Placemaking and Placekeeping
Engaging artists in real estate development can be tricky, however. Artists and developers often speak different “languages,” but both must be understood and respected, and any gap between them must be bridged. With support from former ULI Global Governing Trustee Michael Spies, ULI’s Art in Place project identified the following best practices for effective artist/developer collaboration by drawing on focus groups, interviews, and other sources.
Juanita Hardy’s role as a champion of art and culture traces back three decades to her days as an IBM executive. Four years ago, she was recognized as an art advocate and collector by The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Her business acumen and penchant for real estate development led her to the Urban Land Institute a decade ago. As vice chair of its Placemaking Council, she advocates for best practices that aid in creating inclusive, sustainable communities.
During a Women’s Leadership Initiative program hosted by ULI Washington, artists, developers, and cultural leaders made the case that art embedded early—and paid for fairly—is essential to community identity, economic value, and long-term resilience
Visionary placemaking leader Carol Coletta, recognized for her transformative impact on urban environments, to receive the ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development.
On May 8, 2025, ULI Orange County/Inland Empire celebrated the successful conclusion of its inaugural Center for Leadership program. This milestone marked the culmination of an eight-month journey focused on advancing ULI’s commitment to connect active, passionate, and diverse members through the foremost global network of interdisciplinary professionals, as well as inspire best practices for equitable and sustainable land use through content, education, convening, mentoring, and knowledge sharing.
Graduated students are invited to guest with ULI Product Council’s at the Fall and Spring Meetings, getting in-person networking with industry leaders in addition to tours and other discussions.
A few key trends that evolved over the past few years and continue to shape the field of placemaking in 2025 reflect a growing commitment to sustainability, resource efficiency, and the responsible management of urban spaces.
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Can third spaces help downtowns bounce back from the pandemic?
How urban planners are turning public places into vibrant centers for living, working, learning, and socializing.
If the past two years have taught us anything, it’s that our society’s deep desire to return to “normal” has sparked a reevaluation of what normal should entail. As urban populations continue to grow, and individuals look to reclaim their place in the community, the question arises: have our downtowns evolved enough to meet these new demands?
ULI’s Art in Place program has expanded with the addition of ULI France and ULI Germany, bringing the total number of participating district and national councils to eight. The program aims to connect artists, developers, and community voices to promote creative placemaking, which integrates art, culture, and creativity as levers of community revitalization.
In May 2022, the Hayti Heritage Center of Durham, North Carolina, co-sponsored a ULI Advisory Services panel with the Institute’s Foundation. The goal of the panel was to identify opportunities for intentionally inclusive development.
A new ULI report explores the social, environmental, and economic benefits of creative placemaking, along with successful case studies in the United States.
In February, Waterfront Toronto announced the winning submission for a new vision to transform a 12-acre (4.9 hectare) site into a community for residents and visitors to live, work and play.
Developers share how different cities deployed creative ideas to help maintain urban vitality and business opportunities despite restrictions on public gatherings. Their successful techniques may outlast the pandemic.
Bangkok mastered the art of glitzy retail palaces. Now, authenticity is the favored currency.
A member co-chair of the ULI Washington Diversity and Inclusion Working Group writes about the recent events in D.C. and beyond.
Community input and partnerships can help preserve multicultural diversity in a fast-growing city.
Whether making or adapting a building, district, campus, city, workspace, portfolio of properties, brand, or lifestyle, the human experience is central. Three examples from the United States and Canada illuminate how our cities are everyday places—small and forgotten places—waiting to be discovered and transformed into human-oriented social places.
At ULI Arizona’s Trends Day in January, panelists talked about how revitalized public spaces—starting with parks and libraries but also including alleys, sidewalks, and roads—are helping make neighborhoods walkable and desirable.
Dallas/Fort Worth has the best outlook of any U.S. real estate market, according to Emerging Trends in Real Estate® 2019, published jointly by ULI and PwC. However, the region is near the bottom of the pack among similar-sized metro areas for walkable urban development. Researchers spoke at a ULI North Texas event about the opportunities in changing that dynamic.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that both Craig Robins, president and chief executive officer of real estate development company Dacra, and Kieran Bowers, president of Swire Properties, were schooled in the humanities before becoming real estate developers. Both spoke at the ULI Miami Investor Symposium about their careers and the influence of creative placemaking on their projects.
A panel discussion at the ULI Europe Real Estate Forum 2018 in Dublin focused on a key question facing the development industry: how to future-proof urban redevelopment in an era of constant change by including open space and housing while embracing walkability.
Growing cities such as Hong Kong are at the epicenter of what Richard Florida has dubbed “the new urban crisis,” with the city’s success sending house prices soaring out of reach of the average resident. The author and urbanist, who is director of cities at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, spoke at the 2018 ULI Asia Pacific Summit in Hong Kong.
Thoughtful placemaking is fundamental to the success of any economically and socially viable city. Detroit’s downtown parks are both public assets and important attractions throughout each of Michigan’s four seasons.
Once among San Antonio’s largest employers, the Pearl Brewery closed in 2001, and the surrounding area had been neglected as development focused on the suburbs. A local firm took a chance on converting the property into a mixed-use destination.
Decades ago, who would have thought that the graffiti-covered walls of deteriorated industrial buildings would catalyze the regeneration of an entire urban community? A panel at ULI Washington’s recent Trends Conference explored strategies for strengthening communities’ identity and economic vitality with arts programming and local institutions.
Aging shopping malls—many burdened with high vacancy rates or even abandoned—are being transformed into vibrant, mixed-use destinations that are connected to their surrounding communities. At the 2016 ULI Fall Meeting, “the mall of the future” was explored by a panel of design, development, and placemaking experts.
For midsized U.S. cities to compete successfully in the 21st-century global marketplace, it is crucial for governments to think beyond the tired strategy of luring away employers from other locales. Instead, city officials need to focus on land use and placemaking as ways to attract talent, generate new business opportunities, and consolidate economic and community development to enhance their brands, according to speakers at ULI’s 2016 Fall Meeting in Dallas.
A Gathering Place for Tulsa, under construction along the eastern bank of the Arkansas River two miles (3.2 km) south of downtown, is one of the biggest greenway projects under development from scratch in the United States.
