Home ›

Project for Public Spaces

What We Do:

Training & Education: Our programs provide practical skills and inspiration to people who want to improve their city, town or neighborhood. We train everyone from transportation engineers, architects and developers to city officials and community activists all over the world. Our public training courses immerse participants in the streets, parks, and markets of New York City, while our custom training focuses on subjects and innovative ideas that fit a specific group.

Planning & Design: Placemaking is not just the act of building or fixing up a space, but a holistic approach to creating vital public destinations that promote community commitment and involvement. What sets our method apart is that we truly put people first. We determine how the community wants to use a place before we begin any part of the design process. That way, when the project is implemented, it reflects the community's desires and serves their specific needs.

Research & Advocacy: We publish books, reports, videos, and a free bi-montly newsletter "Making Places" about current public space issues. We maintain resources - case studies, articles, images - in over 50 categories; many of these resources are available at www.pps.org.

Making great public spaces the norm rather than the exception depends on introducing policy-makers at al levels of government to new ideas and approaches. We also advocate for change within professions, showing how architects, planners, transportation engineers, and others can incorporate a Placemaking approach in their work.

 



Bookmark and Share
“
In short, we’ve seen the last of the cheap oil on which we’ve built our economy, our communities, and our daily lives.
”