Recently, I attended a place making workshop hosted by the Downtown BID. It was lead by Fred Kent, President of Project for Public Spaces (PPS), and aimed to refocus attention on the quality of experience in public spaces. Participation by many organizations such as DIDA, NCPC, DCRA, WMATA, DDOT, Downtown BID, and DC Council made this workshop a remarkable event. Opening presentations discussed and the idea of “triangulation” or concentrated layering of uses to create synergy among multiple points of interest and diverse activities.   

Great world cities are largely experienced on their streets and sidewalks, and streets give unique possibilities for connecting and interacting. Places that support human activity and produce happiness are necessary for a good city. Washington DC already has a wonderful base for a vibrant city, but after looking at the possibilities we realized many wonderful places in DC are operating at a small proportion of their potential.

I learned that creating active public places requires thinking beyond just narrow development goals of one project.  Place driven planning as opposed to project driven planning is the key. In my opinion, this workshop was successful, because it brought together people from different agencies and organizations within the District to raise the understanding that with interdisciplinary planning and cooperation we can have the great public places we dream of.  

During the workshop, we formed teams to apply the principles of great place making to real places in DC’s downtown.  Here is what we came up with:

Freeing Freedom Plaza

My team tackled Freedom Plaza and how to draw out its potential as a great public space.  Despite its great central location few people can be found using it. Some of our strategies for creating more liveliness in the Plaza were:

 ·   Provide comfortable seating such as benches and add bike parking and a Smart Bike station.  Plant more vegetation and trees.

 ·   Offer a more interactive water feature, especially for children, considering there are a lot of daycare centers in the area.

 ·   Accommodate people on cold and hot weather days with short term umbrellas and long term shelters for cold, hot or rainy days.

 ·   Program seasonal activities including movies, music, public art, etc. Post  information and dates on site about upcoming activities and signs showing nearby activities and famous sites close by.

 ·   Organize and manage vendors to enliven the space and increase security with addition of more eyes on the streets.

 Bigger Dreams for 10th and F

We also analyzed the intersection at 10th and F street NW.  This intersection has incredible assets like a historic feel and view lines to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to the south and National Portrait Gallery to the east.  There is already existing retail, a bistro, the Hard-Rock Café, and the historic Ford Theater and St Patrick's Church. Despite all the great opportunities, the intersection is not as lively and interesting as it can be.

Some of our suggestions for the short term included: repairing the tree boxes, adding way finding signage, comfortable benches, bike parking, and asphalt paving of the street. Longer term suggestions were about creating a better mix of retail, narrowing F Street and widening the sidewalk space, turning the corner shops to uses like restaurants and outdoor cafes, designing a loading area for tour buses, designing healthy activities for the large numbers of kids who visit the area, and encouraging more local usage by closing the streets down from time to time for fairs.

Interestingly, the idea of creating a pedestrian mall was a common theme among several groups. It can really open the space for pedestrian activities supported by programming for healthy lively activities, increases city's wealth of public life dramatically.

What do you think about our suggestions and findings?

Readers have left 3 comments.

(1) Untitled
2008-08-25 16:42:28

As a long time supporter of PPS and a sponsor of its last international market conference here in DC; I was pleasantly surprised you went to this presentation, which was similar to ones Mike Berman and I have attended at PPS in NYC. Congratulations for taking it in.
Freedom Plaza, in fact the whole area abutting PA Ave, including Pershing Park could use some life similar to what we do at Eastern Market on Sundays, among other solutions.

\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ' title='Click to send email'>Written by Tom Rall ()

(2) Untitled
2008-08-26 10:03:55

The pedestiran mall idea was tried downtown in the 70s and 80's and was deemed a failure. G Street between 9th and 10th and F Street between 7th and 9th have been subsequently reopened to taffic.

\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ' title='Click to send email'>Written by Guest User ()

(3) Untitled
2008-11-02 01:32:12

A lot has changed from 70s and 80s. One thing is that the world has passed the oil production peak, and we need to promote more sustainable living styles. We need to save energy eveywhere, by more sustainable transportation modes for example. Now more people have realized that we really need to make our environment more pedestrain friendly...

Written by Guest User ()

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