CREJ

24 / BUILDING DIALOGUE / December 2020 ELEMENTS Placemaking The Power of Creative Placemaking:Telling the Story W ondering what works in the post-crisis market? Creative place- making is a proving to be the secret to building places that thrive on diversity, turn overlooked communities into found treasures, create triple-bottom-line sustainability, and still offer market returns. While “placemaking” has been with us since the 1960s, adding the word “creative” makes arts, culture and community pro- cess the focus. “Arts and culture” has a broad definition that of- ten starts with history and stories about that specif- ic location and the peoplewho created it. It stretches far beyond images and music to foods, clothes, danc- es, games, religion, furniture, sports, books, educa- tion, design and more. It’s also about the people and processes that create those things, especially if there is a chance to interact and even impact the outcome. And when local culture is the underlying theme, it can’t be duplicated. New people come because it is unique and stimulating. People come back because they feel comfortable and welcome. The result is more customers, durable markets and stronger com- munities. This approach is not new. Chataqua was built around the opportunity to share education and cul- ture in beautiful natural surroundings. Coffee hous- es that featured jazz musicians and poetry readings in the 1950s are legendary. When Larimer Square emerged, the draw of repurposed historic buildings offering food and shopping was magical. Early on, LoDo was branded by City Spirit, a tiny coffee shop immersed in colorful tile art as the entry to the city’s best architectural bookstore downstairs. The per- sistent dream to truly restore the Rossonian district stems from deep desire to recapture the music, food, vibe and culture of Five Points in its heyday. Our prepandemic era encouraged rapid develop- ment, much of it single purpose, most of it standard- ized and ambivalent to locale, and little of it truly beautiful. Going forward, however, our new normal will require a deeper commitment to authentic projects, special places and memorable times. Insta- gram moments. People want to be stimulated, peo- ple watch, interact with others, exchange ideas, and only perhaps buy goods and services. Younger gen- erations in particular don’t want to feel pressured or manipulated by commercial interests. And while they still want the experience to be efficient, it’s more about “play and stay” than “grab and go.” But development still has to pencil out and getting the right mix of revenue generation and amenity package is key. It’s no longer enough to add a sculp- ture or mural wall to an otherwise standard product like a cherry on an ice cream sundae. And good archi- tecture is critical, but it isn’t enough. Creative placemaking addresses this challenge by changing the approach and starting with the ques- tion, “How can this project tell the story of this com- munity and still work?” Here are some of the best development practices: • Make artists part of the early, core team. They help find different ways to set the brand, innovate value engineering solutions, bring resources, cus- tomers and tenants previously unimagined. • Go early to the community. Learn their stories and what they love as well as their market needs before conceiving the project. This takes time but having locals understand and be part of the project gives it authenticity, builds demand and smooths en- titlements. • Know what you don’t want as much as what you do want. Post-pandemic, neighborhood displace- ment, racial inequities and exclusion, economic profiling, unhealthy environments or environmen- tally irresponsible practices will undermine the oth- erwise-best of projects going forward. • Stretch to new partnerships. Creative placemak- ing attracts public, nonprofit and philanthropic sup- port. Unexpected assistance can come from national and local arts, housing, health, economic develop- ment, historic preservation, transportation, agricul- ture and other groups. • Think hyper local. Consider how the place is con- ceived, who builds it, occupies it, runs it, lives there, works there, shops there, visits and returns. Mini- Marilee Utter, CRE President, Citiventure Associates River North captures the local spirit.