Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about placemaking

Loop Alliance Credits Activate Alley Parties With Spurring $400K in Sales

By John Greenfield | Apr 16, 2015 | No Comments

Once again, the Chicago Loop Alliance is rolling out a full slate of placemaking initiatives in an effort to boost downtown retail and promote the arts. The centerpiece of the campaign is Activate, a series of pop-up art parties held in alleys, which the downtown chamber of commerce says led to hundreds of thousands of dollars […]

SSA Hopes Lincoln Project Will Provide Magic Carpet Ride to Higher Sales

By John Greenfield | Apr 13, 2015 | 48 Comments

In a little over a month from now, a relatively sleepy stretch of Lincoln in Lakeview will be transformed. Construction on the Lincoln Avenue Placemaking Project is slated to begin next Monday, April 20, with work finishing up around May 22. The initiative will activate the four-block business strip between Diversey and Belmont with clusters […]

Latest “Activate” Placemaking Event Celebrated Filipino Culture

By John Greenfield | Oct 21, 2014 | 3 Comments

The Chicago Loop Alliance’s ambitious program of 2014 placemaking projects is drawing to a close. Last Thursday, the group hosted a vibrant arts event in a Loop alley, inspired by the sights and sounds of a Manila marketplace. This was scheduled to be the last of the monthly “Activate” series, which transforms downtown passageways into […]

Local Architects Envision “Meeting Place” At Empty Logan Square Plaza

By Steven Vance | Aug 19, 2014 | 7 Comments

This past Sunday, the usually forlorn bus transfer plaza above the Logan Square Blue Line station suddenly looked very different. Architects Krista Petkovsek and Kara Boyd had scrounged nearby alleys, rounded up a couple dozen used chairs, painted them orange, and scattered them around the plaza to spark a conversation about how to enliven the empty space, […]

Plantings, Art, Down-A-Clown Enliven Unloved Ravenswood Lot

By John Greenfield | Aug 19, 2014 | 4 Comments

Last weekend, community groups across the city staged placemaking events in under-used lots, plazas and corners, all part of the Metropolitan Planning Council’s Old Place, New Tricks contest. The Grow Space Picnic, held in a gravel parking lot at Ravenswood and Wilson, was a great example of how fun, games, and art can energize ho-hum […]

16 Placemaking Events Going on All Around the City This Weekend

By John Greenfield | Aug 15, 2014 | No Comments

Looking for something fun to do this weekend? Look no further. Below you’ll find a handy chart of all the fantastic community-building events going on from today through Sunday as part of the Metropolitan Planning Council’s Old Place, New Tricks placemaking competition. The contest inspired residents to energize under-used public spaces like vacant lots, plazas […]

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William H. Whyte in His Own Words: “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces”

By Clarence Eckerson Jr. | Jul 25, 2014 | No Comments

When I first got started making NYC bike advocacy and car-free streets videos back in the late-1990s on cable TV, I didn’t know who William “Holly” Whyte was or just how much influence his work and research had on New York City. A few years later I met Fred and Ethan Kent at Project for Public Spaces. I got a copy of […]

“People Street” to Pop Up, Activate Andersonville’s North End on Friday

By Shaun Jacobsen | Jul 22, 2014 | 10 Comments

Even though Chicago may not be getting any Open Streets this year, we don’t have to worry about any shortage of opportunities to enjoy car-free streets full of live music, local food, and beautiful summer weather. Chicagoans can instead turn to the city’s scores of summertime street festivals, including a new concept in Andersonville: two […]

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Connecting Detroit Neighborhoods With Better Streets and Public Spaces

By Angie Schmitt | Jul 16, 2014 | 1 Comment

Can safer streets and livelier public spaces help knit Detroit back together? The Michigan Municipal League thinks so, and it is working hard to show southeast Michigan how. Recently the organization teamed up with some partners to address a problem area in southwest Detroit, or Mexicantown. Sarah Craft at the Economics of Place blog explains: […]

Lakeview SSA Readies Placemaking Plan For Lincoln Avenue

By Steven Vance | Jun 16, 2014 | No Comments

Lisa Santos hopes that a new Lincoln Avenue Placemaking Plan will “slow down traffic – people, too – on Lincoln Avenue, so they can see our independent businesses.” Santos owns Southport Grocery and also chairs the West Lakeview Special Service Area #27, one of Chicago’s 44 business improvement districts. The SSA and the Lakeview Chamber of […]

Loop Alliance Hopes New Seating Will Make Pritzker Park Stand Tall

By John Greenfield | Jun 10, 2014 | 9 Comments

Despite the dreary weather, two of the Chicago Loop Alliance’s new placemaking initiatives, the activation of Pritzker Park, located at Jackson and Van Buren, and the #CitySeats pop-up seating program, started off with a bang today. A lunchtime celebration of the park’s new café tables drew scores of people, who enjoyed free coffee, savory pies […]

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