark Star-Ledger, October 3, 1997. PPS's work to rejuvenate NJ Transit train stations led to a 40% increase in ridership at the historic Netherwood station in Plainfield, NJ, spurring further investments in the adjacent business district.
• Where We Were: Austin, TX • Boston, MA • Burlington, VT • Cleveland, OH • Dobbs Ferry, NY • Fort Worth, TX • Hillsboro, OR • Irvington, NJ • Jersey City, NJ • Los Angeles, CA • Maplewood, NJ • New York, NY • Ossining, NY • Philadelphia, PA • Rahway, NJ • Summit, NJ

1998

• PPS conducts community-based planning initiatives in Los Angeles as part of effort to repair and rejuvenate neighborhoods affected by the 1992 riots. Neighborhood groups plant trees, paint and install new streetlights, hang colorful banners, redesign streets to be more pedestrian friendly, and revitalize vacant lots as parks and community gathering places.

• In the News: Washington Post, October 9, 1998.This article described PPS's work with the Downtown DC BID to rejuvenate the public spaces around several downtown streets, including Herald Square and Freedom Plaza.
• Where We Were: Buffalo, NY • Cleveland, OH • New York, NY • Redbank, NJ • Washington, DC

1999

• PPS joins forces with the General Services Administration (GSA), beginning a landmark, nationwide effort to create safe, attractive, people-friendly public spaces around courthouses, government offices, and other federal buildings.

• Setting a new standard for parks as catalysts for economic development, PPS works with local stakeholders to make the new Campus Martius Park the centerpiece of Detroit's downtown renaissance.
• PPS develops its first five-year Strategic Plan, setting the goal of becoming the leading international resource for people working to create and sustain public spaces that build communities.
• Where We Were: Arvada, CO • Detroit, MI • Fort Worth, TX • New York, NY • Poughkeepsie, NY • South San Francisco, CA • Washington, DC • Wilmington, DE

2000

• PPS publishes How To Turn a Place Around, the first hands-on guide to Placemaking, which becomes the inspiration for a training course of the same name. See Greatest Hits.
• In a major victory for all communities plagued by wider streets and speeding cars, PPS conducts the first state-wide Context Sensitive Design training program. Hundreds of traffic engineers in New Jersey are introduced to the principles of Placemaking as a better method of street design.

• Elena Olonetsky, a disciplinarian with a heart of gold, takes the helm of PPS's finance department and guides us through the treacherous straits of the dot-com downturn.
• Where We Were: Baltimore, MD • Bayonne, NJ • Hartford, CT • Houston, TX • Kansas City, MO • Philadelphia, PA • Pittsburgh, PA • Plainfield, NJ • Red Bank, NJ • Riverton and Palmyra, NJ • Rutherford, NJ • Toledo, OH • Trenton, NJ

2001

• PPS publishes Public Parks, Private Partners, a guide to the revolution in public-private partnerships for park management begun by the Central Park Conservancy.

• Former Bogota Mayor Enrique Penalosa and Chicago Mayor Richard M Daley bring 500 participants to their feet at the seventh PPS-sponsored Urban Parks Conference, held in New York City.

• In the News: Ha'aretz, January 8, 2001. Invited by local environmentalists to evaluate urban areas of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Fred Kent and Kathy Madden caught the attention of the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.
• Where We Were: Baltimore, MD • Boston, MA • Chicago, IL • Cleveland, OH • Denver, CO • Hoboken, NJ • Mobile, AL • New York, NY • Ogden, UT • Omaha, NE • Portland, OR • Queens, NY • Salt Lake City, UT • San Mateo County, CA • Seattle, WA • Syracuse, NY

2002

• PPS launches its online newsletter, Making Places, to more widely promote the philosophy of Placemaking. Circulation increases from 3000 to 20,000 in its first three years.
• Culled from dozens of case studies on successful parks, plazas, square, streets, markets, and buildings, the Great Public Spaces website is launched, giving visitors the chance to debate the merits of particular public spaces and nominate their own favorites.
• The Fifth Public Market Conference draws 300 people to New York. The conference marks the beginning of PPS's work for the Ford Foundation to study and promote public markets as vehicles for economic development and social integration.
• David Burwell, reformed lawyer and former aide to Ralph Nader (not to mention the founder of the Surface Transportation Policy Project and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy), joins staff of PPS. He now directs the transportation program and strategic management.

• In the News: Hartford Courant, January 17, 2002. This editorial from transit advocate Tyler Smith gushed about the PPS-led community planning effort for revitalizing Hartford's historic Farmington Avenue.
• Where We Were: Atlanta, GA • Beaverton, CA • Bronx, NY • Brooklyn, NY • Cleveland, OH • Danville, CA • Fort Worth, TX • Mobile, AL • New York, NY • Philadelphia, PA • Poughkeepsie, NY • Queens, NY • San Diego, CA

2003

• Pouring through a mountain of more than a half-million photographs shot by PPS staff over 25 years, our web team compiles the PPS Image Collection, an online database of our best photos.

• PPS releases its first City Commentary, an overview of the state of public spaces in Barcelona that offers a scathing critique of the city's newest developments. Paris and London soon follow. New York City is slated for early 2005.
• A significant portion of Littleton, New Hampshire (pop. 5845) meets with PPS staff in local diners and watering holes, using Placemaking and traffic calming to enhance the quality and popularity of downtown. Innovative experiments with traffic cones and on-street striping test ideas before reconstruction of Main Street begins in 2006.

• The Croatian Prime Minister recognizes PPS's work in the city of Rijeka to help youth identify key public places in their community and implement improvements.

Shin-pei Tsay, a former strategy consultant and project manager for an Internet consulting company, joins PPS as marketing director. Shin-pei discovered PPS while working on her Masters of Science in Cities, Space and Society at the London School of Economics.

• Where We Were: Ann Arbor, MI • Arvada, CO • Berkeley, CA • Calgary, AB • Cleveland, OH • Denver, CO • Greensboro, NC • Hoboken, NJ • Holland, MI • Keyport, NJ • Littleton, NH • Minneapolis, MN • New Orleans, LA • New York, NY • Newark, NJ • Queens, NY • Santa Monica, CA

2004

• The Ninth Urban Parks Conference, held in London with partner GreenSpace, marks PPS's first conference held abroad.

• Architect and Planner Meg Walker returns to PPS after a five-year stint as Planning Director for the village of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. As Director of Design, she is expanding PPS's services to include Design Management and Project Supervision.
• Jay Walljasper, longtime editor of Utne Reader and current executive editor of the Dutch-based international news magazine Ode, joins the staff of PPS to enhance communications and publications.

• PPS's work in Eastern Europe and the Balkans expands to Serbia, leading to the creation of the first organic farmers market in the main square of the city of Novi Sad.
• PPS completes first phase of ContextSensitiveSolutions.org, a website funded by the Federal Highway Administration that will enable people in all 50 states--professionals, public officials, and laypeople interested in improving their local streets--to adopt a context-sensitive approach to street design.
• Where We Were: Bergen County, NJ • Des Moines, IA • Miami, FL • Raleigh, NC • Rotterdam • Seattle, WA • South Bend, IN • Tucson, AZ

2005

• After 21 happy years near Sheridan Square in New York's West Village, the 23 staff members of PPS head east to more spacious digs in the Audubon Society building at 700 Broadway, a landmark in eco-friendly building renovation, on the other side of Washington Square Park.
• Planning is furiously underway for a series of meetings to launch a national (and international) Placemaking movement. The first is slated for Seattle, followed by ones in the Midwest and New York.

Thank You!

Thank you to everyone who has supported our work over the years, from the staff of PPS.