Version 1: Who We Are - PPS' 50th Anniversary and the Global Placemaking Movement/Alliance

Happy 50th anniversary Project for Public Spaces!

Today we celebrate 50 years of Placemaking. While the date of PPS's incorporation was March 6, 1975, the founding of Project for Public Spaces, Inc. began its journey with Earth Day in 1970. Fred Kent, PPS's founder, helped organize it before moving on to work with William H. ("Holly") Whyte's Street Life Project.

Holly had an office in the Rockefeller Center, working under the auspices of the National Recreation and Parks Association. Project for Public Spaces was set up to "better function as an advocate for improved public spaces" with Holly – who was busy finishing his book and film, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces – serving as an advisor. PPS's start-up funding also came from Rockefellers: the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Rockefeller Family Fund, and free office space was provided in Rockefeller Center in return for assistance with improving its public spaces.

Now, 50 years later, the Placemaking movement has moved out of that building and has spread all across the world. It is still going strong and growing bigger than we could have ever imagined.

The Global Placemaking Network is Becoming a Global Alliance

The global Placemaking network provides an opportunity for global and local organizations and foundations to scale up their projects for collective impact. It represents multiple regions around the world where there are teams of people working on placemaking projects and using them to address local issues. Collecting and connecting them fosters collaborations across cultures and continents for greater impacts. Harnessing their passion and knowledge via the network offers them a chance to also have an impact on major issues such as climate change.

The mission of the Placemaking Alliance is to be a global network of leaders who together accelerate placemaking as a way to create healthy, inclusive, and beloved communities in order to incite a renaissance of community connection in public spaces around the globe. Through online publications, presentations, campaigns, and catalytic projects, we can create transformative impact on communities everywhere. Our work grows out of more than 50 years devoted to building the global placemaking movement. The Placemaking Fund includes the initiatives of Social Life Project along with PlacemakingX .