What If We Built Our Cities Around Places?

PPS's Great Cities Initiative proposes a place-based approach to revitalizing our towns, cities, and regions.

Bringing Environmentalism Back Home

How Placemaking can reinvigorate the environmental movement.

Finding a Place for Parking

Parking spaces usually diminish public spaces -- but it doesn't have to be that way.

Preserving the Commons

What do public spaces and scenic landscapes have in common? They are both threatened by invasive private interests.

Keeping the 'Public' in Public Spaces

How we can keep our public spaces from being overwhelmed by excessive commercialization.

Safety & Security

"So-called 'undesirables' are not the problem. It is the measures taken to combat them that is the problem... The best way to handle the problem of undesirables is to make the place attractive to everyone else." --William H. Whyte

Health & Community Design

At PPS, we believe that great public spaces - destinations that encourage physical activity and draw people together socially - can play a significant role in turning around the decline in public health. What do you think?

Creating Community Places: An Antidote to Sprawl

Looking for strategies to combat sprawl? Read about the PPS approach.

Parks

If you want great parks, you need to start by understanding how they are used.

Waterfronts

A waterfront is often the face of a city. However, from old mill towns to former shipping ports, many urban waterfronts no longer connect to the world through their former transportation and economic functions.

Plazas & Civic Squares

PPS's approach to plazas & civic squares

Streets

PPS's approach to streets.

Transit

PPS's approach to public transportation.

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