Placemaking helps create a lively and welcoming downtown

Placemaking is about reimagining and repurposing buildings and spaces that have become obsolete. It’s about making places that people want to spend time in. In the language of urban design, placemaking “is a process centred on people and their needs, aspirations, desires and visions, which relies strongly on community participation.

Although it has become a buzzword lately, placemaking isn’t a new phenomenon. For years, cities have been making places that serve as magnets for people and anchors for events. In the case of downtown Calgary, Olympic Plaza and Stephen Avenue are prime examples. Those are great assets, but placemaking doesn’t have to involve large-scale construction projects. These days, placemaking can be on a small scale. Interventions can be temporary and focused on specific goals like improving safety, access or economic well-being of a given area.

The power of place

Placemaking initiatives might vary in scale but they share one fundamental goal. They take underused spaces, transform them into animated places and fill them with happy faces. The Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is dedicated to the power of placemaking. It argues that “cities succeed or fail at the human scale—the place scale—and this scale is often overlooked.” PPS goes on to outline the Power of 10+, which states “places thrive when users have a range of reasons (10+) to be there.”

Placemaking is at the heart of Calgary’s Greater Downtown Plan.  City council adopted the plan last spring and approved an initial investment of $200 million. The lion’s share of that money is earmarked for placemaking activities. There’s $80 million for the first phase of the Arts Commons transformation, $55million for capital projects “to improve public spaces, create vibrancy and support complete neighbourhoods.”

Read the full article on Calgary Downtown Association

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