Dear Public Space Leader,

Since the founding of Project for Public Spaces in 1975, our mission has driven us to help hundreds of thousands of people around the world understand and improve the public spaces in their own cities and towns. Our placemaking approach, which is rooted in collaboration across sectors, disciplines, and communities, has become woven into the fabric of our relationships with a global network of placemakers.

Because of this, we are proud to look back on 2024 as a year we shared with you—our partner organizations, grantees, conference attendees, training and webinar participants, supporters, and everyone who believes in the transformative power of public space. Working together and learning from one another has allowed us to lean on each other and stand strong in the face of the challenges public spaces face today. Just think back on all the ideas we’ve shared, communities we’ve reached, and places we’ve transformed through this movement. 

Our sold-out 4th International Placemaking Week in Baltimore, Maryland, in June, was a highlight of the year. Over 600 public space professionals gathered to experience placemaking put into practice throughout the city and shared how their work is helping public spaces of all types fulfill their potential as the civic infrastructure that uplifts people of all kinds. We explored important topics, including equity, resilience, creative placemaking, and placekeeping. Placemaking Week demonstrated that there are endless opportunities for new communities to harness placemaking to improve their well-being.

In our ongoing commitment to ensuring equitable access to our learning community, we prioritized direct funding and expanded our low-to-no-cost opportunities throughout 2024. We committed $740,000 in direct funding and dedicated over 1,000 hours of technical assistance through our Community Placemaking Grants, which helped local nonprofits and government agencies transform 14 public spaces across the country. We’re also proud to have awarded nearly 80 training scholarships—double the number from 2023—and 48 conference scholarships—up 20% from the previous event. Conference scholarships awarded to our Community Placemaking Grant recipients were especially meaningful as they provided an opportunity for awardees to meet in person for the first time and experience the educational and social benefits of the event at no cost. 

Our Market Cities Network also made great strides over the course of 2024. As the Network celebrated its first anniversary in June, it welcomed 14 new members, bringing the total to 50 organizations worldwide! We also continued to elevate the importance of public markets on the global stage, speaking at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and at the World Farmers Markets Coalition’s Second General Assembly in Rome, where we shared the value of traditional food markets and embracing a Market Cities approach to transform food systems at the regional scale.

In recognition of our upcoming 50th anniversary year in 2025, we closed out 2024 by checking in with all of you—asking public space leaders from around the world to share their insights in our first State of Public Space Survey. So, how are public spaces faring overall? 

We’ve still got a lot of work to do. Only 5% of survey respondents said that public spaces are meeting community needs. And 2025 has already presented major challenges—both old and new—for public spaces. 

To put things a little into perspective for our current year, just ten months earlier at Placemaking Week, we were encouraged by the fact that many more U.S. federal programs had been supporting placemaking projects and practitioners. In a panel discussion, we heard from representatives from three prominent federal agencies who shared how they were facilitating placemaking in their work. Currently, these three agencies, and many others, are facing uncertainty as a new wave of scrutiny on federal funding in the U.S. has led to a dire mix of grant delays, staffing cuts, and proposed budget cuts. The long-term implications of these setbacks on public spaces remain unclear, but worry us.

That being said, the State of Public Space survey also shed light on the inspiring intersectoral and international community of public space innovators who are striving to upset this inadequate status quo. It is becoming clearer and clearer from our 50 years of expertise in the field that investing in the people behind great public spaces leads to strong civic infrastructure that contributes to our well-being. 

If there's anything that this survey has taught us, it is that we cannot stop advocating for public spaces, especially in these uncertain times. It brings us together across the divides that structure so much of our lives. It addresses the root causes of many issues that impact our livelihoods and our health. Our path forward will rely on the partnerships we’ve made along the way and will continue to make together. 

We invite you to explore the full breadth of our work in our 2024 Impact Report. We’re proud to be celebrating 50 years of bringing public spaces to life by planning and designing them with the people who use them every day. In 2025, we’re committed to continuing the good work, from on-the-ground projects to educational opportunities to our next International Public Markets Conference this June. If we can assist you in your public space work, do not hesitate to reach out. 

Together, we can create the culture of care our public spaces need to serve their communities for generations to come. 

In Solidarity,

Nate Storring & Kelly Verel
Co-Executive Directors, Project for Public Spaces

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Support Our Work

Celebrating our 50th anniversary in 2025, Project for Public Spaces has spent the past five decades bringing some of the most successful public places in the world to life. Today, we remain committed to putting community participation at the center of everything we do, from placemaking partnerships with corporations and foundations to workshops, trainings, conferences, on-the-ground design and planning services, and more. Project for Public Spaces is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Click here to learn more about how you can support our work.