A community-based participatory research project exploring place leadership and place management in the metropolitan Washington, DC region. Powered by Georgetown University’s Urban & Regional Planning Program.
Placemaking: Creating catalytic campaigns to deliver local and global outcomes
An Interactive Forum of the Place Leadership Project
On May 13th, the Georgetown Place Leadership Project hosted a workshop for place managers across the region. Included in the agenda was an engaging and insightful presentation by the Social Life Project’s own and placemaking pioneer Fred Kent on “The 11 Transformative Agendas to Restore Social Life.” The presentation and collaborative discussion generated thoughtful insights on place-based innovation and strategies that were created as a result of the pandemic.
“Place” has become a strategic organizing principle for stakeholders to plan, develop, invest, curate and empower communities in cities. Place is leveraged as the common catalyst for groups of stakeholders to align their interdisciplinary efforts to strengthen economies, enhance quality of life, and create socially inclusive communities.
The workshop convened our regional network of over 50 place management organizations together with our new partner, the Placemaking Fund’s Social Life Project. This interactive session explored global innovations in placemaking strategies catalyzed by the pandemic and sought to establish a new framework for place-based innovation across the Washington, DC metropolitan region. The first of many future workshops, it was an incredible convening of ideas and place managers from across the region to discuss themes emerging in a post-COVID world.
Uwe Brandes introducing the workshop and giving an update on the Place Leadership Project’s current state of affairs
Participants engaging in discussion about their communities following Fred Kent’s presentation
A Partnership to Explore Research, Knowledge Management and Global/Local Networks as a Force for Community and Global Change
The Georgetown Place Leadership Project has built a metropolitan-wide network of over 50 place management organizations, which includes business improvement districts, main street programs, government campuses, public-private urban development districts and anchor institution districts. It represents one of the most innovative and thriving communities of practice advancing the professionalization of placemaking in the world.
A community-based participatory research project dedicated to advancing the global practice of placemaking, place leadership, and place management across a community of decision-makers in Washington, DC, the Place Leadership Project has partnered with the Social Life Project to engage local professionals, community leaders, and other involved stakeholders to identify key areas of research, broaden adaptation, share lessons learned, and promote a network of leaders in the field advocating for placemaking.
Working together, we seek to impact our ultimate goal of a healthy, sustainable, and resilient planet. The next logical stage in this evolution is to launch city-level or regional campaigns and catalytic projects framed by the 11 Transformative Agendas and strategically connected with other global networks and movements. As we emerge from the global pandemic, during which time public spaces have taken on new importance, it is important to view placemaking as a catalyst for change in cities. Previous work and research done by the Social Life Project will be essential to helping this partnership elevate placemaking to a larger global audience.
“The city is not created by top-down planning, but by people walking the sidewalks; people walking the city into existence. The stories they tell, the encounters they have on the street corner, and the memories they share literally become the city.“
– Philip Sheldrake, Author, The Spiritual City
The Place Leadership Project of the Georgetown Global Cities Initiative and the Social Life Project seek to leverage their global and local networks to advance a new generation of research, knowledge management and knowledge sharing in the service of advancing urban place management and community-based placemaking. By leveraging our respective resources, we seek to advance professional practices in the national capital region, across communities in the United States and in rapidly urbanizing cities around the world. While the ideas and theory of urban placemaking are now 50-years old; the levels of unprecedented global urbanization make this a critical time to advance the profession of urban place management as a primary component of the global sustainability movement.
Georgetown Place Leadership Project Survey Findings in the Washington Region
In the summer of 2022, the Georgetown Place Leadership Project conducted a survey to better understand the professional practice impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on place management organizations throughout the Washington metropolitan region. The survey was completed by over 20 diverse organizations in the Place Leadership Project’s network of place managers across the region, including BIDs, Main Street programs and other management organizations. This report summarizes the findings and insights gathered from the survey.
Responses were produced by the executive staff who are responsible for managing a variety of public spaces. Half of the respondents stated that they are responsible for one specific neighborhood or district while nearly one third described their responsibilities as overseeing a “large urban district with multiple specific places.” Just under one fifth of respondents stated they were responsible for just one specific place.
Managing streets and sidewalks are a central part of their management portfolio. Managing urban parks is another component of place that these organizations are responsible for.
Pandemic Impact Responses
The pandemic was impactful in changing the management practices of all of these place management organizations, presenting both challenges and opportunities. 15% of PMOs described the pandemic to be “empowering”, while 53% reported it as a “hardship.”
To differentiate how the pandemic has either improved or worsened the outlook of place management, respondents were asked to rank certain elements of their neighborhood. The table below describes the impact of the pandemic on different neighborhood features. Respondents had the chance to rank the impact from “much better” to “much worse.”
