• Reflections on 10 Years of the NYC plaza program

    Seventy-four public spaces have been created out of underutilized parts of the city street network in the last decade.
    In 2007, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PlanNYC made a bold commitment that all New Yorkers would live within a 10-minute walk of an open space. Rather than give that goal to the Parks Department as might seem obvious, the plan’s visionary crafters assigned it instead to the Department of...Read more

  • Placemaking is more than a niche market

    Placemaking is not a design endeavor. Or a business proposition. Or a public health pursuit. Or an equity concern. Or an avenue for culture and the arts. It’s all of these things.
    When I first developed my interest in placemaking twenty years ago it was driven by design. I was a brand advertising person which, by necessity, involves the study of behavior. Not just of people but of their context. Where and how people choose to live, I learned, provided a lot of insight into...Read more

  • Four types of placemaking

    Placemaking is the process of creating quality places that people want to live, work, play, and learn in.Read more