FOCUS ON MAIN STREET DESIGN

Main Street Design: It's Not an Island

February 2013 Main Street Matters

Article written by Howard Langer, Texas Main Street, Architect

Main Street has been going strong in Texas communities for over 32 years! That’s a remarkable run for any organization, and an accomplishment that has been achieved together. The Four-Point Approach™ works because it looks at the whole picture. It recognizes that it isn’t one thing that works—it is many things working together.

It should come as no surprise that there are many other organizations and movements that share Main Street’s motivation and goals, two of these are Project for Public Spaces and Team Better Block.  Project for Public Spaces (PPS)  PPS has been around even longer than the Texas Main Street Program, and the two programs have collaborated many times over the years. While Main Stree is identified by the Four-Point Approach™, PPS is identified by a concept called Placemaking. This is further explained on the PPS website, www.pps.org.

“Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is a nonprofit planning, design and educational organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger communities. Our pioneering Placemaking approach helps citizens transform their public spaces into vital places that highlight local assets, spur rejuvenation and serve common needs.

PPS was founded in 1975 to expand on the work of William (Holly) Whyte, the author of The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Since then, projects have been completed in more than 2500 communities in 40 countries and all 50 U.S. states. Partnering with public and private organizations, federal, state, and municipal agencies, business improvement districts, neighborhood associations and other civic groups, improves communities by fostering successful public spaces.”

The real key to understanding what PPS is all about is identified in that last sentence “…we improve communities by fostering successful public spaces.” Make no mistake; “public spaces” is much more than streetscapes, pocket parks, or grand plazas. PPS believes that public places are only successful when they are the result of vigorous public input (bottom-up versus top-down planning) and when they are capable of supporting multiple uses. They refer to great places as some place that has at least 10 things to do or 10 reasons to be there. This would include such things as sitting, interacting with art, listening to music, buying food, learning about history, being able to read books, and so on. They believe a truly successful place should be safe, fun, charming, and welcoming. Their focus is on what people do in a city versus what the elements of a city look like.

So how does PPS relate to Main Street? Well, placemaking is about getting people together in order to achieve positive results. Placemaking is about economic and community development (when you get people together in viable public spaces, they are much more prone to buy and sell). Placemaking is about community organization (when there is a clear vision volunteers are more motivated). Placemaking is about getting youth involved (kids learn about setting goals and developing leadership skills). In other words placemaking is Main Street with a special emphasis upon what actually motivates people to use spaces. While Main Street uses historic preservation as the basis for economic development, PPS uses human behavior and preferences as the basis for economic development. Can Main Street learn from PPS? You bet. If Main Streeters start looking at their towns in terms of public spaces and how people use them on a day-to-day basis, they can enhance the Main Street Four-Foint Approach™ by injecting more vitality and greater involvement in their commercial districts not only during special events, but on a daily basis as well.

Team Better Block (TBB)

Team Better Block (TBB) is referred to by Project for Public Spaces (PPS) as a lighter, quicker, cheaper approach to revitalizing streets and public spaces in the short term to inspire people to think differently about how those places could evolve. TBB was set up to speed up the public improvement projects process by making what usually takes years happen in the course of days or weeks. Once an entity has identified that they have an underused property that needs to be improved or revitalized, TBB is called in to test on-site strategies using full scale landscaping and furnishings in order to create mock-ups of public space improvements. The beauty of this approach is that if the mock up needs adjustment or proves to be unsatisfactory, it is simply rearranged until a more successful outcome is achieved. The conventional approach of spending huge sums of money for a design that may not even work is avoided and the public has the opportunity to have real involvement on important design decisions.

TBB already has a noteworthy track record. The TBB approach has been used in more than 30 cities across the United States, including six cities in Texas. TBB’s work has been labeled as “tactical urbanism” or “guerilla urbanism” because of its real-time, on-site, and rapid deployment of urban transformation. They have the ability to help people transform underused urban spaces into “laboratories” that test urban strategies in fun, vital, and exciting ways. Communities feel empowered because their vision is translated into physical reality right before their eyes. The TBB process is also important because it helps civic leaders gauge public interest and commitment toward public improvement projects. When stakeholders can actually see and tinker with design recommendations using full-scale elements, infrastructure projects proceed with less disagreement of over design features, less construction change orders, and less dissatisfaction after construction is completed. 

TBB maintains an arsenal of different design elements that are used based upon project need. These elements focus on amenities and public art, event-based programming, temporary public spaces, temporary complete streets (elements that show what happens when you reduce traffic capacity, add bike lanes, introduce mid-block pedestrian crossings, and transit stops), and elements for pop-up development (inexpensive structures and low-overhead retail) that creates a destination and activates the street.

Again, how does this organization’s work complement Main Street? Just as with PPS, TBB is all about vitality, reinvestment, and community involvement. Preservation is not at the forefront in this approach but it is a vital partner—when people are committed to public spaces, they will naturally care for the buildings that define those spaces.

Learn more about this organization’s important work at www.teambetterblock.com.