Building Community, Creating Places [power point presentation, 7.3M]
Phil Myrick
Vice President and Director of Parks, Plazas and Campuses, Project for Public Spaces
www.pps.org

Meg Walker
Vice President and Director of Design, Project for Public Spaces, Inc.
www.pps.org

Thriving communities of the 21st Century will differentiate themselves by their lively neighborhoods and business districts, transportation options, cultural and re-creational attractions, great sense of place, protected natural areas and local character. In a down economy, it will be tempting to cut back on these planning ideas, thinking that they are frivolous, but disregarding these principles in the name of saving money can create a downward spiral that causes a local economy to lose its competitive edge.  Phil Myrick and Meg Walker discuss strategies to plan, design and develop communities that will attract investment and talk about some of the challenges in moving these types of projects forward. 

Phil Myrick is a certified planner whose expertise encompasses public space planning, Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS), downtown revitalization and facilitation. His recent projects include: a vision for Houston’s new Discovery Green park (opened in 2008); a concept plan for the 300-acre Metropolitan Park of Guadalajara, site of the 2011 Pan-American Games; an Urban Open Space Plan for downtown Tempe, AZ, including Tempe Papago Park and Town Lake, as well as walking and biking routes; a master plan for Congress Street, historically Tucson’s main downtown shopping street; and redevelopment guidelines for the Blount Street Historic District, a neighborhood in downtown Raleigh, NC.


Meg Walker directs work on new town centers and mixed-use development, focusing on the design and management of public spaces. She facilitates community workshops that engage the public in the planning process. Her projects range from master plans for new town centers and adaptive reuse of industrial sites, to waterfront and urban park design. She is a registered architect who worked for 15 years in private practice and for five years as the Planning Director for the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson.