With the advent of the new year, top ten lists are all the rage. The only problem is, most of them look backwards at what happened in 2010. I’ve always been a forward-looking person, so instead of reflecting on what was I’ve decided to focus to the year ahead with top 11 lists for 2011.
On Monday, I posted a list of 11 new years anti-resolutions; today, I’m returning to may passion for urbanism and placemaking, with 11 principles that we should all keep in mind in the year ahead.
The list below is an abridged version of an article first posted on Project for Pubic Spaces (PPS). PSS is a great resource is a great resource for those of us interested in helping people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger communities.
Eleven Principles for Creating Great Community Places
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The Community Is The Expert
The important starting point in developing a concept for any public space is to identify the talents and assets within the community…
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Create a Place, Not a Design
If your goal is to create a place (which we think it should be), a design will not be enough… The goal is to create a place that has both a strong sense of community and a comfortable image…
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Look for Partners
Partners are critical to the future success and image of a public space improvement project…They can be local institutions, museums, schools and others.
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You Can See a Lot Just By Observing
By looking at how people are using (or not using) public spaces and finding out what they like and don’t like about them, it is possible to assess what makes them work or not work. [ED, this was Jane Jacobs modus operendi]
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Have a Vision
…essential to a vision for any public space is an idea of what kinds of activities might be happening in the space, a view that the space should be comfortable and have a good image, and that it should be an important place where people want to be…
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Start with the Petunias: Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper
…The best spaces experiment with short term improvements that can be tested and refined over many years! Elements such as seating, outdoor cafes, public art, striping of crosswalks and pedestrian havens, community gardens and murals are examples of improvements that can be accomplished in a short time.
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Triangulate
“Triangulation is the process by which some external stimulus provides a linkage between people and prompts strangers to talk to other strangers as if they knew each other” (William Holly Whyte)
In a public space, the choice and arrangement of different elements in relation to each other can put the triangulation process in motion (or not). For example, if a bench, a wastebasket and a telephone are placed with no connection to each other, each may receive a very limited use, but when they are arranged together along with other amenities such as a coffee cart, they will naturally bring people together (or triangulate!)….
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They Always Say “It Can’t Be Done”
“If they say it can’t be done, it doesn’t always work out that way.” (Yogi Berra)
Creating good public spaces is inevitably about encountering obstacles, because no one in either the public or private sectors has the job or responsibility to “create places.”…Starting with small scale community-nurturing improvements can demonstrate the importance of “places” and help to overcome obstacles.
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Form Supports Function
The input from the community and potential partners, the understanding of how other spaces function, the experimentation, and overcoming the obstacles and naysayers provides the concept for the space. Although design is important, these other elements tell you what “form” you need to accomplish the future vision for the space.
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Money Is Not the Issue
This statement can apply in a number of ways… if the community and other partners are involved in programming and other activities, this can also reduce costs. More important is that by following these steps, people will have so much enthusiasm for the project that the cost is viewed much more broadly and consequently as not significant when compared with the benefits.
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You Are Never Finished
By nature good public spaces that respond to the needs, the opinions and the ongoing changes of the community require attention…
Be sure to read the whole article HERE.
I hope that you are able to incorporate at least a few of these principles into your work, community advocacy and/or thought processes in the year ahead. Placemaking doesn’t occur in a vacuüm, it takes all of us to work constantly at creating the type of places we want for our communities.