Recent Articles

• Envisioning a “City in Nature”: How Kartini Omar and Singapore’s National Parks Board Are Creating Green Oases amid Density

  September 23, 2022

  Kartini Omar is group director of parks development and Jurong Lake Gardens at the National Parks Board of Singapore. This interview was conducted in June as part of a series designed to celebrate park visionaries and share inspiring and practical insights into their perspectives, challenges, and advice.

• Envisioning Equity: How Corey Wilson Leveraged a Park System for Community Benefits  

  September 6, 2022

  Corey Wilson is superintendent of the Recreation and Park Commission for the Parish of East Baton Rouge. He oversees the more than 170 parks in the system, which includes an observatory, nature center, equestrian park, zoo, performing arts theatre, arboretum, and more. This interview was conducted as part of a series designed to celebrate park visionaries and share inspiring and practical insights into their perspectives, challenges, and advice.

• Envisioning Park Quality for All: How Happy Haynes Is Transforming Neglected Parks into Community Assets

  July 1, 2022

  Allegra “Happy” Haynes is the current executive director of the Denver Department of Parks and Recreation. Haynes shares how the city’s leadership can better acknowledge the inequities in the system.

• Envisioning Inclusion: How Scott Kratz Transformed Bold Community Voices into the 11th Street Bridge Park

  May 25, 2022

  This interview with Scott Kratz, senior vice president of Building Bridges Across the River and director of the 11th Street Bridge Project, is part of a series designed to celebrate park visionaries and share inspiring and practical insights into their perspectives, challenges, and advice.

• Bradley Plaza Green Alley: A Project in Partnership with the Community

  July 21, 2021

  ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: Since 1997, Pacoima Beautiful has worked with the community to reclaim open areas and create beautiful recreational spaces throughout the historic Los Angeles neighborhood. One of its first completed projects, the Bradley Plaza Green Alley, transforms an underused alleyway into a green public space and reimagines how alleys can be repurposed to best serve the communities in which they are situated.

• Leveraging Creative Placemaking in Equitable Development

  November 4, 2020

  Early engagement with the community and inclusion of culturally significant art can create developments that benefit the existing community and lead to greater return on investment.

• Confronting COVID-19: Tactical Urbanism and Other Approaches to Repurposing Space and Boosting Equity

  September 18, 2020

  Creative uses of transportation infrastructure during the coronavirus pandemic include closing streets and using parking lots to accommodate outdoor activities.

• ULI Releases Two Reports Recommending Expanding and Enhancing Park Space

  September 17, 2020

  Two new ULI reports provide possibilities for expanding and enhancing parks through collaborative partnerships and the transformation of spaces for cars into places for people. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of community outdoor spaces. Parks, trails, streets closed to automobiles, and public plazas have been some of the only places that have allowed people to maintain physical distance while still being able to exercise, relax, play, gather in small groups, or make short trips safely—crucial activities for lowering stress levels, reducing symptoms of depression, and maintaining physical health.

• Confronting COVID-19: Creative Placemaking in the Time of Protests and the Pandemic

  September 10, 2020

  The importance of creative placemaking—the process of intentionally integrating arts, culture, and community-engaged design into comprehensive community development—and the role that artists play in that process have been elevated by both the COVID-19 pandemic and social justice protests in the United States, as people seek places to socialize and connect with others outside their homes, according to participants in a recent ULI webinar.