Sidewalks - Social Life Project

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.

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.

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.

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.

Amenities

Throwing (Good) Shade for Placemaking

Shade can become an intentional strategy — developed with communities, led by communities. If we do it right, the addition of shade in all its forms can have an enormous collective impact on walkability, Social Life, and climate resilience.

Sidewalks

What Happened to Small-Town Life and How to Recapture It

we found and learned from some truly wonderful examples of small-town social life, and it is these glimmers of hope that can lay the foundation for new attention to public spaces in smaller communities.

Brooklyn

Community Discussions: Montague Street Activation

Montague Street has a tired, old, not cared for feeling. There are multiple empty storefronts, uncared for buildings, limited to no seating, few places to gather, weak entranceways, few outdoor cafes, limited restaurant experience. All this was greatly impacted by the pandemic.

Sidewalks

Starting at the Corner: A New Haven Success Story

Areas around Yale exploded with social life this past summer and fall — coming alive in spite of COVID-19 — we couldn't help but notice and be reminded of our work there, years ago.

Architecture of Place

Porch Life: Building Social Neighborhoods

As "in-between" spaces, porches create a soft edge that mediates between individual and community, public and private, and in these times, offer a safe way to maintain our social, mental and physical health.

Top Ideas

To Save the Planet, Start With the Social Life of Sidewalks

Rich street life is no frill. It is an expression of the most ancient function of a city—a place for people to come together, all kinds of people, face-to-face. — William "Holly" Whyte

Sidewalks

Who Owns the Corner 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

Its the Sidewalks, Stupid

Paradigm-shattering change will happen when streets, sidewalks and intersections are transformed into community gathering spots through the simple act of giving human beings priority over motor vehicles.

Sidewalks

Creating the Streets We Want

Rich street life is no frill. It is an expression of the most ancient function of a city—a place for people to come together, all kinds of people, face-to-face. — William "Holly" Whyte

Streets

Turn Places "Inside Out" to Revive Social Connection and Local Economies

Thresholds where storefronts and buildings connect with the sidewalk —is the place to reunite communities and jump-start local economies after these long, hard months.