Placemaking: A concentration of infrastructure attractive across generations
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EmailWe hear terms like "the built environment" and "placemaking" when it comes to creating vibrant, sustainable communities. Just what do those terms mean, and why so much buzz surrounding them?
BY: Kirk Heinze, Greening of the Great Lakes through Mlive.com
We hear terms like "the built environment" and "placemaking" when it comes to creating vibrant, sustainable communities. Just what do those terms mean, and why so much buzz surrounding them?
Russ White and I recently attended the second bi-annual Built Environment Showcase at MSU to ask a couple of experts, Scott Witter, Ph.D., director of the MSU School of Planning Design and Construction and interim director of the MSU Land Policy Institute; and Gary Heidel, chief placemaking officer for the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA).
"When we talk about placemaking, we mean creating an environment where people of all ages want to live," Witter says. "It often takes the form of corridor development like the Medical Mile in Grand Rapids, the Miracle Mile in Chicago or the Michigan Avenue corridor right here in Lansing."
And, according to Witter, those corridors must include more than attractive businesses and restaurants. "People, especially millennials, want venues for biking, walking, enjoying green space, listening to music, neighborhood interaction," Witter says. "The fact is that the best of the millennials can go and live wherever they want to; if we want to attract them to or keep them in Michigan, we have to plan, design, and build spaces that appeal to them."
"That is what our School of Planning, Design and Construction students do."
Please click here to hear my conversation with Witter.
Heidel's definition of placemaking is almost identical to Witter's: "developing a concentration of infrastructure—homes, businesses, parks, trails, sidewalks—that creates a place that attracts people across generations."
According to Heidel, placemaking underway in Michigan is not limited to large communities, like the Eastern Market or Mid-Town areas in Detroit. MSHDA has also been working with planners and economic development experts in places like Alpena and Marquette. "What is very exciting and encouraging right now is that so many communities are sending a strong message that Michigan—with our universities, our Blue Economy and so many other assets—is a key place to do business."
One of the reasons MSHDA has supported the Built Environment Showcase, Heidel says, is that it brings together people who are involved in all phases of placemaking—from interior designers to landscape architects to community planners—to share ideas and create public/private partnerships focused on the connection between place and economic development.
Please click here to hear my conversation with Heidel.
http://www.mlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2014/12/placemaking_a_concentration_of.html
