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Take control of your public space

Project for Public Spaces just released everything you need to know about reclaiming your public space.
Written by Sonya James, Contributor

Thanks to an inspired re-interpretation of Fast Company's 7 Ways to Disrupt Your Industry, Project for Public Spaces (PPS) has released all the info you need to transform the unused, dangerous, or down-right ugly public spaces in your neighborhood.

Seven Ways to Disrupt Your Public Space applies the pioneering principle of PPS: Placemaking.

"Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces," writes PPS. "Put simply, it involves looking at, listening to, and asking questions of the people who live, work and play in a particular space, to discover their needs and aspirations."

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"True Placemaking begins at the smallest scale," writes PPS.

The Metropolitan Planning Council of Chicago describes Placemaking as having the "potential to be one of the most transformative ideas of this century.”

The idea is not new - it draws from the work of Jane Jacobs and Willian (Holly) Whyte. But at a time when community stakeholders have so few avenues to affect change in their neighborhoods, subverting the conventions that planners, designers, and engineers are taught becomes essential.

Placemaking seeks to transcend "looking at communities through the narrow lens of single-minded goals or rigid professional disciplines," writes PPS. "The first step is listening to best experts in the field—the people who live, work and play in a place."

The basic premise is simple - it is what Jane Jacobs and William "Holly" Whyte preached: design cities that cater to people, not to cars and shopping centers. Take that into the realm of public spaces both small and large, and the urban landscape will thrive on both social and aesthetic levels.

Because in the end, cars and shopping centers are not alive, they don't have feelings, they are just things. Seems obvious.

Without further ado, 7 Ways to Disrupt Your Public Space:

1) Identify and eliminate your place’s persistent visitor pain points.

If there’s a place in your neighborhood that seems forlorn or forgotten, there are probably just a few key things about it that don’t work for the people who live nearby. In the words of Yogi Berra, you can see a lot just by observing–so watch how people use the space when are there, and try to figure out what the most glaring impediments are: maybe it’s an unnecessarily obtrusive fence, or a lack of shade. There are plenty of reasons for people to stay home (TV, video games, the internet, et al), so public spaces have to be fun and easily accessible to be successful at drawing them out. Find your space’s ‘pain points,’ and wipe them out first.

2) Dramatically reduce complexity

When a public space is over-programmed, people can feel it, and it tells them to look elsewhere when they just want to find a place to relax. Good management is critical to the success of a public space, and that means striking the right balance between programmed activities and open, flexible space. Modern life is hyper-scheduled–communities need places for people to come together and experience the unique pleasures of just sharing some space with their neighbors.

3) Cut costs 90 percent or more: think Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper.

You don’t need to make major capital improvements to a place to make it feel radically different when it’s already underused. In fact, Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper improvements are often much more productive when you’re starting out. It’s easier to get people using a space by hosting play days, planting petunias, and setting out movable folding chairs and tables than it is to raise funds for a new design. Ask yourself: “How might this community want to use this space, and what’s the most efficient, immediate way to make that possible?” LQC allows you to try many different things before sinking big money into permanent improvements.

4) Make stupid places smart.

The same digital toys that keep people on couches when a space isn’t functioning well enough to offer a compelling alternative can also be used to get them plugged into their public spaces now. Using Digital Placemaking tools is a great way to reach people on their smartphones and computers (where they are) and engage them in a discussion of how they want to use a nearby public space. Once they see LQC changes happening that reflect their input, they’ll be much more invested in the long-term process of turning a forgotten space into a great gathering place.

5) Teach your stakeholders to talk.

Silo-busting is critical to the success of public spaces. To create places that are responsive to the needs of people, you need to make sure that people are communicating with each other. When mapping out your revitalization strategy, consider every local organization and business as a potential partner. See if they’re willing to help you generate ideas for your space by reaching out to their customers. No one organization or individual can create a strong sense of place for a neighborhood; either people work together do what’s best for the community, or you lose any sense of civic life.

6) Be utterly inclusive.

Fast Company recommends utter transparency, but when it comes to public spaces, it’s probably better to think of this pointer in terms of inclusiveness.  People need to be directly involved with changes being made to their public spaces, so if you are leading a local charge to revamp a space, it’s crucial that you remember that the community is always the expert when you’re developing a vision for the future of a place. An inclusive process is inherently transparent.

7) Make loyalty dramatically easier than disloyalty.

When it comes time to kick back and relax, people often have plenty of choices–many of them across town. Placemaking is as much about the process as it is about the product, since you can only create a great community gathering place by working directly with the community that you want to gather. When people can meet their needs for socialization and relaxation right in their own neighborhood, they keep coming back, engendering a deeper sense of community as social ties grow stronger through the small change of casual interaction.

From PPS: "The inner ring represents key attributes, the middle ring intangible qualities, and the outer ring measurable data."

[via: Project for Public Spaces]

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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