In Practice Notes, you’ll hear from Local Center teams and our own staff about what we’re learning as we support community-led design projects across New York City.

By Martha Snow

Teams in eight neighborhoods are working hard this summer to launch festivals, markets, art installations, lighting demonstrations, and more to reclaim public spaces across the five boroughs. But they’re not just one-day events — they are creating built projects: temporary physical installations in parks, plazas and street spaces that will last from a few months to almost a year in public. 

So why temporary installations? 

There are plenty of drawings and lengthy reports on what changes could be made to our city. But so many neighborhoods do not have the chance to actually see, touch and experience what a different kind of public space could be. What would it be like if this street felt like a safe, lively town square where I actually wanted to spend time? What if I felt like me and my family, friends, and community really belong here?

Physical interventions can be demonstrations of what is possible. And not only for the people that live there, but also for the elected officials, community organizations, public servants and funders who are critical in helping an idea move from paper into reality. Temporary installations can build momentum and make the case for future capital investments because they put what’s possible right in front of you. In neighborhoods that have seen many promises unrealized, they can be important steps to rebuild trust. They can also be beautiful, low-cost, fun, and — when driven by neighborhood leaders — created by and with people who live there.

We’re already seeing some beautiful installations come to life. This past weekend at the Flatbush African Burial Ground, an ancestral altar built by young people blossomed at the center of the previously empty site, while surrounding stations for healing arts therapy, seed ball creation, reiki, storytelling and music demonstrated a vision for a memorial space that holds both grief and healing. And in Sunnyside, Queens, a creative lighting installation in the often forgotten Sabba Park lit up for the first time in joyful greens and blues, and neighbors from age 2 to 80 gathered around to play, make art and music and inhabit the park in a new way. 

The work of creating installations in public space is not without its bumps and limitations. For example, with our current permitting options, there aren’t clear pathways for keeping a temporary installation beyond a year, even if people in the neighborhood want it to stay. There are also few options to permit an installation outside of an “art category,” limiting demonstrations that fall outside that scope, like public space improvements that tackle the climate crisis or public health, to name a few. 

Without investment from the City government and long-term planning, there is also a risk that these temporary installations become one-offs. Deeper adoption of an idea often relies on a combination of receptive elected officials, local resources and public servants who are supportive of neighborhood-driven ideas — which can be difficult to achieve. 

These installations are each a tip of their own iceberg: the most visible element of a much bigger and often invisible process including the important work of building community coalitions, garnering buy-in around an idea, testing it, learning from it. Each of our teams are thinking strategically about carefully about a vision for these spaces that is enduring. I’m hopeful that these temporary spaces evolve and deepen as part of a continuum of power-building for neighborhoods to advocate for the public spaces they want to see. 

There are many beautiful, creative pieces coming your way in the next few months. This Fall, we’ll be learning a lot with our partners and teams — and we hope you come out to see for yourself. And if you see a team member, ask them to tell you the story behind their project and their hopes for the future! 

Martha Snow is the Director of Community Design at Urban Design Forum. 

Image Credit: Cameron Blaylock