Focusing on Public Spaces

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Cities around the world are being transformed through placemaking and public spaces that build strong communities. To keep abreast of the latest trends and find more ways for Downtown to continue its transformation as a cultural and entertainment district, two DowntownDC BID executives traveled recently to enhance their knowledge. BID Executive Director Richard H. Bradley attended The Future of Places, an international forum held in Stockholm, Sweden, last week. The forum highlighted how and why cities must embrace a people centered approach to achieve positive urbanization and avoid falling victim to the negative attributes often accompanying urbanization. It was the first of three conferences that will lead up to Habitat III in 2016, with the overall aim of contributing to a new urban agenda around people and places.

“The information shared at the conference, about encapsulating the public realm and the people who utilize public spaces, speaks to what we’re doing in Downtown DC by creating more sidewalk cafes, working to reimagine Franklin Park as a vibrant and sustainable urban amenity and enlivening streets with initiatives such as the New York Avenue Sculpture Project.”

One of the speakers was Fred Kent, the founder and president of Project for Public Spaces, world renowned for helping cities create and sustain public places. Bradley has known Kent for more than 30 years. In 2008, Kent facilitated a day-long, placemaking workshop for the BID, the first step in developing a common framework and shared language about designing and managing public spaces. The next step in the process led to building partnerships with the array of agencies and organizations, including the Office of Planning, that have a hand in planning and monitoring the public realm.

In March, Rick Reinhard, the BID’s deputy executive director, joined a meeting in Detroit about that city’s placemaking vision for major public spaces in downtown. The plan, which Kent’s company helped develop and which he presented at the meeting, is considered a grand experiment made up of many small, human-scaled parts. “It was very interesting,” said Reinhard. “The focus is on re-orienting downtown around the pedestrian experience and incorporating installations, pop-ups, and other activities in key public spaces, all information that will help inform some of our decisions in Downtown DC as we move forward on a few projects to revitalize our core.”