Planetizen and Project for Public Spaces want you to help us determine the best public spaces in the United States and Canada. Add your favorites to our list, and vote for other submissions to move them up in the rankings. The results will be published on October 20th, 2011.
Two years ago, we asked you, our esteemed Planetizen readership, to help us determine the Top 100 Urban Thinkers. With thousands of votes, the crowdsourced list was provocative, unique and – to our amazement – very comprehensive. We'd like to access that same collective brainpower for our latest venture, in collaboration with the experts in this area, Project for Public Spaces (PPS).
In evaluating thousands of public spaces around the world, PPS found that successful ones have four key qualities: they are accessible; people are engaged in activities there; the space is comfortable and has a good image; and finally, it is a sociable place: one where people meet each other and take people when they come to visit. Use these guidelines to help you choose your own selections, or use your own criteria to select your favorites.
Technically, there many examples out there of seemingly "public" spaces that are actually privately owned public open spaces, or POPOS. While the public/private distinction is interesting and sometimes problematic, we're going to ignore it for the purposes of this list. If Redwood Park, which is operated by the Transamerica Pyramid Building management in San Francisco is in your opinion one of the best spaces for the general public to gather and enjoy each other's company, feel free to nominate it. That said, let's draw the line at fully-enclosed private malls.
PPS offers another way to think about the success of public spaces, using the handy chart below. Imagine that the center circle on the diagram is a specific place that you know: a street corner, a playground, a plaza outside a building. You can evaluate that place according to four criteria in the red ring. In the ring outside these main criteria are a number of intuitive or qualitative aspects by which to judge a place; the next outer ring shows the quantitative aspects that can be measured by statistics or research.
For ideas, images and more, you can browse PPS' database of Great Public Spaces. For the purposes of this survey, we're not limiting the selections to, say, civic squares. A lot of the best public spaces today are pedestrian corridors, parks or markets.
If you're ready to vote, head over to publicspaces.ideascale.com and add your suggestions. You can also vote on other submissions. Voting will close in one month on 10/15, and we'll release the results shortly after.
Can Urban Design Truly Impact Loneliness?
Some theorists want to design cities to reduce loneliness and isolation. Others want to accommodate them.
How Cities Can Avoid Perpetuating Segregation
Residents of big cities, known as the ‘melting pots’ of America, have fewer interactions with people outside their socioeconomic group than those in smaller communities, according to new research.
What Would Cities Look Like if They Were Designed by Women?
Cities are built by men, and so too often urban design does not reflect the needs, perspectives, and realities of women.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
Malls are becoming the midtowns of the future
Mall and office park redevelopments are a generational opportunity to create new nodes of urbanity.
NYC breaks ground on anti-flooding infrastructure project
New York City's new system will reduce stormwater flows to local sewers by 90%.
One Kentucky town’s secret to affordable housing
The Smoketown Community Land Trust has already built seven affordable homes for community members.
Houston gains petal-shaped cooling infrastructure to make streets more ‘delightful’
The city has installed the pavilions along 15 blocks in Houston.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
