Planning and Sense of Place in a ‘Dying’ Downtown: Articulating Memories and Visions in Middletown, Ohio

Abstract

Integrating place perceptions in context-sensitive development remains a challenge for planners and designers, particularly in de-industrialized cities desperate for downtown revitalization. Writings abound on sense of place and participatory planning, but often underestimate the challenges of linking them in practice. This study explores methods of gauging downtown sense of place by gathering ‘downtown stories’ and conducting semi-structured interviews in the post-industrial city of Middletown Ohio, which a national magazine named as one of ‘America's Fastest Dying Towns’. Through public forums it also begins articulating ‘downtown visions’—place perceptions and hopes for revitalization—in the language of planning and design. While the study suggests gauging such perceptions is essential for any meaningful framework for community participation, doing so is fraught with difficulties that urban designers must confront.