Every building and space has a little something to offer our cities. Across the globe, cities and towns are fighting to create human connections, experiences, and relationships that are active, safe, and memorable. Standing in their way are cities’ inherent complexities and messiness oftentimes coupled with distances and spaces that feel overwhelmingly large. The response typically leans heavily on traditional retail, which has become a fickle friend always in transition. So what can placemakers and place managers do? Our response has been the relentless focus on how and where shared human experiences are most felt: the first 16 feet out and up from space’s edge. We have yet to meet an environment that can’t be positively transformed by targeting efforts in this seam between a building’s ground-floor frontage and a street, vacant lot, alley, park or any other reclaimable real estate. It is here where the incremental cumulation of relatively small interventions can reshape the experience of a place. We have found that sorting out where, what and by whom critical to unlocking the energy of the first 16 feet.
Articulate design and land use decisions that most impact a safe and active street environment and apply the First 16 Feet framework to a wide range of projects.
Connect current obstacles in the built environment to the broader U.S. historical context that created our predominately car-oriented spaces.
Take home lessons learned from street and public space improvements tested through quick, tactical builds.
