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Old Posted Aug 10, 2011, 4:07 PM
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How Cities in Texas are Turning Planning Upside Down

Houston is North America’s Placemaking Capital





Read More: http://www.pps.org/articles/houston-...aking-capital/

Quote:
Despite Houston’s enduring image as a downtown office park where every project strives to be bigger and glitzier than anything that came before, the city is now focusing on creating lively new public spaces. This important shift is occurring in other Texas cities too, infusing downtowns and neighborhoods with a new sense of vibrancy and, most surprising of all, doing it by working at a smaller, human scale. Houston has become a hot-spot by turning its planning process for public spaces upside down. Instead of using a project oriented and design-led approach, it is using a bottom up Placemaking approach.

- The vision for a public place is now defined by stakeholders in the community with leaders and professionals helping to implement this vision. This approach is already paying off—downtown Houston is thriving from hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment and never before have so many come downtown to enjoy the new amenities. We’re not the only ones to take notice of what’s going on in Houston. Recently Fast Company named Houston its “City of the Year”, citing Discovery Green as “a symbol of the new Houston.” Cities all around Texas (and soon, we hope, the country) are finding ways to follow suit.

- Discovery Green opened in the spring of 2008 and soon became a magnet destination. It is estimated that more than 2.3 million people have now visited this unique public space and that the park has catalyzed nearly $1 billion dollars in nearby development, showing how Placemaking pays off. A number of residential and commercial projects have specifically noted Discovery Green as the impetus for their investment. For details, check out PPS’ new economic impact case study of Discovery Green which includes detailed visitor data and information on public private partnerships.

- PPS calculates, based on decades of experience, that 80 percent of the success of any public space is due to how it is managed. Market Square Park, in the center of downtown Houston’s Historic District, re-opened in August of 2010 after many years of disuse and a great deal of debate about what should be done to revive this public space. Houston Downtown Management District (Downtown District), also involved in Discovery Green, worked with PPS to facilitate a Placemaking process to develop new ideas for the place. The Downtown District then guided the translation of the stakeholders’ vision into a design and management plan for the square.

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Discovery Green has not only become a popular place for locals but has also spurred numerous downtown development projects. Flickr photo by kalebdf.











The management plan for Market Square Park ensures that there are many opportunities for people to sit and eat.






The central open space has now become the “town square” and main gathering place at the Baker Ripley Community Center. Flickr photo via Neighborhood Centers.






The Upper Kirby Civic Center Complex will have a variety of destinations within it including a café, a community garden and farmers market which will furnish some of the food for a new café, play area, performance space and more.






Change in Corpus Christi is coming from the citizens who have organized themselves to turn their waterfront around.






One of the many submissions to PPS’ Digital PlaceMap for San Antonio came from Meredith in Vance Jackson who included this image of the shade structures in downtown's Main Plaza as an example of the kind of shade she’d like to see more of in her city. Flickr photo via arellis49.






Dallas - One lane of traffic was removed and a “pop-up” plaza was created with temporary seating, potted trees, and a food truck where people come to eat, meet and socialize. Photo via Go Oak Cliff.

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