This article comes from information provided by Project for Public Spaces, a cross-disciplinary team that shares a passion for public spaces. I wish the ideas were mine but I am borrowing them to share with you.
Effective public spaces are extremely difficult to accomplish because their complexity is rarely understood. As William (Holly) Whyte said, "It's hard to design a space that will not attract people. What is remarkable is how often this has been accomplished."
In the 1999 book How to Turn a Place Around, 11 key elements were identified in transforming public spaces into vibrant community places, whether they're parks, plazas, streets, or in Livonia's case the myriad of outdoor parks and historic venues. The elements of placemaking, borrowed from the book and not the concepts of the typewriter include:
The Community is the Expert
The important starting point in developing a concept for any public space is to identify the talents and assets within the community. In any community, there are people who can provide a historical perspective, valuable insights into how the area functions, and an understanding of the critical issues and what is meaningful to people.
Create a Place, Not a Design
If our goal is to create a place a design will not be enough. To make an under-performing space into a vital "place," physical elements must be introduced that would make people welcome and comfortable, such as seating and new landscaping, and also through "management" changes in the pedestrian circulation pattern and by developing more effective relationships between the activities going on in the public spaces. The goal is to create a place that has both a strong sense of community and a comfortable image.
Look for Partners
Partners are critical to the future success and image of a public space improvement project. Whether you want partners at the beginning to plan for the project or you want to brainstorm and develop scenarios with a dozen partners who might participate in the future, they are invaluable in providing support and getting a project off the ground. They can be local institutions, museums, schools, and others.
You Can See a Lot Just By Observing
We can all learn a great deal from others' successes and failures. By looking at how people are using (or not using) public spaces and finding out what they like and don't like about them, it is possible to assess what makes them work or not work.
Have a Vision
Essential to a vision for any public space is an idea of what kinds of activities might be happening in the space, a view that space should be comfortable and have a good image, and that it should be an important place where people want to be.
The complexity of public spaces is such that you cannot expect to do everything right initially. The best spaces experiment with short-term improvements that can be tested and refined over many years!
Triangulate
"Triangulation is the process by which some external stimulus provides a linkage between people and prompts strangers to talk to other strangers as if they knew each other". In a public space, the choice and arrangement of different elements in relation to each other can put the triangulation process in motion. For example, if a bench, a wastebasket, and a telephone are placed with no connection to each other, each may receive a very limited use, but when they are arranged together along with other amenities such as a coffee cart, they will naturally bring people together (or triangulate!).
They Always Say "It Can't Be Done"
One of Yogi Berra's great sayings is "If they say it can't be done, it doesn't always work out that way," and we have found it to be appropriate for our work as well. Creating good public spaces is inevitably about encountering obstacles because no one in either the public or private sectors has the job or responsibility to "create places." Starting with small-scale community-nurturing improvements can demonstrate the importance of "places" and help to overcome obstacles.
Form Supports Function
The input from the community and potential partners, the understanding of how other spaces function, the experimentation, and overcoming the obstacles and naysayers provide the concept for the space.
Money Is Not the Issue
This statement can apply in a number of ways. For example, once you've put in the basic infrastructure of the public spaces, the elements that are added that will make it work (e.g., vendors, cafes, flowers, and seating) will not be expensive. In addition, if the community and other partners are involved in programming and other activities, this can also reduce costs. More important is that by following these steps, people will have so much enthusiasm for the project that the cost is viewed much more broadly and consequently as not significant when compared with the benefits.
You Are Never Finished
By nature good public spaces that respond to the needs, opinions and the ongoing changes of the community require attention. Being open to the need for change and having the management flexibility to enact that change is what builds great public spaces and great cities and towns.
