|
|
We all have places that we particularly like. What we may not know is that these spaces often have inherent qualities that make them enjoyable and important to us.
The qualities that create great places include those that we sense—the textures of stone and wood, for example, or the smell of food from street vendors, or the sight of a beautiful building facade.
We enjoy places associated with important memories (both individual and collective). In our own neighborhoods we often value places that outsiders do not even notice. Such places may be associated with important people and events. Neighborhoods are always guardians of information that is essential to the preservation of a place’s, and a people’s, character.
Great public places make daily life enjoyable, inspiring, and fun.The following concepts, strategies and forms have helped build great public places in various locales all over the world. You will need to consult your own heart and history, however, to help create great places of our own, right here in Takoma Park .
|
|
General Information
|
 |
The Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is at the forefront of the placemaking movement. Their web site is crammed with good ideas and great pictures (many of which are already sprinkled about our Charrette page). PPS’s “Placemaker Profiles” provide a fascinating introduction to the views of 13 cutting-edge theoreticians and practitioners. |
|
| |
“In the absence of informal public life, living becomes more expensive. Where the means and facilities for relaxation and leisure are not publicly shared, they become the objects of private ownership and consumption.”
“What suburbia cries for are the means for people to gather easily, inexpensively, regularly, and pleasurably -- a ‘place on the corner,’ real life alternatives to television, easy escapes from the cabin fever of marriage and family life that do not necessitate getting into an automobile.”
—Urban Sociologist Ray Oldenburg (courtesy of PPS)
|
|
| |
One of the shared insights of urbanist Jane Jacobs and architect Christopher Alexander is that great places are at the same time both complex and well-organized. The obvious conclusion is that such places will be difficult to produce at will. The non-obvious conclusion is that they become far easier to produce if one creatively copies from pre-existing good traditions—or what Alexander calls “pattern languages.” An intelligent (if rather opinionated) introduction to Alexander’s theory of pattern languages can be found here and here.
|
| |
 |
One pattern recommended by Alexander relates to bus stops, of which New Hampshire Avenue has many. "Bus stops are often dreary, shabby places where no thought has been given to 'the experience of waiting there,'" writes Alexander in A Pattern Language (Oxford: 1977). His solution: "Build bus stops so that they form tiny centers of public life. Build them as part of gateways into neighborhoods...Locate them so that they work together with several other activities, at least a news-stand, maps, outdoor shelter, seats, and in various combinations, corner groceries, smoke shops, coffee bar, tree places, special road crossings, public bathrooms, squares..." |
|
|
| |
| Fountains |
 |
This square in Cuzco , Peru , is given a central focus by this beautiful fountain. |
|
 |
In New York ’s Central Park , Bethesda Fountain is an important destination. It attracts dog walkers, people watchers, runners, families, everyone who needs a place to go on a hot summers day to do “nothing”. The space responds to the city’s location in the north by being open to the sun. |
|
 |
Water has been used here as a means to create interaction and play, and to provide a chance to cool off. |
|
 |
This more modest fountain, because it serves both man and beast, is likely to become a focal point for chance encounters between pet owners. |
|
| |
| Colors |
 |
These brightly painted houses in Peru have made this ordinary building something residents feel proud to come home to, and have given them a stronger sense of place. Rather then just housing, these buildings became homes. |
|
 |
The traditional white buildings of a Greek village contrast beautifully with the blue sky and a single green tree. |
|
 |
Brightly colored laundry strung between buildings in the Casbah, Algiers . |
|
 |
In Gujarat , India , this simple, brightly-colored “ride” is a source of excitement and joy for the children, and of delight to any passers-by. |
|
 |
The typical, beautifully-aged ochres, yellows and oranges of Roman buildings. Of course, not color alone, but everything else about Pantheon square make this one of the great public places anywhere. |
|
 |
Brightly colored fruits, bottles and signs make this street kiosk in India warm and welcoming. As do the store’s human scale and easy accessibility from the street. |
|
| |
| Art & Mystery |
 |
This entire square, with its classical architecture, its fountain, its vaguely grotesque sculpture, is a living work of art. |
|
 |
Outdoor shrines, such as this one in San Gimignano, are typical of Italian towns of every size and description. |
|
 |
No less typical of public places in India are religious sculptures such as this. |
|
 |
This sculpture of galloping horses has transformed an otherwise unremarkable spot into someplace exciting, someplace about which locals will say 'lets meet at the running horses.' |
|
 |
These metal duck sculptures are undoubtedly sat upon by children every single day of the week. |
|
 |
This drinking fountain is also a work of art. |
|
|
