What Does It Take to Make a Place?

During my undergraduate studies, I learned that successful gathering places have five key components: protection from the elements (shade from the sun and rain); proximity to water (fountains, ponds, waterfalls); seating, background sounds (could be water, music or even the hum of traffic); and pleasant smells (food or flowers). Each of these key ingredients fosters relationships between people, but they also connect people to place.

Image 1 shows a large area that, at first, appears to be a decent gathering place. On closer examination, it’s evident that people walk through the area but don’t necessarily feel invited to stop and enjoy it. This dramatic yet austere public space clearly lacks some of the key components mentioned above, but it also conveys how scale can affect the feel of a gathering place. The massive size of the building and plaza swallows the human element and doesn’t allow people to feel connected to place or to each other. Just looking at the picture evokes a sense of loneliness, distance and separation.

Then there are gathering places that lack key place components but still attract large groups of people, such as teenagers in parking lots. How does a parking lot become a youth hotspot? Have we relegated our youth to these ‘non-places’ due to a lack of options, or do they consciously choose a parking lot over a public park for the sake of rebel-without-a-cause non-conformity? Maybe, but I’m guessing youth are often drawn wherever they’re drawn more for the connection to each other than for the connection to place.

In another place example, Image 2 shows what connection to place—and one’s interaction with others in that place—looks like. It evokes a completely different feeling from the imposing, sleek-sided veneer of the building in Image 1, or from a parking lot, for that matter.

Place-making, somewhat ironically, is now recognized by corporate America (Image 3). Target discovered how to profit from making their stores more than just a retail experience. Dev Patnaik, author of Wired to Care, commented in a video blog that Target “stopped competing with Wal-Mart by creating a community” inside the store. Target uses place-making as a tool to distinguish themselves from Wal-Mart, and their “community” is comprised of what could be considered temporary residents. Patnaik describes young moms spending an evening shopping with friends, or dads taking their children to the store “when there’s no other place to go.”

Target as place. This is a new concept for me. Are people are connecting to people or to place in this scenario? Are they connecting to anything, or are they just buying stuff and leaving the way they do at other mega-stores? Do they care about their experience, or are they ambivalent to it?

Whatever the behavoiral psychology behind the Target “community,” place-making isn’t a new concept, nor is it peripheral. Cities and towns of all sizes (and budgets) need to make this a central tenet of how they revitalize old quarters and build new ones. There are plenty of placeless places in this country. It’s time to get vigilant about bucking that trend.