The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
Placemaking is the act of people coming together in their physical environment to deliberately design, plan, program and maintain public spaces to facilitate social interaction and improve quality of life. Places in the Making, MIT 2013
9
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 6 June 2014
Location?
• Place beguiles us – park, beautiful image. Beauty beauty beauty
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Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 6 June 2014
Location?
• Place seduces us (paris and lovers)
11
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 6 June 2014
Location?
• Place connects us (playing, park bench, etc.)
In the long history of human settlement, public places have reflected the needs and cultures of community Places in the Making, MIT 2013
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
But along the way, something went very wrong…
Communities lost the tradition and practice of having a local and active political voice.
19
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 6 June 2014
Desolate plaza
Citizens should show humility in the face of expertise. American Political Science Association, 1914
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
Today’s Placemaking? • supports community
health and safety • seeks social justice • catalyzes economic
development • Promotes
environmental sustainability
• supports arts and culture
• nurtures an authentic “sense of place”
• sparks public discourse • engenders civic pride • connects
neighborhoods
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
…and the tendency to focus on the physical characteristics does disservice to the ways the placemaking process nurtures our communities and feeds our social lives.
Fargo Moorhead StreetsAlive
Story #1: How a temporary event caused
permanent change
Fargo Moorhead StreetsAlive
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The Event: Streets Alive Fargo ND and Moorhead MN • Ciclovia-type event on closed
loop between two cities • 9,000 participants on two days
each summer • Using event to speak to
conservative political climate • Healthy living intro to life
beyond the automobile • Funding from health care
foundations • Transformative effect on
comprehensive planning
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
Source: http://missionlocal.org
Story #2: Transforming outrage into constructive
community action
Source: http://missionlocal.org
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The Transportation Project: Guerrero Park San Francisco, CA • Community activism at the
right time and in the right place
• Transformation of six lanes of pavement into neighborhood park
• Collaboration around designing, fundraising, programming and maintaining park has empowered community
• Use of temporary elements lowers cost and barriers to action
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
Story #3: Pushing back on public regulations and
policies
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The Temporary Intervention Project Team Better Block Norfolk VA • Pushes back on
regulation-heavy zoning and barriers to vibrancy
• Promotes borrowing, making and bartering as way to build community ties and social capital
• Encourages entrepreneurship
• Helps communities to vision alternatives
• Smoothes path to regulatory changes in city government
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
Story #4: from “asking” to “doing”
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
These deliberative and communal processes of shaping public spaces are changing the physical, political and social landscape of the past century
Communities are developing a local and active political voice in our increasingly privatized public realm that has been controlled by “experts”
Bryant Park photo courtesy of Rebecca Disbrow
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The iterative actions and collaborations inherent in the making of places nourish communities and empower people.
This widening emphasis away from the product to focus on the process recognizes the long-term importance of nurturing community capacity and local leadership.
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
This mutual stewardship of place and community is the virtuous cycle of placemaking.
In this mutual relationship, communities transform places, which in turn transform communities, and so on.
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
Places in the Making, MIT 2013 Places in the Making, MIT 2013
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
Three themes emerge from the MIT research… 1. Placemaking is about more than soliciting initial community input and then moving forward in a linear process: the making process is iterative and never finished: • Designing • Programming • Maintaining • Funding
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
2. Agile places respond to financial constraints and top down regulations: the rise of tactical urbanism • Park(ing) Day • Better Block • City Repair • Lighter, Quicker,
Cheaper • Chair Bombing • StreetsAlive
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
3. The new collaborators: public-private partnerships • But NOT the typical
partnerships we have known in the past! New relationships offer:
• Public support for tactical urbanism
• Temporary projects as pilots for larger initiatives
• Programming and maintenance partners
• Scalable initiatives
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The new model of placemaking emphasizes flexibility, embraces impermanence, shares information, and draws on unorthodox sources for influence. Through the process of collaboration and action, we become makers of places, rather than consumers of places.
Photo courtesy of Janet Century for Neighborhood Connections
ONE AND ONLY ONE PLAN
MAKING A PLAN
ONE AND ONLY ONE PLAN
MAKING A PLAN
OTHER ACTORS
AND INFLUENCES
CITY STATE
FUNDERS POTENTIAL PARTNERS
PLACEMAKING “SPACE”
Thought interaction resources ideas structure encouragement collaboration demonstration
55
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 6 June 2014
Why now? • Builds community social and
political capital • Fast tracks change in face of
top-down and often-restrictive regulations
• Built-in accountability – those who act gain authority
• Efficient use of resources in resource-scarce environment
• Enables government to provide support in alternative ways (not only dependent on $)
• Reliance on a broad mix of partners and actors to achieve results – better chance of success!
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Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 6 June 2014
In the mutual stewardship of place and community, communities transform places, which in turn transform communities, which
in turn transform our cities and the world.
Places in the Making: How placemaking builds places and communities
UNECE Vital Public Spaces Geneva, Switzerland
24 February 2015
@SusanSilberberg @MITdusp
#placemaking
Susan Silberberg
Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC
http://dusp.mit.edu/cdd/project/placemaking