Public Space

In a keynote speech at the Urban Land Institute’s “Transit Oriented Los Angeles” conference, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the launch of a "Great Streets" program to coordinate work on, and investment in, "the City’s largest public space asset."

October 11, 2013 - LA.Streetsblog

Any visitor from America would think that Paris had found the solution to creating great public spaces and taming the automobile. But the city's new approach to urban space suggests city leaders and residents feel otherwise.

September 21, 2013 - PPS: Placemaking Blog

Sarah Goodyear describes the greater implications of the carnage caused by a motorist intent on mowing down as many pedestrians as possible on the Venice boardwalk in L.A. on August 03. It wasn't the first time a car caused mayhem in a public space.

August 10, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

Michael Kimmelman looks at the wave of 'cheap, quick, temporary and D.I.Y.-style approaches' that are introducing a more successful means of creating public space than traditional trickle-down techniques.

May 31, 2013 - The New York Times

John Metcalfe spotlights the work of Dutch designer Thor ter Kulve, whose creative approach to designing street furniture blends utility and playfulness with the aim of liberating public space.

May 30, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

With the latest redesign of Maps, Google is personalizing the mapping experience to reflect the places we, and our friends, frequent. In doing so, will the technology giant eliminate serendipitous "entanglements" from the urban experience?

May 28, 2013 - Slate

One theme unites the winners of the My LA2050 competition: a desire to reinvigorate Los Angeles’s vacant and underused spaces.

May 12, 2013 - Curbed LA

David Gensler, Co-CEO of the design mega-firm, describes the speculative work produced by Gensler's global offices for unearthing and re-imagining "unexpected open space" in "our increasingly built-up and built-out urban environments."

May 7, 2013 - Fast Company Co.Exist

Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing was “an attack on public space,” writes architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne. But that doesn’t mean we should respond by closing off the sidewalks and streets the bombers targeted.

April 19, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

Ethan Kent, Enrique Penalosa, and Jonathan Crush offer contrasting perspectives on the effect of informal street vending on public spaces.

April 2, 2013 - Next City

With new bike paths, regional trails, and renovated parks, Cleveland is catering to bikes and pedestrians, says Steven Litt. He explains how this "car town" is "undergoing a revolution in attitudes toward public space, city streets and walkability."

March 11, 2013 - The Plain Dealer

LAX, the LA River, Pershing Square; the list of Los Angeles' under-performing public spaces could sadly continue for a while. As the city votes for its next mayor, Christopher Hawthorne offers some "some straightforward ideas" about how to fix them.

March 4, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

These are heady times for public space advocates. At long last the promotion of streets, sidewalks, parks and playgrounds has become part of the eminent design and development dialogue, and with it hopefully the recognition of the needs and rights of the user. This certainly is the situation in California where the approval of parklets, and other smaller scaled, vest pocket, public projects are being hotly pursued, and in other cities where the noble if not naive Occupy movement raised the profile and purpose of public space.

October 17, 2012 - Sam Hall Kaplan

It wasn't Angelenos' supposed love of the artificial and exaggerated that brought crowds of people to the city's streets to see Endeavour's slow crawl across town, but an appreciation for authentic spectacle and the pleasures of public space.

October 16, 2012 - Los Angeles Times

On the one-year anniversary of the beginning of Occupy Wall Street, Richard Sennett looks at the movement's legacy with regards to rethinking public space.

September 17, 2012 - The Nation

By better integrating the natural and built environments, while enforcing standards of livability, Copenhagen seeks to transform its Saint Kjeld’s neighborhood into "a showcase area for climate adaptation technology," reports Damian Holmes.

August 30, 2012 - World Landscape Architecture

As the number of completed parklets in San Francisco nears three dozen, after debuting only two years ago, "the latest trend in urban placemaking" has entered the planning mainstream without losing its grassroots origins.

July 16, 2012 - San Francisco Chronicle

Nate Berg muses over the shifting boundary between public and private, as technology follows us from the Internet into the physical world.

May 4, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Days before the American Planning Association's national convention, CicLAvia's Aaron Paley describes the event's origins and evolution and explains how an open streets event in Los Angeles can transform one's sense of public space and the city.

April 14, 2012 - The Planning Report

Over the last two decades the city of San Francisco has systematically removed its public benches to fight homelessness. Now citizens are clamoring for their return.

January 30, 2012 - The New York Times