Thinking About Placemaking

Gum Wall, Seattle, WA

The word placemaking has a bit of a bum rep these days. But I really like the word. For me, it is the whole point of starting ThereSquared. I like the idea of helping to create places where people want to go and hang out, places that just feel special. Places that attract a crowd. Places that feel safe and welcoming. Places that have creativity and energy. They keep you coming back. These are the places you wanna take your aunt and uncle who are visiting from Nebraska. Some great places like this just happen organically. Like the Gum Wall in Seattle. People line up to take selfies next to thousands of used wads of gum, add their own, marvel at the array of color and blobbery, and then disappear around the corner to the Pikes Place Market where they can shop for tchotchkes and art, eat some smoked salmon or just look out at the beautiful view. It is a memory we all take home--but it is packaged together. One place doesn't exist without the other.

Making memorable places like this shouldn't be that hard (how hard is it to start sticking gum on a wall?), but it seems much more complicated than it should be. Not all gum walls are created equal.

Have you been to a run-down mall in the suburbs where half of the stores are closed up, the restaurants (the ones that are open) are all lame/corporate, there's eerie "McMusic" is piped in from outdoor speakers I can never find? Where is everybody? (I have a mall in mind as I describe this blah place.) Placemaking failure. Who knows why. Maybe they need a gum wall.

People spend lots of money and time trying to plan for public places where people feel compelled to gather. Placemaking is about getting the right combination of all sorts of factors: places to eat, play, sit around and watch other people, places to shop and engage with art and music, places to take in a view or a demonstration, play chess, shop and sit in the shade--do all the other things we love to do as humans. Sometimes we fail miserably at making great places. Sometimes we get it right. That's what I obsess about at ThereSquared. How to get it right.