Upcoming Events

State Senator Liz Kruger invites you to learn how we can make the East Side more livable AND reduce traffic congestion through "placemaking" and reallocating street space from cars to pedestrians.

Special guest: Fred Kent, President, Project for Public Spaces

Placemaking in New York: The whole world knows New York for its livable neighborhoods, excellent parks, first rate cultural attractions, and seemingly inexhaustible supply of new places to explore. However, New York's attractions are increasingly disconnected from each other. Large sections of the city's pedestrian environment are now overwhelmed by traffic and sterile, anti-urban developments conceived by vanity designers.

To address these concerns, the Project for Public Spaces (PPS) has partnered with other civic organizations to create the New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign. Working with local groups, PPS has helped communities define and promote their own visions for more livable streets and, ultimately, a more livable New York.

Biography: Fred Kent is a leading authority on revitalizing city spaces and one of the foremost thinkers in livability, smart growth, and the future of the city. As founder and president of Project for Public Spaces, he is known throughout the world as a dynamic speaker and prolific ideas man. He worked with William H. Whyte on the Street Life Project, assisting in the observations and film analysis of corporate plazas, urban streets, parks and other open spaced in New York City. The research resulted in the now classic "The Social Life of Small Urban Spaced," published in 1980, which laid out conclusions based on decades of meticulous observation and documentation of human behavior in the urban environment. Some notable collaborations include the 1981 redesign of Bryan Park and the recent redesign of Gansevoort Square.