How Placemaking Drives Resilient Cities - Project for Public Spaces http://www.pps.

org/reference/placemaking-drives-resilient-cities/

Dull, inert cities, it is true, do contain the seeds of

their own destruction and little else, (…) lively,
diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their
own regeneration, with energy enough to carry
over for problems and needs outside themselves.

– Jane Jacobs

A community’s connection to place is at the very heart of

resilience. In fact, resilience on its own has limited value if
residents feel little attachment to, or investment in, a place.
Placemaking is the process of building and nurturing this
relationship between people and their environment. Through a
broad focus on creating quality places, Placemaking builds the
shared value, community capacity, and cross-sector collaboration
that is the bedrock of resilient cities and thriving communities.

Thriving places have a direct impact on our ability to address

major societal challenges. As numerous studies have shown, a
strong sense of place is an important factor not only in our own
health and well being, but also in the physical and economic
health of our cities. Part of this experience of a place comes from
actively participating in the creation of its meaning and use—and
people are less likely to develop a strong relationship to, and
investment in, a place if there is a high risk of the place not being

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How Placemaking Drives Resilient Cities - Project for Public Spaces http://www.pps.org/reference/placemaking-drives-resilient-cities/

sustained. We need to focus on Placemaking in order to generate

resilience, just as resilience is necessary for investing in place.

The conversation on resilience has emphasized the importance of

creating smarter infrastructure and enhancing community
disaster preparedness. A resilient community also leverages its
investments for broader outcomes – this is what Dr. Judith Rodin
has dubbed “the resilience dividend.” Whether the goal is
improved transportation infrastructure, better utility networks
and civic technology investments, or sea level rise protection (see
the application of Placemaking and Resilience work in NYC’s
coastal areas for post-Sandy recovery), putting place, and the
creation of “place capital,” at the center of our policy and planning
frameworks can more effectively, and more cheaply, address
multiple issues at once.

Many movements and causes are starting to converge around place as a way to generate
innovative solutions and achieve multiple outcomes at once.

In creating self-sustaining places, Placemaking needs to be a

community-based process, not just a strategy or solution that has
been imposed and implemented by city leaders or planners.
Further, community members must not only feel like they belong
there, but that they can play an active part in its creation and
continued success. When approached in this way, Placemaking

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How Placemaking Drives Resilient Cities - Project for Public Spaces http://www.pps.org/reference/placemaking-drives-resilient-cities/

can be an essential factor in building a community’s social capital

as well as a sense of belonging amongst its residents.

A place-led agenda for cities, while still committed to securing

better services and infrastructure for its citizens, focuses as well
on strengthening a community’s capacity for disaster relief and
crisis management. Evidence and experience has shown that it is
this scale of governance that is most useful and effective during
times of emergency. Indeed, most of the aid that is generated
during disasters comes from existing social networks. At PPS, we
are seeing the intermingling of Placemaking and resilience
initiatives at various scales and in many contexts.

In Detroit, for example, Placemaking is becoming a vehicle that

enables all community members to contribute to and share in the
rebirth of their city. From long–time residents to young students
and artists, from small business owners to billionaire investors,
people of all ages, abilities, and socio-economic backgrounds are
coming together to contribute to the cultural, social, and physical
life of the place. The revival of Campus Martius Park, for example,
with an investment of $20million, anchored the resilience of
Downtown Detroit through the worst of the global financial crisis
and the near-collapse of the American auto industry. Vitally
transforming the city’s core, the success of this project had a
ripple effect throughout much of the city. In many ways, Detroit,
and the state of Michigan more broadly, are pioneering a model
for place-led development that can be adapted and applied in
cities across the country and throughout the world.

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How Placemaking Drives Resilient Cities - Project for Public Spaces http://www.pps.org/reference/placemaking-drives-resilient-cities/

With Downtown Detroit’s success anchored by place-led development, city residents and
neighborhood organizations are also using Placemaking to define and create new
neighborhood resources, such as area around Peaches and Greens grocery.

In Adelaide, Australia, a city seeking to build its resilience without

the impetus of disaster or deficits, Placemaking and place
governance have become a central strategy for building resilience
and community capacity over time. The crisis facing this
otherwise prosperous city is one of community investment and
shared responsibility. The city is in many ways seeking to
replicate the place governance of more informal, limited resource,
parts of the world. It is devolving governance to the district and
community-scale, and the measure of success for each sector is
based on its continued production of place capital and community
capacity.

In addition, through our work

with UN-Habitat and the Future of
Places partnership we forged, to
advance public space, place, and
Placemaking agendas in global
policy initiatives, it has become
clear that issues of sustainability,
resilience, and place are especially
Placemaking has become a cross-
urgent in the fast developing and cutting agenda for defining how we
rapidly urbanizing Global South. work together to shape cities. Click

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How Placemaking Drives Resilient Cities - Project for Public Spaces http://www.pps.org/reference/placemaking-drives-resilient-cities/

image above to download PPS’s report

In these highly social
for UN-Habitat, Placemaking & The
environments, adopting a Future of Cities.

place-led development agenda can

be an effective way to generate the kind of investments and
outcomes that are necessary for building healthy, equitable and
resilient communities.

As Jane Jacobs once observed: “Dull, inert cities, it is true,

do contain the seeds of their own destruction and little else, (…)
lively, diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their own
regeneration, with energy enough to carry over for problems and
needs outside themselves.” Indeed, what is often missed in
top-down planning and policy—or upstaged by the loud voices
and competing interests that generally dominate the
discussion—is a community’s own capacity to evolve and
self-govern.

It is only by focusing on our capacity to sustain and create places

that we will find real and integrative solutions to the most
st
pressing concerns of the 21 century. Not a single one of the
major challenges facing today’s cities—whether it’s poverty,
environmental degradation, social segregation, transportation, or
inequality—exists in isolation of the others. A focus on
Placemaking offers a practical, proactive, and integrated
approach for addressing global change and resilience at every
scale.

Author: Ethan Kent

Keep your finger on the pulse–sign up for Placemaking News

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