Weekly Placemaking Round-Up | September 18 - 24, 2017 - Project for Public Spaces

Posted September 25, 2017 - 04:48

Here is the latest issue this new weekly roundup of news, ideas, opportunities, and more - a curated list of content for placemakers by placemakers - from the Project for Public Spaces.

This Week's Highlights:
September 18 - 24, 2017

In the aftermath of a devastating flood in 2008, the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa found an unexpected opportunity to reinvent itself. Soon after the disaster, PPS helped create plans for a new public market that would re-energize the city’s economic core, and since its opening in 2012, NewBo City Market has played a key role in the downtown's ongoing transformation. As natural disasters like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma promise to increase in magnitude and frequency, the story of this Midwestern city offers a hopeful model for how cities can plan for resilience, and even use disaster as a springboard for positive change.

Topics: Public Markets, Placemaking & Resilience
Can Buford Highway, the most dangerous road in Georgia, become a walkable place for the immigrant communities that call it home? This is the goal of a recent plan, funded by the Atlanta Regional Commission, to “address connectivity, affordable housing, and pedestrian safety” on six miles of Buford Highway--but it may take up to ten years. In the meantime, an organization called We Love BuHi is using public art and placemaking to build trust between planners and the communities who will be most impacted by the street’s redevelopment.

Topics: Streets as Places, Creative Placemaking, Gentrification
How can open-source software change how we think about and design urban spaces? A recently-released tool called Urban Pulse, developed at NYU, uses data from Flickr and Twitter to map how people move through cities. By pinpointing how, when, and by whom city spaces are most often used, this information can help guide design decisions, and down the line, these tools could help address urban challenges caused by rapid growth, such as underutilization, gentrification, and poor transportation.

Topics: Digital Placemaking

More Placemaking Stories & Ideas

Paris's Car Debate Gets Personal (CityLab)
New Tactical Urbanism Guide Helps Cities Do Community-Led Placemaking (StrongTowns)
Brookings Thinks Pittsburgh Can Become a "Global Innovation City" (Technical.ly Philly)
Ten Key Ingredients of a Green and Healthy Community (PlaceShakers)

Events and Opportunities

Event: EcoMobility World Festival and EcoMobility Congress 2017 (Kaohsiung, Taiwan: Festival, Oct 1-30; Congress, October 2-4, 2017)
Conference: Place Invaders - Kitchen Table Conference (Adelaide, AUS, October 6, 2017)
Conference: "Black in Design: Designing Resistance, Building Coalitions," Harvard Graduate School of Design (Cambridge, MA, October 6-8, 2017)
Conference: Green Building Convention 2017 (Cape Town, South Africa, October 9-11, 2017)
Conference: Placemaking Week 2017 in Amsterdam (October 10-14, 2017)
RFI: Aspen Mobility Lab (Deadline: October 13, 2017)
Conference: World Urban Parks European Congress 2017 (Wirral, UK, October 16-19, 2017)
Training: How to Create Successful Markets at PPS Office in NYC (October 27, 2017)
Conference: ACT Canada Sustainable Mobility Summit 2017 (Region of Peel, CAN, October 29-November 1, 2017)
Conference: Placemaking LatinoAmérica (November 6-9, 2017)

Instagram of the Week

Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen
Opened in 1843 as a "pleasure garden," Tivoli Gardens is still thriving as one of the main attractions in Copenhagen. It is the most visited theme park in Scandinavia, and the fifth most visited in the world. Be sure to check out Fred Kent's Instagram shots at pps_placemaking.

Have something to share? Please send your placemaking stories, news, job openings, grants, awards, calls for proposals, and events to [email protected] today. We'll be sure to give you a tip of the hat.

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Weekly Placemaking Round-Up | September 18 - 24, 2017 - Project for Public Spaces