Project for Public Spaces

Great Cities Initiative

Through 30 years of helping people improve places in their communities, PPS has honed a comprehensive set of services based upon common-sense insight into the way places function. Our work is grounded in on-site analysis and offers a unique community-based approach to revitalization. The Great Cities Initiative assembles these services into a step-by-step program that any town, city, or region can systematically apply to improve its neighborhoods place by place.

The first step in any implementation of the Great Cities Initiative is to evaluate the area's key places, determining which have the greatest potential to affect surrounding communities. By training local citizens, public officials, and professionals in the principles of Placemaking, PPS lays the groundwork for analyzing how the places identified could be improved. These local leaders then form teams to conduct PPS's Place Game in the targeted areas, using the results to guide short-term experiments and catalyst projects. Publicizing these results through the web, using a Community Online Resource Center built by PPS, allows the wider community to participate and creates momentum for further improvements. PPS can then help communities translate this momentum into new, long-term management strategies to guide physical improvements, maintenance, and event programming for the revitalized places.

Whether used all together or implemented in customized packages, these services are the core of the Great Cities Initiative:

Presentation and Public Space Assessment
A city-wide public space assessment that highlights successful places and sheds light on areas that need improvement. This comprehensive evaluation reveals the opportunities inherent in specific public spaces and identifies the key obstacles to their improvement.

"How to Turn a Place Around" Workshop

  • Brings together constituents, officials, and professionals to acquire the skills of Placemaking.
  • Instills key leaders with a creative and constructive way of working together to revitalize communities.

Targeted Professional Training
Engages practitioners through more specialized training in:

  • Transportation: Context Sensitive Solutions
  • Parks: Partnerships and Placemaking
  • Building Design: Civic Design to Support Place
  • Public Markets: Markets as Vehicles for Economic Development

Neighborhood Place Game Workshops

  • Engages neighborhoods and targeted constituencies around their public spaces
  • Trains local leaders to run place game workshops on their own.

Surveys and Outreach

  • Analyzes usage patterns of public spaces
  • Engages students in gathering usage data
  • Findings contribute to visioning process

Community Online Resource Center

  • Records and publicizes findings, commentary, and visions for specific places
  • Engages a larger audience
  • Connects users to online Placemaking resources and tools
  • Fosters communication among sponsoring organizations

Demonstration and Catalyst Projects

  • Develops a program of experiments and implementation
  • Communicates broader vision
  • Sees PPS placemaking projects to completion
  • Guides creation of management and programming efforts

Ongoing Community Support
Following completion of initial PPS placemaking projects, local residents, public officials, and professionals coordinate to lead long-term placemaking efforts. These local teams conduct regular evaluations and improvements, while PPS provides them with ongoing support and technical assistance.

To discuss implementing the Great Cities Initiative in your town, city, or region, call Ethan Kent at (212) 620 5660 or e-mail ekent@pps.org.