What We Get Right at Home and Wrong in Public
The three traps that keep us from building better places.
Practice of Place
Practice of Place focuses on the art and science of bringing life to our public and shared spaces. We delve into the intersections of design, organizational incentives, events, operations and more to unpack the best strategies for you and your place
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Latest posts
What You're Saying About "Placemaking"
Practitioners weigh in on the use and abuse of the term - a collaborative post with Project for Public Spaces
Podcast: Max Musicant on Strong Towns' Bottom-Up Revolution
On why public spaces fail after the ribbon cutting and what to do about it
A Reader Submits: River Street Plaza - Site Plan Review
Applying the three red flags to assess a real community project: and what to do about it.
Complete Streets Don’t Make Complete Places
A well-intentioned focus on making streets that are safer to move along and across often misses the mark on creating places where people want to be.
Sighting the Problems of a Site Plan
A practical guide to evaluating designs before they become reality.
How To Reshape a Place, One Foot at a Time
How to assess a site in order to make it better - through incremental changes or a full-on redesign.
The Emperor Has No Clothes and Our Public Realm Has No Program
Why Most Public Spaces Fail
Placemaking Is Dead, Long Live Placemaking!
Placemaking has lost its way. Here's why it still matters.
A Year in Practice: The Musicant Group 2025 Recap
Between the time this update was drafted and we got to the final version, the hostile presence of ICE and Border Patrol in Minneapolis resulted in the murder of Renee Nicole Good.