Curating and creating great spaces is at the heart of what industry players in the built environment sector do every day. Placemaking is the “art and science” of turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Callie Persic is a development manager with the Belfast City Council, leading Belfast’s Connectivity Programme and city center project, “A Bolder Vision for Belfast.”

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.

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.

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.

Destination Crenshaw, a transformative 1.3-mile (2 km) infrastructure project scheduled to open in fall 2022, was the focus of a ULI Los Angeles virtual event in July, highlighting plans to boost the Crenshaw community through economic development, job creation, and environmental healing while elevating Black art and culture.

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.

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

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.

Two urban parks—Domino Park in Brooklyn, New York, and Trojan Park in Wellston, Missouri—have been selected as winners of the 2020 ULI Urban Open Space Award.