Significant scholarship has focused on accommodating diverse age groups in urban public environments. However, intergenerational approaches emphasizing engagement between generations represent an emerging area of research and practice. This review synthesizes literature from urban planning and cognate fields on the need for and benefits of intergenerational public space, as well as design and policy interventions. The results advance understanding of how public environments could meet the needs of both youth and older adults while also serving as the context for cross-generational interaction, and offer insights to planners, designers, and policymakers seeking to develop, enhance, or expand intergenerational public space.

This article investigates the potential for intergenerational public space in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Through a series of site observations, focus groups, interviews, thick mapping, and participatory design exercises, we work with 43 youth and 38 older adults (over 65), all residents of Westlake, to examine their public space use, experiences, and desires, and identify where the two groups’ interests intersect or diverge. We explore the potential for complementary approaches to creating intergenerational public space using the principles of Universal Design. In doing so, we emphasize the importance of taking an intersectional approach to designing public space that considers the multiple, often overlapping identities of residents of historically marginalized communities predicated by disability and age, in addition to race, class, and gender. Our findings yield insights for creating more inclusive and accessible public spaces in disinvested urban neighborhoods as well as opportunities for allyship between groups whose public space interests have been marginalized by mainstream design standards.   Read the full article in accessible html-format here.

COVID-19 has revealed limitations in traditional public space research methods. There is a need for new approaches to study and intervene during times of crisis. Interdisciplinary urban humanities approaches can help researchers respond to pandemic public space dynamics. This article develops a framework linking urban humanities practices -thick mapping, filmic sensing, and digital storytelling -to the production of space at multiple scales. A case study is presented of a course that employed these methods and proposed speculative design interventions to accommodate street vending, skateboarding, and unhoused people in the Westlake neighbourhood of Los Angeles.

Possible future uses for Toronto’s iconic Old City Hall with case studies from around town and across the globe. In 2015, City of Toronto staff embarked on a study to determine future uses for Old City Hall, a beloved landmark in the heart of Canada’s largest city. This report does not put forth recommendations, but intends to spark creative thinking and inspire a public discussion.

The Invention of Public Space: Designing for Inclusion in Lindsay’s New York documents a transformative period of experimentation in public space design in New York City from 1966 through 1973, under the mayoralty of John Lindsay. Combining rich archival research with captivating storytelling, the book sheds light on this time in which emerging ideas about psychology, participation, and politics were integrated into the design of public environments. It makes a compelling argument for the importance of this time and place in spurring a broad rethinking of the very concept of public space as a site of democracy, participation, and self-actualization.