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Abstract
Place-making, as a thoughtful planning, design and management approach to creating communities, is critical not only to designers of the built environment, but also to developers and municipal officials who look to build and/or regenerate urban spaces that translate into vibrant successful places. Using criteria established in the Project for Public Places ‘What Makes a Successful Place?’ matrix, this paper applies onsite ethnographic research in analyzing three US canal oriented developments (CODs) to determine whether each place-based development has created a ‘successful’ place and used its canal feature as a development component in spurring urban growth and regeneration. More specifically, these canal-oriented CODs are assessed on the basis of how successful each is at (1) embracing the canal in its design and development, (2) intermingling the space with the greater urban form, and (3) connecting private and public spaces.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank both Dr Emily Talen and Dr Nan Ellin for their support and guidance in fleshing out the ideas and themes of place-making and Canal Oriented Development. He would also like to thank the independent reviewers of the journal as well as his colleagues for their help with reconfiguring this paper, especially Ian Trivers.
Notes
1. The archetype for this kind of landlocked waterfront place development is best exemplified by the Riverwalk in San Antonio, which has become the inspiration of and blueprint for the CODs that have followed.
2. The canals in this study to one degree or another could be considered transit routes within their urban systems. Both Mandalay and Bricktown are situated on navigable canals while the Waterfront canal is non-navigable though paths that line the canal are used by pedestrians and bicyclists as transit routes through the city.
3. The Project for Public Spaces (PPS), is a non-profit planning, design and educational organization that has experience in working with over 3000 communities and in 43 countries since 1975 (pps.org, 2015).