Our Role

PlacemakingUS is a national network organized to unleash community power to build living, interconnected places together. Through our “United Streets of America” program, we prioritize working with frontline communities that have been uprooted and looted by destructive urban planning, auto-oriented development, racist policies and unequal investment. Our network is fighting back by equipping communities across the country with a range of tools, experiences, funding and new relationships to regenerate their neighborhoods into complex, resilient systems transformed to face 21st century issues like climate change, isolation/polarization, economic inequity and public health.

We are organized as a 501c(3) non-profit project of Social Environmental Entrepreneurs. Please donate and support our work!
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Our Story

Placemaking is a humanistic, multi-disciplined approach to urbanism promoted by the United Nations New Urban Agenda and deeply rooted in the studies and approaches of American thinkers and do-ers like Margaret Mead, Jane Jacobs, William White, Christopher Alexander (yeah, we're claimin' him), the Project for Public Spaces and many more since.

At the Project for Public Space's 2019 US Placemaking Week, Ethan Kent of PlacemakingX tasked Ryan Smolar  with initiating a new placemaking network to cover the United States.

​​"I am so inspired by our counterparts around the world," said network initiator, Ryan Smolar. 

​"Placemaking Europe, Asia, Latin America, Australia and other established placemaking networks have shown us the way, bringing many countries together for collaborative work and camaraderie."

In 2022, after substantial growth in activities, members and partners, we have organized as a 501c(3) non-profit project of Social Environmental Entrepreneurs. Become a Donor.

​Interests piqued? Please reach out to Ryan as he will be working to bring representatives from all of the networks -- from Europe, Latin America, Asia and others.

Goodbye 2023, Hello 2024!

Farewell, 2023! Join our end-of-the-year summary of our learning from hundreds of days on the road visiting cities, attending conferences and creating synergies across the placemaking networks. This recording will grant you the insights we gathered across the country and around the world at dozens of conferences and visits.​

Watch the Video

Find Out What We Learned in 2022

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​ 2022 Impact Report

In 2022, PlacemakingUS achieved the important milestone of obtaining 501(c)(3) non-profit status under the fiscal-hosting of Social Environmental Entrepreneurs in Southern California.

We hope to utilize our non-profit status to receive grants, foundation support, technical assistance contracts and individual donations to help us carry out our mission to "bring together placemakers from around the world to help communities create better places."
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We also spent this year going both wide and deep. Co-director Ryan Smolar visited four continents to listen about how placemaking is being discussed and implemented around the globe and he shared-out our aggregated knowledge. Meanwhile, Co-director Madeleine Spencer worked closely with the community of South Park in Seattle, Washington on an opportunity to work with local placemakers to reconnect the urban fabric with a community vision for removing a freeway that egregiously divides a historically, working-class neighborhood in half.

In 2023, we will continue to spread placemaking as a strategy for the frontlines of the greatest callings and crises of our time: climate change and economic transformation, inequality and access, housing, democracy and polarization, and unleashing creativity to solve problem and make life beautiful.

With your partnership, we can support communities across the US and around the world to realize their potential to make great places and to keep them. Special thanks to all our collaborators , especially Ethan Kent of PlacemakingX, our fellow network leaders and regional partners across the country!

READ OUR 2022 impact report

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​ 2020 Highlights Report

Since Covid-19 struck in 2020, we quickly dashed our in-person plans for Placemaking Festivals in Portland, Long Beach and Philadelphia, and pivoted towards online interactions including webinars, international placemaking "tool tests," Zoom workgroups, in-person check-ins when safe, and we even commissioned a series of volunteer cross-country projects.

​Facing an incredibly unique set of circumstances in our first full-year, we are excited to share the work that was done towards our goal of fostering a network to bring US-based placemakers together to spread innovations and support and share in the good work from across the country and around the globe.

READ OUR 2020 highlights report

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MEET THE  TEAM

PlacemakingUS Leadership

We are collectively building PlacemakingUS by connecting and sharing our talents, stories and resources. 

​Join us in collectively shaping and building PlacemakingUS:

GLOBAL COORDINATING PARTNER
PlacemakingX

REGIONAL COORDINATING PARTNERS
Placemaking Europe 
Fundación Placemaking México
Japan Tactical Urbanism & Placemaking Network
Town Team Movement 
Placemaking Nepal
Placemaking Pilipinas 
Placemaking Malaysia
Placemaking LatinoAmerica
Placemaking Asia
Canadian Urban Institute
Michigan Municipal League
Singapore Placemaking Network

US NETWORK PARTNERS
Placemaking Vermont Network
Washington DC Area Place Leadership Council
Placemaking Raleigh
City Repair, Portland
United Way Greater Los Angeles, California
​Street Plans, New York City
Long Beach Fresh, California
Thrive Asheville, North Carolina
Studio 111, California

DOMESTIC PRACTITIONERS/LEADERS HELPING US
Ryan Smolar, Downtown Santa Ana BID and Long Beach Fresh food policy council, Southern California & Portland, OR
Ethan Kent, Co-director of PlacemakingX, our global coordinating partner, New York
Josh Kent, Co-director of PlacemakingX, our global coordinating partner, New York
Madeleine Spencer, depth psychologist and public arts, culture, education & inclusive economics leader, Santa Ana, California
Lili Razi, Center City BID, Philadelphia
Kady Yellow, Downtown Vision, Jacksonville, Florida
Amy Stelly, Claiborne Alliance, Treme, New Orleans, Louisiana
Mike Lydon, Street Plans
Nate Hommel, University City District, Philadelphia
Krista Nightengale, Better Block Foundation, Dallas
Tina Govan, Placemaking Studio, Raleigh
​Carmen Mays, Elevators on 4th, Birmingham
Jim Walker and Shauta Marsh, Big Car social practice arts collective & neighborhood, Indianapolis
Mark Lakeman, City Repair, Portland
Rebecca Sanborn Stone, Community Workshops LLC, Vermont
Greg Raisman, Portland Bureau of Transportation
Alan Pullman, Studio 111, architect and placemaker
Jackson Chabot, The Open Planning Project

SENIOR ADVISORS
Michael Mehaffy
Julian Agyeman
Dan Gilmartin
Rico Quirindongo
Rich Bradley
​Robin Abad-Ocubillo
Uwe Brandes

JOIN THE TEAM

Become a PlacemakingUS Leader

PlacemakingUS is a voluntary PlacemakingX regional network inspired by our sister networks in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

If you would like to join us in helping jumpstart our nation's network, your participation could take a few different forms including:

1. Helping administer the main group's activities, communications, funding and strategy.
2. Organizing your local state, city or sub-regional network for the national network to coordinate with (there are already local networks in San Francisco, Michigan, Vermont and a budding one in the Southeastern US!)
3. Partner with us to produce an online webinar or content. See our Webinar Partnership Guide.
4. Organizing a national topic workgroup around issues like Climate Change, Tool Testing, Publications/Reports or Inclusivity. See a full list of Europe's established workgroups here. 
5. Organizing a Placemaker Week or Placemaker Weekend, trainings or topic events in your area in coordination with PlacemakingUS, our international sister networks, and our global partner, PlacemakingX.

Contact Network Leader Ryan Smolar to get started!