Great public spaces are places people want to gather, thriving public places that together form a strong sense of community. They are the places we remember vividly, the places where serendipitous things happen, the places we tell stories about. Without them, there would be no great cities.
Join Fred Kent, international expert on creating great public places, Tuesday June 27 for an engaging and interactive workshop: Placemaking: the art of creating great public space. The forum, hosted by the City of Bellingham, is scheduled for 7-9 p.m. June 27 at the Mt. Baker Theatre’s Studio Theatre.
Kent is a leading authority on revitalizing city spaces and a foremost thinker on in livability, smart growth and the future of the city. He is founder and president of Project for Public Spaces (PPS), a non-profit organization specializing in creating and sustaining public places that build communities. For more than 25 years, PPS has worked with 1,500 clients throughout the world, helping to grow public spaces into vital community places with creative programs, interesting uses, people-friendly settings, and social and economic rejuvenation.
At the June 27 public forum, Kent will show examples of successful public spaces, present ideas and themes for creating great public spaces, and lead a discussion about how these qualities can be applied in Bellingham. For more information, call Bellingham Planning and Community Development at 676-6880, or visit the Project for Public Spaces website at www.pps.org
The public forum is part of Kent’s multi-day consulting visit with the City of Bellingham. He also will provide an intensive two-day training session to 70 city staff, members of city boards and commissions, and others.
Bellingham Mayor Mark Asmundson has first-hand experience with Project for Public Spaces’ work. Last month he participated in a Project for Public Spaces workshop in New York City, spending several days listening to new ideas, learning about how people use parks, sidewalks, plazas and public buildings, and looking at these facilities with a fresh vision.
He says it is the most valuable training he has ever attended in his 20-plus years as a public official. By the time he left New York City, he had plans to bring Project for Public Spaces to Bellingham, and have the “art of great public spaces” inspire our waterfront, downtown and other public development efforts.
“Great downtowns fill cities with life, and succeed when people come first,” he said. “If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places.”
“Bellingham is in the midst of great opportunity and transition. We have to look at our community in new ways to realize our vision of a livable, walkable, lovable city of the future,” he said. Asmundson said he is particularly excited to apply these principles to revitalizing Bellingham’s waterfront.
Among the many new insights he gained, he learned successful public places have four qualities: accessibility, activities, comfort and sociability. He said two such places immediately come to mind: Fairhaven Village Green and Boulevard Park. He expects Kent’s ideas and inspiration to excite people, and provide the knowledge base for designing new public spaces in Bellingham and revitalizing existing areas that have not lived up to their potential.
Posted: Jun 23, 2006
