Placemaking is a collaborative process that invites all members of a community to reimagine and reinvent shared public spaces. More than urban design, placemaking facilitates creative use with particular attention to the physical, cultural, and social identities that define a place and support its ongoing evolution. A panel of design professionals will discuss the use of temporary placemaking in communities facing change to spark public conversation about challenges and opportunities; employing placemaking to activate inactive public spaces; and using placemaking competitions to inspire and engage the community during this session of the Old Line State Summit to be held on July 24, 2019 in Frederick, Maryland.
Free Resource: Preservation Maryland is pleased to provide access to the presentations given at the Old Line State Summit.
SESSION SUMMARY
Placemaking is a collaborative process that invites all members of a community to reimagine and reinvent shared public spaces. More than urban design, placemaking facilitates creative use with particular attention to the physical, cultural, and social identities that define a place and support its ongoing evolution.
During this session, artist, architect, and educator Ronit Eisenbach will discuss the use of temporary placemaking in communities facing change to build partnerships, bring more people to the table, and spark public conversation about shared experiences, challenges, and opportunities. Projects in Chestertown and the Long Branch area of Silver Spring will be highlighted.
Landscape architect Tom McGilloway will discuss employing placemaking to activate inactive public spaces, highlighting practical solutions that have been implemented in downtown Leonardtown and the City of Baltimore’s Wyman Park.
Director of the Downtown Frederick Partnership and professional planner Kara Norman will discuss placemaking projects that have been installed in the City of Frederick and the city’s placemaking competition – Pitchcraft – which invites creative people from every background and profession to pitch an idea that, if implemented, will better connect the people and places in Downtown Frederick.
Learn how placemaking could be employed to improve the experience of shared spaces in your community at this session of the Old Line State Summit to be held on July 24, 2019 at the Delaplaine Arts Center.
MEET THE SPEAKERS
RONIT EISENBACH
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Ronit Eisenbach is an architect, artist, curator, and educator whose scholarship and multi-disciplinary spatial practice aims to engage others in dialogue about the world we make for ourselves. At the University of Maryland she teaches undergraduate and graduate architecture studios, contemporary theory, and an introductory course about the built environment. She has also designed interdisciplinary courses that she has co-taught with faculty in dance and art. A new course “Making Place: Public Art and Design” developed with Sculpture Professor John Ruppert and Urban Planning Professor Gerrit Knapp has been selected by the Academy of Innovation & Entrepeneurship as a new “Fearless Ideas Course.” Ronit is a graduate of the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Rhode Island School of Design, and a current member of the National Building Museum’s Education Committee.
TOM McGILLOWAY, PLA
MAHAN RYKIEL
Tom McGilloway joined Mahan Rykiel in the fall of 2001 after 17 years at LDR International, Inc. In his time at Mahan Rykiel, Tom has led the Downtown Baltimore Open Space Plan; Downtown State College (PA) Master Plan; downtown revitalization charrettes and master plans for over 40 communities throughout Maryland, South Carolina, Mississippi and Vermont; the Bland Air Regional Park master plan in Howard County, MD; and the Southwest Sector Plan for University of Maryland, College Park. He is currently leading the master plan for Baltimore’s iconic Patterson Park and just completed the Lancaster (PA) Economic Development Strategic Plan. Tom holds a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from the Pennsylvania State University. In addition to his professional experience, Tom is a frequent speaker at park and revitalization conferences and is active in preservation and revitalization in his own community.
KARA NORMAN, AICP
DOWNTOWN FREDERICK PARTNERSHIP
Kara has served as the Executive Director of Downtown Frederick Partnership since October 2002. The Partnership is a historic preservation based economic development nonprofit that works to enhance, promote, and preserve the vitality and livability of Downtown Frederick. The organization implements the Main Street Program, a downtown development framework developed by the National Main Street Center that is creating success in over 1,000 cities across the US. Prior to joining the Partnership, Kara spent 5 years in San Antonio working as a neighborhood planner and a special projects coordinator. Kara also has worked in North Carolina, Iowa and Missouri. She has a bachelors degree from Iowa State University and a masters in planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Kara has more than 25 years of experience in the planning field, working for nonprofits, government agencies, and consultants.