Building Community, Creating Places and Sustaining Neighborhoods

Keynote with Fred Kent

Speaker: Fred Kent
Date: May 7, 2010
Time: 8–10 a.m.
Location: Mid-America Regional Council
600 Broadway, Suite 200
Kansas City, MO 64105
Fee: $25 per person
$15 student rate
$180 for a table of 8

Creating vibrant public places is a key element of our region's aspiration to become a sustainable community. As the long-time director of the Project for Public Places (PPS), Fred Kent has exerted enormous influence within the United States and internationally about how to create places that people intuitively like and where communities thrive. PPS was key in developing the concept of placemaking , which is not just the act of building or fixing up a space, but a whole process that fosters the creation of vital public destinations: the kind of places where people feel a strong stake in their communities and a commitment to making things better.

Building on the techniques of William H. Whyte's Street Life Project, this approach involves looking at, listening to and asking questions of the people in a community to discover their needs and aspirations. Simply put, place-making capitalizes on a local community's assets, inspiration, and potential, ultimately creating good public spaces that promote people's health, happiness, and well being.

The realm of “place-making” in the context of community development and sustainable urban design requires a thoughtful mix of policy, planning and design elements. In his presentation, Mr. Kent will describe national trends and models that will inform the practice of building quality places in ways that bring communities together and revitalize underperforming spaces.

 

Registration: