Creative Placemaking

The Top "ArtPlaces" in the U.S.

ArtPlace — a collaboration of foundations, banks, and federal agencies that supports creative placemaking projects — has released a new study that identifies 12 neighborhoods across the country as America's Top ArtPlaces 2013.

January 7, 2013 - ArtPlace

Running shoes

Sparking Creativity in Walkable Places

Happiness and health are generated or depleted by the way our neighbourhoods, towns, cities, and rural landscapes are developed. Creative placemaking adds to walkable urbanism by sealing the deal on physical, mental, and social well-being.

November 17, 2012 - PlaceShakers

Tough Questions for Creative Placemakers

The process by which creative types colonize a distressed neighborhood, making it safe for hipsters and developers, has become a common template for urban revitalization efforts. Neeraj Mehta asks who is served, and who isn't, by these forces.

October 30, 2012 - Next American City

Creative Placemaking Gets Infusion of New Funding

Creative placemaking, or investing in arts and culture as a way to improve quality of place and stimulate vibrancy, is getting a new boost as ArtPlace announces another round of funding.

September 4, 2012 - ArtPlace

Home at Last: Creative Communities Become Their Own Developers

Emily Badger explains how a Minneapolis-based non-profit organization is working to break the cycle of gentrification within artist communities by helping to create and preserve affordable space for artists and arts organizations.

August 17, 2012 - Fast Company

Creative Placemaking Sweeps the Nation

2,200 cities, counties and arts orgs applied to ArtPlace to fund their creative placemaking projects in 2012. 47 projects, ranging from an arts campus in rural Sitka, Alaska to a series of "aerial nets" along a Philadelphia waterfront, made the cut.

June 12, 2012 - ArtPlace

What Does "Creative Placemaking" Look Like?

Launched one year ago, ArtPlace works to accelerate creative placemaking by making grants and loans. So what does that actually look like on the ground? A new video from ArtPlace gives a glimpse of what they've accomplished so far.

May 16, 2012 - ArtPlace

"Civic Action" Examines Art's Role In Development

The Noguchi museum in New York has asked four artists to take a crack at city planning by offering a new way of interpreting the construction of urban fabric. Martha Schwendener evaluates the results.

December 10, 2011 - The New York Times

Revitalization Strategy #1: Giant Elephant Puppet

The French city of Nantes was for generations an industrial shipbuilding center, but that business gasped its last breath in 1987. City leaders began working then to reimagine the city, and part of that visions is, yes, a mechanical elephant.

October 4, 2011 - The New York Times

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.

Professor of Urban Planning

Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Transportation Planner I

KFH Group Inc.

Director, Strategy and Research

Greater Baltimore Committee

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.