This newsletter from the Project for Public Spaces [1] connects people who share a passion for public spaces to ideas and issues, news, quotes, places, and events from the placemaking movement.

EDRA Great Places Awards [2]

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Nominations are now open for the Great Places Awards, a unique program from the Environmental Design Research Association and Project for Public Spaces that honors professional and scholarly excellence in environmental design.

Applications are due February 5th, and awards are given across a range of categories, including place design, planning, research, books, and public art. Submit now. [2]

Survey • Market Cities Initiative Feedback [3]
Project for Public Spaces' Market Cities Initiative has been busy producing webinars, reports, and articles about strengthening citywide public market networks. Give us your feedback on what we've been up to this year to focus our efforts in 2021!

From the Blog

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Our Top 10 Articles of 2020 [4]

In case you missed it, before the break we pulled together this roundup of our 10 most popular articles of 2020. Together, they explore what this watershed year of pandemic upheaval and protests for racial justice has meant for public space and placemaking in the year ahead. Read more. [4]

More from the Blog

Winter Placemaking During a Pandemic: Six Ideas from Around Canada [5]
December 11, 2020

The Power of Placemaking through Corporate Social Responsibility [6]
November 16, 2020

Seven Principles for Becoming a Market City [7]
October 30, 2020 • by Kelly Verel

Public Space News

A Mob Takes the Capitol. After rioters supporting President Trump took over the U.S. Capitol earlier this week, many are asking how it was so easy to breach. This summer, Black Lives Matter demonstrators were met with a massive show of force from the same officers that let the mob through on Wednesday. (CityLab [8])

However, as Tanvi Misra of Curbed points out, "None of this will go away if more public spaces are further fenced off and boarded up. As long as disproportionate force is used against the people who want to declare their humanity, and those who want to deny that humanity are escorted gently out the doors they have just destroyed, the fundamental institutions of American society will continue to replicate the violent myth that only certain lives matter." (Curbed [9])

Looking Back, Looking Forward. At the end of the year, several outlets looked back on how 2020's pandemic reshaped public space, (ArchDaily [10]) community engagement, (CityLab [11]) and city planning. (Planetizen [12])

Meanwhile, others are wondering whether these changes will be permanent or just a flash in the pan. Will open streets stay open? (Fast Company [13]) Will the choice of remote working transform downtowns? (New York Times [14]) Will cities permanently reclaim their public spaces for community well-being? (The Conversation [15]) Only time will tell.

Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again? While President Trump's "Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture" executive order may not last under President Biden, Trumps appointments to various federal commissions could still make Classical architecture the style of choice for federal buildings both in DC and around the country. (CityLab [16])

Cabinet Picks That Could Reshape Public Space. After President-Elect Joe Biden announced that Pete Buttigieg would be his nominee for Transportation Secretary, Buttigieg vowed to dismantle urban freeways that were built to destroy Black communities. (StreetsBlog USA [17])

Meanwhile, Biden's nominee for Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, could signal stronger protections for public lands, including greater respect for the claims of American Indian and Alaskan Native communities. (Brookings [18])

Placemaking Playbook

Here is a roundup of 10 inspiring placemaking ideas from our holiday break:

The one-minute city (CityLab [19])
Four steps to creating inclusive, anti-racist third places (Planning Magazine [20])
Juneau, Alaska's bid to become an epicenter for Indigenous art (Smithsonian [21])
New York's nicest public bathroom (New York Times [22])
The year of the neighborhood—if you had the privilege (Slate [23])
Igloos, iceless curling, and other winter adaptations in New York (New York Times [24])
A visual history of mutual aid (CityLab [25])
Destiny Thomas's case for abolishing city planning (StreetsBlog USA [26])
The symbiosis between sustainable transportation and seating (StreetsBlog USA [27])
The decriminalization of jaywalking (Virginia Mercury [28])

In Memoriam: Jay Walljasper

We were sad to hear over the holiday that our friend and colleague Jay Walljasper has passed away [29]. Jay was a lifelong writer on strengthening communities, and a chronicler of the early days of the placemaking movement [30], among many other passions. In 2007, Jay also worked with Project for Public Spaces to write The Great Neighborhood Book [31], which helped popularize a lighter, quicker, cheaper approach to placemaking.

We will miss his curiosity, his drive to connect the dots between people and movements, and his ability to crystallize many disparate observations into something simple and beautiful. In his final article [32], Jay leaves us with an important reminder to rediscover the joys right under our noses:

"While bucket lists are useful, even more valuable would be an inventory of familiar things all around that nourish happiness. The prizes I notice too seldom in the landslide of daily life."

Illustration by Eric Hanson, Notre Dame Magazine.

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