Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

A missed point in temporary urbanism

There are two issues in so-called "temporary urbanism":

1. activating what would be un-used spaces
2. supporting innovation, which tends to have a hard time getting placement in popular areas.

The focus on temporary urbanism now is in utilizing vacant space.

But after the economy improves and spaces get leased up, where is the support for innovation and incubators?

And where was the support for access to such spaces that were vacant (because of high asking prices for rent) during the good times?

I've been suggesting that underutilized spaces downtown could be used to support arts and other retail-like ventures since 2002, including talking up the Pittsfield, Mass. Storefront Artist Project.

See:

- "Pop-Up Stores Help Landlords Fill Retail Space" from the Wall Street Journal
- "For artists, storefront on a shoestring" from the Washington Post, about a temporary retail exhibit for fashion designers on H Street NE called the Temporarium

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