placemaking: A tale of two cities

8/30/2014

Humans are creatures of place -- as much as we might travel, we can only be in one place at a time, and the quality, look, and feel of a place really matters! City planners, developers, health professionals, employers, and economists are finding that it's not just our own property that matters to us; public places make a difference in how we feel about living, working, and playing in a city. The term "placemaking" captures the dynamic sense of active involvement in creating the kinds of places where we love to be.

Whether we think about it or not, all of us are placemakers. In 2006, when the Project for Public Places asked people what they thought about placemaking, they got hundreds responses from all over the world. IN 2010, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the US Conference of Mayors (USCM), and the American Architectural Association (AIA) launched a creative placemaking initiative as a key strategy for revitalizing American cities.

In the US Capital Cities Metroplex, stretching through Baltimore and Washington DC from Belair to Fredericksburg and Hagerstown to Annapolis and the Eastern Shore, over 10 million people are placemaking in hundreds of neighborhoods in the fourth largest metro area in the US. In the two anchor cities, Baltimore and The District, placemaking is an active part of the urban livability agenda.

Baltimore

Baltimore's Inner Harbor is a model of placemaking based on natural assets. Led by the Downtown Partnership, Baltimore is launching a plan to create a network of public places linking 125 blocks of Downtown Baltimore. BMORE media features creative placemaking initiatives all over Baltimore.

the District

DC is placemaking at an astonishing pace, with few neighborhoods untouched by the transformation of public spaces. Union Kitchen is just one example of how placemaking works to revitalize local economies as well. CrowdsourceDC features DC triple-bottom-line placemaking initiatives.

Where are your favorite Capital Cities Metroplex neighborhoods? What placemaking initiatives are you involved in? What kind of placemaking initiatives would you like to see in your favorite neighborhoods?

3 Comments

Phil Jones link

9/14/2014 18:12:52

Placemaking and third places

Placemaking aligns closely with the idea of third places, "public places on neutral ground where people can gather and interact" (http://www.pps.org/reference/roldenburg/#biography).

The third places that resonate most within a community have often been forged through an evolutionary process. Consider, for example, a park that becomes home to a unique group or activity such as the District's Meridian Hill Park, which is home to a drum circle every Sunday that attracts hundreds of people to drum, play, dance, or relax in the park. The group, and the third place it has established, would likely evolve through the social will of its participants and supporters or else eventually dissolve.

The establishment of the third place is an organic process that could not likely be described so scientifically as to reproduce it in any community. However, the placemaking concept can be seen as one way to apply a practice to the creation of a third place. Alternately, it might be described as a path to an environment encouraging of the community in endeavors to create such third places.

A personal example

I am involved in an all volunteer non-profit called The Bike House, where we teach people how to fix their bikes through hands on clinics and classes. In line with the Project for Public Spaces' placemaking model (http://www.pps.org/reference/what_is_placemaking/), The Bike House was founded to be a comfortable, accessible, sociable place built around a central activity.

Nate Byer link

9/27/2014 00:55:28

Washington DC's NPR station (WAMU) has a really interesting series called Metro Connection that takes a sharp look at many of the opportunities and challenges facing thriving cities like the District and its surrounding suburbs and exurbs. This week, Metro Connection is exploring what being in a "thriving" city means for communities that have called the District home for many years and had to deal with past and present racial and economic divisions.

http://wamu.org/programs/metro_connection/14/09/26/this_week_on_metro_connection_the_g_word

One particularly interesting segment in this program that relates to the theory of placemaking is the discussion of the Anacostia Theater, an institution that got its roots on the now highly trafficked H St NE corridor. Build in 1980, the H St Playhouse ultimately succumbed to the normative "success" of the corridor, having to move because of rents. Now, the owners have reinvented the art space in Anacostia.

What did the playhouse mean for H St NE in 1980? The reality is that it probably meant a lot, or at least was correlated to a lot, when we look at the evolution of the street over the last 30 years.

What does it mean for Southeast Washington and the make-up of a community that is clearly thriving, but to-date has been relatively undervalued by developers and the legion moving into Shaw, Trinidad, and the Waterfront?

Whatever the answer, the inclusion of established arts and culture institutions, however small, is an important signal in determining the identity of a community. We should all continue to watch the Anacostia Playhouse and the community of established DC residents who call the historic part of the city home.

Patrick Dunn link

9/27/2014 03:49:26

City-Lab,

In the spirit of social entrepreneurship and community, a new client of mine in the restaurant business on the east coast is heavily vested in some of the shared kitchen developments in Northeast. They have an event on 10.02.14 (Thursday, I believe) at 703 Edgewood St, NE.

As of now, looks like I will be in attendance. Feel free to send to friends, colleagues, and other Ward 5 enthusiasts.

http://us7.campaign-archive2.com/?u=090e15659a27a6094a40a4cfc&id=be35b94580&e=d566464aa5

PD

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