Urban Placemaking & Management

We have assisted in planning, implementing and managing place-based organizations like Business Improvement Districts and Main Streets as well as specific projects and programs from streetscape enhancement and homeless services to helping grow businesses and economic development for commercial areas.  

Planning for BIDs in DUpont Circle, Washington, DC & Silver Spring, MD

Both Dupont Circle and Downtown Silver Spring have long played important roles not only as commercial centers but also as centers of their surrounding communities.  The Urban Partnership worked with business and civic leaders in both areas to develop business plans intended to help revitalize the sense of place, bring new attention to management and refresh the brand.  The Dupont BID has been approved and was inaugurated in December of 2018.  The Urban Partnership continues to assist in the implementation of its services.

THE PLACE LEADERSHIP PROJECT

As Christopher Leinberger of the Brookings Institution has observed, the Washington, DC region leads the country in the number, variety and impact of place-related organizations. Rich and Ellen have worked intensively with Uwe Brandes of the Georgetown University Masters Program in Urban and Regional Planning to create a network among placemaking and place management organizations, and the companies which provide services to them. The initial organizational efforts came together in a workshop in November 2018 attended by 150 representatives from these programs; the results of the first ever survey of regional place organizations were presented at the workshop, and evidenced the diversity of these associations and programs. The participants showed strong interest in continuing to provide opportunities for networking and sharing of data about performance measures, and follow up workshops are being planned.