There are places we remember vividly, places where things happen serendipitously, places we tell stories about. Marion Square, The Battery, Hampton Park, King Street Second Sundays — places like these are essential to community engagement. Great cities contain networks of great streets and inviting public spaces. What are the ingredients, what makes place?
Philip Winn of Project for Public Spaces (PPS) joined us in Charleston on March 3, 2016 and again on Saturday morning of the same week for a hands-on workshop about the power of 10.
The lecture shared inspiring work from across the globe for Placemaking, which simply means Making Places Great. What makes a great place? Places thrive when people have a range of reasons to be there; these reasons are described by PPS as the Power of 10.
Winn identified lighter, cheaper, quicker ways to make a great place for our community. The lecture and workshop were free for all, and we learned as a group to to identify key elements critical for gathering spaces, as well as ways to envision streets as places to spend time instead of cut-throughs to save time. A complimentary lunch was served at Saturday’s workshop courtesy of Santi’s — it was fantastic!
About Project for Public Spaces
For the past 40 years Project for Public Spaces (PPS) has advocated for the direct involvement of community members in the design, programming, and management of streets and public spaces. They call this approach Placemaking and argue that strengthening connections between a community and its public spaces is essential to creating and sustaining great places. With intense growth slated for the Upper Peninsula, we have an important opportunity to shape our city through an inclusive Placemaking process.
Hosted by: Enough Pie, Charleston Moves, The Humanities Council, Greater Refuge Temple and Santi’s.
