Streets

Streets as Places to Come Together: The Next Evolution for the Transportation Revolution

Getting our streets and sidewalks right means shifting our focus to the social life of our communities. Once community-led improvisation is a priority, we can take control of these spaces and make them active, inclusive, and just plain fun.

Architecture of Place

Porches: Where People's Lives Connect

"Of Porches there are two sorts: the decorative and the useful, the porch that is only a platform and the porch you can lie around on in your pajamas and read the Sunday Paper" – Garrison Keillor

Streets

What If We Planned Streets To Maximize Life?

Tweede Tuindwarsstraat, in the Jordaan District of Amsterdam, is a street that supports social life, drawing people to slow down and connect.

Great Public Spaces

Learning from Valletta, Malta A Treasured City on the Mediterranean

Valletta is a very dynamic and social place for locals and visitors. Its public spaces excel in ways from which every community can learn. It demonstrates the power of comfortable and well-connected gathering places in maintaining vibrant social life.

The Social Life of Space — Starting Extraterrestrial Planning With Spacemaking

For everyone who enjoyed the isolation of the pandemic, the resurgence of social life is a bit of a rude awakening.

Community Discussion

San Diego: A Waterfront Waiting to Happen Year, After Year, After Year

San Diego's central waterfront could be one of the best waterfronts in the world. But it will take some work. The good news is that its transformation can be started immediately, with publicly owned land along the existing waterfront – from streets to under-used open spaces!

Amenities

Why Focal Points are Essential for Great Squares

What a focal point is varies greatly with each square. Sometimes it is as simple as a good spot to sit, a fountain, or a statue on which kids can play and climb. The ones we are interested in are the ones that are swarming with people.

Architecture of Place

Balboa Park: San Diego's Global Destination

Ever changing. Always amazing. Where culture, science, and nature collide, It is home to more than 16 museums, performing arts venues, gardens and other attractions, including the San Diego Zoo on 1,200 acres.

Amenities

The Little Bollard That Could... Do a Lot

A simple tool that can make any city more walkable and pleasurable

Sidewalks

The Best Sidewalk in North America

Sidewalks are the foundation to making the social life of communities thrive. The best sidewalks share certain traits that make them welcoming, accessible, and socially active places.

Sidewalks

Who Owns the Intersection Defines the Social Life of Neighborhoods

You can tell a great city by its corners. If the intersection is owned by the vehicles, it is a city for cars and traffic. If the community controls the intersections/corners, it is a city of neighborhoods.

Streets

A Great Street: Buenos Aires' Calle La Defensa

Buenos Aires' Calle La Defensa is a memorable street any day—but especially on Sundays, when crowds gather to walk, shop, dance, eat and have fun interacting with the street performers.

Sidewalks

Two Buildings that Build Life: Fostering Sidewalk Social Life in Brooklyn and Paris

A building needs a base, At the street level, buildings with small shops that spill into the public space that has a plaza with a market or double-loaded sidewalk, buildings can come alive. What is outside becomes inside, and what is inside becomes outside.

Architecture of Place

Community Discussion: Creating the Heart of Brooklyn — Brooklyn Borough Hall, Court House, Cadman Plaza down to Fulton Landing

Few would argue with the statement that Brooklyn Borough Hall, Court House, and Cadman Plaza may be the most underperforming public spaces in New York City. Their potential is enormous.

Top Ideas

Social Life, How Can it Help Shape the Future of our Communities?

With people today longing to bond again with friends and family, it is becoming clearer that the foundation of our happiness and fulfillment is a rich social life. Reflections of Jay Walljasper.

Public Markets

The Magic of Holiday Markets

As you look at the best markets around the world, they are dynamic year-round destinations in the center for most cities. Bryant Park and Victualen Market in New York City and Munich are prime examples.

Remembering Don Miles

Don Miles was a long-time friend of ours and a founding board member of Project for Public Spaces in 1975. He passed away in Seattle on December 2, 2021.

Community Discussion

Seven Catalytic Placemaking Strategies: A Discussion about the Future of Vermont Downtowns

Restoring social life in Vermont starts with a rethinking of streets, public spaces and community institutions

Top Ideas

Discussion: Next Steps for the Global Placemaking Movement

Imagine if the places where we live were shaped for, and from, our social lives, re-imagined to make it easy for us to gather, shop, have fun, eat together, and be around people different from us. we would collectively have an impact on the health of our planet.

Havana's Resilient Social Life - Cuban Public Spaces Over the Years

With improving diplomatic relations between Cuba and the US, the country’s public space, and public life, is poised to evolve in new directions, for better and worse.

Amenities

Have a Seat? How Seating Shapes Welcoming Cities

Benches and seating are not objects; they are mirrors to our social behavior. We have seen it time and again, that where there is seating, there is life.

Great Public Spaces

Time-Honored Places: The Public Square

Public Spaces as squares are plazas in Spain, Latin America, and sometimes the U.S., piazzas in Italy, platz in German-speaking countries, and simply "square" everywhere in between. In many small towns they have the Village Green. In essence they are the main gathering places for people.

Waterfronts

Discussion - Brooklyn Promenade Social Seating and Cafe/Kiosk

The entire promenade is very stark and not very inviting except for the extraordinary view. By initially just adding a few items to experiment with, the community could see what might be possible in the future

Amenities

You are where you sit: Zurich shows us how

People thrive in place that reflect their personality and where they can be seen in ways that others understand something about who they are. Different people need different settings. Diversity of seating is a basic need and varies for each place.

Architecture of Place

Vancouver Community Discussion: Has Vancouver lost its Soul? Can they Create the Waterfront they Deserve?

Vancouver is no longer a small city along the west coast of North America. It has the highest population density in Canada. Two questions: Has it lost its soul? Can it create the great waterfront a great city deserves?