A Piazza on Every Block: How DIY Placemaking Is Transforming Communities

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:



A Piazza on Every Block: How DIY Placemaking Is Transforming Communities
Americans who’ve enjoyed the vibrant public places of Europe and Latin America are bringing the idea back to the cities and towns of the U.S.

by Jay Walljasper
posted Aug 16, 2013


This article originally appeared in the author's book, How to Design Our World for Happiness.


[font size="1"]Portland's Share-It Square. Photo by Donkeycart.[/font]


Mark Lakeman is an architect fired up by the belief that our neighborhoods can become more than places where we hang our hats and park our cars.

Taking a break from his practice a few years back, he traveled through Central America and Italy, falling in love with the piazzas, plazas, and zocalos where everyone gathers to talk, play, and hang out together. Although most of these people are poor by our standards, he notes, they enjoy a richness of life missing in most North American communities.

Lakeman came home to Portland with the idea of creating a similar commons in his own neighborhood. He discovered that several neighbors were thinking along the same lines, so they rolled up their sleeves and transformed an intersection on Sherritt Street into a Pacific Northwest version of a piazza, painting a colorful mural on the pavement that sent a clear message to passing motorists this was not your ordinary corner. Next, they constructed a tea cart to lure folks out into the street for some convivial fun. As social activity began to move out into the street, drivers and pedestrians instinctively learned to share the space, thus its name Share-It Square.

They called their work “intersection repair.”

But what did the neighbors think? Challenging the dominance of automobiles on American streets is a brazen act, especially to older people who came of age in the car-crazy 1950s. Lakeman worried about angry opposition arising to quash the experiment, until talking to Brian Shaw, who lived right at the corner. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/jay-walljasper/every-block-needs-a-piazza-d-i-y-placemaking-transforms-communities-coast-to-coast

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Quite Jane Jacobsian.

I think this is a wonderful idea! Rec!

[niyad]

2. k and r--thank you for this. needed it after some of the depressing stuff this morning.