Place-making issues include:
- wishful v. reality planning
- design based on what works
- street profile
- controlling signage
- appropriate architecture
- public space issues
Only in the most dense urban environment do you have enough population
to support a retail development. For a typical neighbourhood centre,
you would have only 5% within reasonable walking distance - 95%
have to come in other ways and in the US that means cars. So you
have to plan for it. It's a design problem. It's a land assembly
problem. It's the single biggest thing that affects the creation
of an urban retail space. You can usually only overcome that with
municipal help.
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It's not just retail - it's creating urban spaces.
This is an edited version of a speech given to the Cities For The New Economy Leadership Summit at the Marriott Hotel, Surfers Paradise, 23-24 April 2001.
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