DOWNTOWN + PLAZAs
The new public forum. Urban plazas and the public realms of downtowns everywhere are being reinvented–they are increasingly becoming the most democratic of spaces, inviting in new and diverse audiences, responding to changes in lifestyle and work habits, experimenting with new public uses that were previously unimaginable. As such, they must be programmed and designed to be dynamic, generous, flexible, and anticipatory–of multiple kinds of activities we can try to imagine, and of some we cannot. By brainstorming a wide range of possibilities for an ever-diversifying set of constituencies, and by testing how multiple activities can alternately occupy the same space, we help transform leftover and tired places in cities into vibrant hubs of energy–for collective action and expression.