To no surprise, PMOs felt the most negative impacts associated with the newly vacated real estate and the impacts on retail businesses. The sense of personal safety in urban spaces decreased. However, community trust and civic engagement improved during the pandemic as PMOs increased their outreach and community engagement.
Looking more closely at businesses which were the hardest hit during the pandemic, a majority of PMOs witnessed the decline of demand in the hospitality and restaurant markets.
Pandemic Innovations
Many PMOs were faced with pivoting their traditional operations to focus on the health and safety of their residents and businesses. However, many of those management organizations used the shift in structure and leniency of policy to innovate in ways their neighborhoods or districts might not have ever had the chance to. We were interested to see how PMOs have adapted and innovated as a result of the pandemic and how those innovations will evolve into more permanent professional practices as we emerge beyond the pandemic’s health emergency.
Several responses from PMOs communicated the need for more services to be directed toward small businesses on all levels: business operations, financial assistance, workforce recruitment, funding and grant writing, and other services. Responses highlight the continued importance of sidewalks and pedestrian mobility as a backbone to advancing other placemaking initiatives.
On Tuesday, June 9, we hosted our third installment of the Place for Lunch dialogue series, which explores the significance of place management organizations (PMOs) in the National Capital Region. In this conversation, we ask “What strategic role are Place Management Organizations playing to retain active ground-floor retail uses in their districts?“. Speaking with Aisha Bond, Executive Director of the North Capitol Main Street, Tom Nida, Executive Vice President, City First Bank, and Adam Weers, Principal, Trammell Crow Company we gain insights into how urban districts are adapting to this tumultuous time in ground-level retail.
On May 1, 2020, Uwe Brandes and Rich Bradley hosted the second “Place for Lunch” virtual dialogue exploring the significance of place management organizations (PMOs) in the National Capital Region. The featured guests included Mary-Claire Burick, President of the Rosslyn BID, Kara Norman, Executive Director of the Downtown Frederick Partnership, and Joe Sternleib, President of the Georgetown BID. The discussion focused on how these districts are currently adapting in light of this public health emergency and began to identify some of the new roles that BIDs, Downtown Partnerships, and other place management organizations can play to serve their stakeholders now and into the future. Click below to listen to the full conversation.
PLP Luncheon Conversation 2: Mary-Claire Burick, Kara Norman, Joe Sternleib
On April 17, 2020, Uwe Brandes and Richard Bradley initiated the “Place for Lunch” public dialogue series with special guest Gabriella Gomez-Mont, visiting fellow for the Georgetown Global Cities Initiative. The conversation began the process of exploring the extraordinary new challenges faced by managers of urban places during the COVID-19 public health crisis. In the midst of so much uncertainty, we already see innovation and inspirational leadership at the highly localized scale of urban places seeking to rise up to meet this new challenge. Click below to listen to Uwe, Rich, and Gabriella discuss where our beloved urban places might be heading in the future.
PLP Luncheon Conversation 1: Gabriella Gomez-Mont and Richard Bradley, moderated by Uwe Brandes
Population density can say a lot about an urban environment, and it’s often used as a proxy for how walkable an urban location is. But common density measures don’t capture how easy it is to walk from one location to another. In a recent paper D.C. Policy Center Fellow D.W. Rowlands proposes a new measure for assessing density in the built environment, “walkable urban density,” that more completely captures the number of people within walking distance of a given location.
Georgetown’s Place Leadership Project was recently featured at the World Urban Forum 10 as part of Columbia University’s Local Project Challenge. The Local Project Challenge recognizes community-based efforts from around the world seeking to implement the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Place Leadership Project is honored to stand beside many other inspiring efforts to advance global goals through local initiatives. The innovations in place management across the Washington metropolitan region are a powerful lens through which to address complex challenges. The Washington region, with its vast network of professional place managers, is uniquely situated to be a global model for cities around the world.
On Friday Nov. 1, 2019 the Place Leadership Project convened over 125 stakeholders in a community-based research workshop entitled “Making Inclusive Urban Spaces”. The purpose of the agenda was to explore existing professional practices which seek to design, program and manage urban spaces in a manner by which they become socially inclusive for all.
A diverse set of stakeholders and experts representing multiple sectors and jurisdictions from across the Washington region discussed how they were grappling with some of the most challenging issues facing management in the public realm and how our urban spaces can be more equitable. Continue reading “Workshop Report: Making Inclusive Urban Places”
A Keynote Address Delivered by Steve Moore at the Georgetown University “Mobility Making the Place” Research Forum which convened over 50 local non-profit organizations from across the Washington Metropolitan Region to discuss emerging practices in place-based community development. The forum was organized by the Georgetown Urban & Regional Planning program as part of its Place Leadership Project.Continue reading “Innovations in Mobility for Southwest DC”
