by Neil Takemoto
Trendwatching.com reports that with 180,000 people moving into cities daily, a rising creative urban population they refer to as Citysumers
are defining a new generation that’s more demanding, open-minded,
connected, spontaneous and more try-out-prone than ever. What that means
is if there ever was a time to experiment with forward-thinking placemaking, the time is now.
The current manifestation of that mentality is with ‘pop-up’ placemaking.
It allow cities to try out innovative placemaking without much if any
taxpayer commitment. What happens more often than not, however, is that
the aforementioned citysumers see it as an opportunity to make it
permanent. From Cities rethink urban spaces with ‘pop-up’ projects:
- Pop-up placemaking took off in Copenhagen in the 1950s when the
City’s closing of its main downtown Strøget Street to car traffic turned
public opposition into such a well-received experience, what was
supposed to be temporary over the Christmas holiday has been permanent
ever since.
- In 2009 New York City closed Times Square to cars temporarily and found that business revenue increased 71%, injuries to motorists and passengers dropped 63% and northbound west midtown trips were actually 17% faster. It’s been closed permanently ever since.
- Vancouver’s VIVA program began a roving street closing program in 2009 to test pedestrian-only places in neighborhoods throughout the city (see photo above).
- Bristol, Connecticut hosted a pop-up piazza festival in August, 2011 to test out its upcoming piazza on its future site, presently within a giant parking lot. Expecting 1500 people, it attracted upwards of ten times that many.
- In 2009 New York City closed Times Square to cars temporarily and found that business revenue increased 71%, injuries to motorists and passengers dropped 63% and northbound west midtown trips were actually 17% faster. It’s been closed permanently ever since.
- Vancouver’s VIVA program began a roving street closing program in 2009 to test pedestrian-only places in neighborhoods throughout the city (see photo above).
- Bristol, Connecticut hosted a pop-up piazza festival in August, 2011 to test out its upcoming piazza on its future site, presently within a giant parking lot. Expecting 1500 people, it attracted upwards of ten times that many.
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| Restuarants in Queen West, Toronto, by LexnGer |
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| Queen West, Toronto, by Danielle Scott |
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