Public Sphere Projects

We’re back from Allentown, Pennsylvania, where our team is working alongside Allentown Economic Development Corporation, Mayor Matt Tuerk, Senator Nick Miller, and other leaders on ideas for reenergizing the downtown core. We were smitten with the city’s historic streets and booming new developments; with its gentle hills and packed restaurants. And we couldn’t feel more warmly welcomed by the city’s majority Latinx community, with whom we celebrated Dia de los Muertos. In the coming weeks, Public Sphere Projects, alongside our partners, Agora Cultural Architects and Michael Berne, will finalize a downtown activation strategy that establishes placekeeping principles, elevates cultural assets, structures public finance, and brings together an inclusive coalition for long-term stewardship. 📸: (1) City of Allentown / Marco Calderon Photography #cities #downtowns #placemaking #economicdevelopment #allentown #allentownpa #diadelosmuertos #publicsphereprojects

Thanks for rocking & rolling with us at the International Downtown Association's 70th Annual Conference & Marketplace in Seattle!  🤘 Friends and colleagues from around the world dropped in to listen to music, share songs to a mixtape, and, of course, geek out on all things creative placemaking and place management. Special thanks to our west-coast crew for making our Mix Tape afterparty a huge success, featuring KEXP's DJ Alex White.  If you missed out on the action, sign up for our newsletter and listen to our shared Spotify Playlist. #IDASEA24 https://psp.city/

We at Public Sphere Projects had a blast joining our friends at the Detroit Design District and Method Development LLC last night for the opening of Environment + Microclimates, an interactive art exhibit at Detroit’s historic Boyer Campbell Building. Situated in the Milwaukee Junction neighborhood, the Detroit Design District is home to many of Detroit’s most creative thinkers, artists and makers. It is a community made by many hands, and loved by many hearts. Be sure to follow at https://lnkd.in/gU2VgGtQ for all the latest happenings coming soon to this heady, tasty, and funky place. #placemaking #publicart #detroitdesigndistrict #detroit

Seattle’s music has captured the world’s headphones — and launched a movement. At this year’s International Downtown Association Annual Conference and Marketplace, we at Public Sphere Projects are celebrating the culture-builders and music-makers who make cities move. Get ready to jam. Grab a ticket before they’re gone at psp.city. 🎟️ #IDASEA24

Movements start with a mixtape. Public Sphere Projects presents MIX IT UP, an after-hours jam for #IDASEA24 attendees. Add your name to the mix at psp.city🤘

The solstice edition of Public Sphere Projects' newsletter dropped earlier this week! ☀️ 🏙️ Read about our contributions to an Urban Land Institute Advisory Services Panel focused on St. Louis' Gateway Mall, adopted by Greater St. Louis, Inc. to enhance downtown and uplift local BIPOC communities. 💪 Learn about our work in Downtown Boston where we helped envision and launch “Level Up Downtown,” a retail activation program that is revitalizing the city's central district by creating opportunities for emerging local businesses. 📝 Explore our strategic plan for the new Downtown Fayetteville Coalition, a partner of Experience Fayetteville, AR, which outlines a financial, governance, and operational model for the emerging organization while ensuring that, true to the city’s motto, Fayetteville stays funky. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gAUaqYHJ #downtown #strategicplanning #retailactivation

You heard it here first. Big things are happening at Public Sphere Projects! 🚀

American cities bear the scars of systemic racism, in the form of divisive infrastructures, disinvested neighborhoods, and depleted social spaces. Together with community partners, we at Public Sphere Projects are dedicated to building a new urban landscape, grounded in the values of justice and joy. We stand in awe of those who have worked — and continue to struggle — toward liberation. #Juneteenth

Public Sphere Projects was honored to contribute our expertise as part of an Urban Land Institute Advisory Services Panel focused on St. Louis' historic Gateway Mall. Together with a panel of urban planning and real estate experts from around the world, we held in-depth interviews with nearly 100 local stakeholders, deliberated on potential courses of action, and presented our preliminary findings to the public. What struck our panel wasn’t the usual list of challenges. The extraordinary talent and creativity on display in neighborhoods, the resources that policymakers brought to the table, and the love that residents held for the city — that’s what stayed with us through the planning process. St. Louis has in abundance the most valuable assets a city can wish for, we wrote in our report. More than any external investments or signature infrastructure, a city is made by the love, the will, and the creativity of its people. Thank you to our colleagues at ULI St. Louis, Greater St. Louis, Inc., and St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) for inviting Public Sphere Projects to join this critical discussion. We are grateful to have participated alongside some of our smartest and most accomplished peers. Read more and download the panel's comprehensive report below. #urbanplanning #placemaking #downtowns

A few years ago, when they were both leading arts and culture projects at Sasaki, our colleague Anastasia Osorio from PORT and PSP’s Philip Barash spent a week in St. Louis at the American Alliance of Museums conference. The trip’s defining moment was when they wandered into “Joe,” an installation by American sculptor Richard Serra, who passed away yesterday at the age of 85. When they reemerged, Anastasia and Philip co-wrote a piece that opens with a passage contemplating "Joe": “A moment approaching the sublime came upon us when we two faced the setting sun, framed against a cloudless sky by Richard Serra’s ‘Joe.’ We were in the center of the sculpture, having followed a museum docent through a spiraling, disorienting passage. Aside from the docent and the sun, we were alone in the universe. ‘Joe’ is one of only three permanent pieces at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, an infinitely horizontal structure designed by Tadao Ando. It asserts itself only to expose views, to lend light, to frame art. As part of the annual conference of the American Alliance of Museums, we had arranged an after-hours visit to the Pulitzer — to commune with art and to gossip with arts professionals. ‘Earlier, there was one cloud,’ the docent said. We nodded. ‘I thought it would be good in our collection.’” Remembering the life and legacy of Richard Serra today — and the impact he made on our shared places. #PublicSphereProjects #RichardSerra #publicart #sculpture