KEEPING THE NEWS LOCAL.... AND THE COMMUNITY CONNECTED.
VOLUME 1 EDITION 5
DECEMBER 2020
LIVE
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LEARN
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WORK
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PLAY
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COMMUNITY UPDATES
On Making a Place As we continue on with this series of articles, they begin to stop functioning as separate pieces and instead start culminating into a bigger picture of traditional neighborhood developments. So, too, do the items we’ve discussed beget more cohesive concepts. This month, we will take what we’ve learned and insert it into a bigger picture: a term called “placemaking,” or the multipart approach taken when planning, designing, and managing traditional neighborhoods. To reiterate previous articles, variations of living spaces, mixeduse land uses, a main street, and an easily navigable and walkable design are all key characteristics of traditional neighborhood developments, which work together to contribute to this idea of “placemaking.” At the heart of placemaking is inspiring the collective to reimagine public spaces, which, in turn, shifts these spaces into places, and these places, then, become the heart of the community. Perhaps the most important part of placemaking is that it holds a deep value to those
imagination to turn a street into a farmer’s market. Moreover, and in a similar vein, placemaking functions as a feeling which improves the physical and emotional wellbeing of a traditional neighborhood’s residents. Looking back to our examination of context-based street design, we can understand how the careful feel individually and who feel, or want to consideration of pedesfeel, connected to their mutually committed to trian and bicycle routes their communities. For are emphasized more community. It is not example, we can close something planned by in traditional neighoff the main street of a architects, but rather borhood developments occurs when a commu- traditional neighborthan in the vehicunity’s residents under- hood from vehicular lar-focused design of stand just how influtraffic, allow residents conventional suburban ential the collective and other local vendors developments. The imagination can be. to set up booths, and attention and emphaLike the children who call it a farmer’s marsis placed on walking walk to school each day ket. What once was the and biking rather than and marvel at the tall main street through driving is made rather trees and the park slide, a community is now easy via context-based we, too, tap into our a pedestrian plaza; street design: you can blooming inner child to we know that tomorgo to school, or the see spaces anew, and row we will drive our music studio, or the this brings us joy. As it cars down this same grocery store, either on is said, placemaking is street, but for now, it bike or foot, and this neither a process nor a is a space for walking, alone contributes to philosophy; rather, it is connecting with friends the positive increase of both. and neighbors, and physical and emotionsupporting local busial states of residents. What should be emnesses. The very fact In other words, it can phasized about placethat we, the residents, be boiled down to an making is that it is are aware that this is increase in physical centered around the the main street and yet exercise as well as an people: it is not a proare still able to change increase in connections cess of fixing up a the way in which we amongst residents, building, but a process typically conceive it is both of which help to of creation which fosan example of placeimprove one’s emotionters further creation of making, as it takes the al wellbeing. places in which people community’s collective
