Designing the places where we live and work, so that they are beautiful and welcoming to people and commerce alike - this simple idea is re-emerging to guide the revitalization of our marketplaces, waterfronts, bikeways, and neighborhood centers, in order to preserve and highlight local assets like historic buildings, urban gardens and waterfalls, or public art. Today, as climate change presses us to "re-localize" our lives and protect our local resources, the art and science of placemaking are evolving to meet new needs.  Landscape architecture is joining urban design and economic development to create strategies for cooling city centers; keeping water on the land; growing food, fiber, fuel and ornamental plants for local use; and making wise choices about the use and protection of flood-prone land.Nowhere is this challenge more central than in the planning of 21st century, people-friendly, environmentally advanced transportation systems.

Presentations (PDF)

Introduction (6Mb)

Tools of Transformation (8.2Mb)

Transportation Strategies (20Mb)

 

Placemaking in a Changing Climate is a new Master Class on these principles and methods.  It begins with a sophisticated overview of placemaking as practiced by PPS, and identifies the new elements that need greater attention as a result of climate change. A set of "tools of transformation" that reframe streets as places in their own right, are explored as ways tointegrate the best practices of placemaking into communities’ climateadaptation planning and to make more context-sensitive transportation solutions work in real communities. Offered by the Resource Center for Sustainable Communities, a partnership between Sustainable Hudson Valley and the Project for Public Spaces, this session will inform and inspire planners, developers, local officials, conservation councils, engineers, architects and landscape architects, and citizens.  The course serves professionals who are familiar with planning principles and practices, who are working on land use, transportation, infrastructure, natural resource protection, economic development, and revitalization.

Watch the site for fall schedule.

Length: 7 content hours + lunch break.

Instructors: Phil Myrick, AICP, Senior Vice President, Project for Public Spaces; Gary Toth, Director of Transportation Initiatives,Project for Public Spaces; Melissa Everett, Ph.D., Executive Director, Sustainable Hudson Valley.

Evaluation: Final 10-minute multiple-choice quiz; 10-minute single essay question on applying the principles covered in the day; and interactive evaluation of the program itself, using electronic keypad polling.

Fee: $150.00. Some partial scholarships available.

Registration: via surveymonkey by July 25.  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MFV57TM

Learning Goals:

• Understand the holistic and proactive framework of "placemaking" to create great places to live by designing public space to promote social interaction and other livability goals;

• Identify climate change impacts that influence the practice of placemaking including storm and flood risks, hydrogeology and water resource protection, heat island effect, and more reasons to use transit and non-motorized transportation, and learn sources of scientifically sound information on those impacts in their areas;

• Learn methods of addressing those impacts to reduce the carbon footprints of cities and to resilient communities with architecture, green infrastructure, economic asset-building and enhanced public participation in emergency preparedness and governance.

• Identify specific strategies for designing urban systems to take these principles into account, including the use of anchor projects and an architecture of place; working with streets as places that can accommodate varied activities; and engaging creativity through "lighter, quicker, cheaper" placemaking.

 

SCHEDULE   

 

9:00 a.m. Intros, housekeeping, agenda review etc.

 

9:15 - 10:45 Overview PPT

• Placemaking defined and illustrated

• Conditions of collaboration and coordination for competitive places

• Creative methods, e.g. Power of 10

Summary of climate change anticipated impacts in NY, and implications for placemaking / land use (Everett)

•accelerated need for transit, clean energy and efficient buildings

•cooling and heat island management

•water management and green infrastructure

•storm safety

Climate-smart response strategies+ new ingredients for Placemaking

•Transit, complete streets, TODtransit-orienteddevelopment

•Green infrastructure

•Resilient, sustainable, affordable architecture

•Economic asset building and preservation – "local first"

•Connected communities with strong communication, mutual aid, emergency response, self-reliance

 

11:00 – 12:00 Tools of Transformation – introduction to frameworks and techniques to make places more livable, with climate smart adaptations

• Anchor projects/architecture of place 20 min

• Streets as places -- 30mins

• Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper placemaking 10 min

 

12:00 - 1:15 "Lunch Plus" thematic table discussions and opportunities for networking

 

1:15 – 3:00 In-depth focus on transportation with Gary Toth

Streets as Places, principles and methods

Transit-Oriented Development – lessons learned on how to make it work

Understanding and working effectively with transportation agencies

Linking transportation planning with economic development and housing

 

3:15 – 4:00 Case study breakouts - focus on Mid-Hudson urban districts.  

4:00 – 4:30 Quiz, Evaluation, Wrapup discussion