Adapted from The Art Advantage: Creative Placemaking Strategies for Your City, presented at National League of Cities 2015 Congress of Cities, Nashville TN

1. PLACEMAKING
ON GLASS STREET:
A Case Study in Place-Based Revitalization*
BY: MALLORY B.E. BACHES, THE CIVIC HUB
*adapted from The Art Advantage: Creative Placemaking Strategies for Your City
National League of Cities 2015 Congress of Cities, Nashville TN

2. Everyone has the right to live in a great place.
More importantly, everyone has the right to contribute
to making the place where they already live great.
FRED KENT, PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES

3. 3
William Holly Whyte published his findings on
pedestrian experiences with New York City plazas
in The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces in 1980.
In the years since, the placemaking movement has
risen on the foundations of Whyte’s groundbreaking
work, along with that of his fellow place pioneers
including Jane Jacobs (The Death and Life of Great
American Cities) and Kevin Lynch (The Image of the
City).
Today placemaking is no longer the preoccupation
of a few designers and community developers,
but instead is central to dialogue on the future of
urban design, in forums as significant as the United
Nations and the White House and the Brookings
Institute. Placemaking is regarded as a practice that
works, both by practitioners as well as members of
the public who have participated in placemaking or
have simply enjoyed the results.
The Project for Public Spaces defines placemaking
as: the art of creating public ‘places of the soul,’
that uplift and help us connect to each other.1
Placemaking describes not only a design product
that responds to the needs of the community but
also a design process that engages a community,
to determine those needs, and empowers a
community, to respond to those needs in built
and activated form. Although the idea was
revolutionary when first explored forty years
ago, urban design has since evolved to an ever-
more participatory practice. Whether called
placemaking, public interest design, design for
social impact, or community design, neighbors are
gaining, either by invitation or by force, a level of
agency over the design of their neighborhoods and
cities are better for it when they do.
The collaboration of citizens in improving the health,
wealth, form, and overall vision for the future of
their communities transcends demographics; in
fact, some of the most successful placemaking
interventions are in communities extremely short on
resources: the revitalization of Eastern Market in
Detroit, the creation of the StreetsAlive! festival in
Fargo, or the establishment of Hope Community in
the struggling Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis.
When communities band together around the
resources that they do have, things like culture and
history and shared accountability, the social capital
that results can, as Robert Putnam suggests, “help
mitigate the insidious effects of socioeconomic
disadvantage,”2
that their community might
otherwise face.
1 “What Is Placemaking?” Placemaking Chicago, http://www.placemak-
ingchicago.com/about/
2 Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of Ameri-
can Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 319.

4. 4
GLASS STREET
As cities turn to placemaking for “lighter, quicker,
cheaper” solutions to the challenges facing their
neighborhoods, there are commonly referenced
precedents of success. The Chattanooga Story
is one of the most well-known, in bottom-up city
building. Despite its lengthy history of industrial
success, by 1970 Chattanooga was economically
depressed, the downtown was dead, and Walter
Cronkite had described Chattanooga as “the dirtiest
city in America” on the national evening news. The
admonition struck a nerve in the city.
Civic investment was sparked when the
Chattanooga Venture came together in the early
1980s. The group was comprised of influential
citizens and led by the late great Mai Bell Hurley,
a true urban visionary. Ms. Hurley passed away
in September 2015 after more than three decades
ushering the success of Chattanooga’s downtown
revitalization. She was known for repeating the
phrase, “Be hopeful and be helpful,” with regards
to city-building, words that locals continue to live by
in pursuit of the city’s collective vision.
As part of their revitalization strategy, the
Chattanooga Venture created the landmark Vision
2000 forums, a series of six major civic events
each with its own community-building theme. The
forums brought Chattanoogans from all walks of life
together in downtown Chattanooga, something that
was previously unheard of, to consider what was
great about the city and what could make it greater.
Since the forums and the visioning that followed,
the City of Chattanooga has worked hard to be
the downtown success story that we know, but like
many cities that have seen similar revitalization,
success has stopped short of many neighborhoods
beyond its downtown. One of those neighborhoods
is East Chattanooga, and running through it is Glass
Street.
Glass Street is a historic two lane main street
corridor lined with 1920s storefronts. The
street sees 11,000 cars per day and is the most
direct route connecting Downtown Chattanooga
to the Enterprise South employment campus,
Chattanooga’s two centers of economic growth.
Glass Street is also home to a small nonprofit
called Glass House Collective, with a community
development strategy centered around a specific
type of placemaking: creative placemaking.
CREATIVE PLACEMAKING:
strategically shap[ing] the physical and social
character of a neighborhood…around arts
and cultural activities…[that animate] public
and private spaces, [rejuvenate] structures and
streetscapes, [improve] local business viability
and public safety, and [bring] diverse people
together to celebrate, inspire, and be inspired.
National Endowment for the Arts

5. 5
Glass House Collective sees the potential in Glass
Street and in surrounding East Chattanooga, but
its leaders are also conscious that the conditions of
the corridor today reflect decades of disinvestment.
64% of the residents in East Chattanooga live
below the poverty level, and the area is known for
high-crime and gang activity.
In spite of its challenges, the founders of Glass
House – Katherine Currin, Garth Brown, and Teal
Thibaud -- trusted that they could make a difference,
when they set up shop on Glass Street in 2012.
With old-fashioned elbow grease, they renovated
a storefront, activating a beautiful building that had
previously been vacant.
They started conversations with residents about
the potential needs of the neighborhood, brought
more feet to the street, and created relationships
with their Glass Street neighbors. Their hope was
simple: to spark positive change along the corridor
while adding to the vibrancy of their city as a
whole. From 2012-2014, with the financial support
and guiding structure of an ArtPlace America
creative placemaking grant, they helped define
and implement a vision led by citizens, artists, and
partners, to make Glass Street cleaner and more
inviting.
The community-informed plan that resulted became
a blueprint for action that was truly supported
from within the community. Through in-kind service
donation, a technical streetscape plan based on
the input meetings was completed, and the city
of Chattanooga adopted this plan in 2012. As a
result of Glass House Collective’s early work on
Glass Street, today six historic buildings have been
purchased, renovated and stabilized, five facades
of which have been vastly improved or entirely
renovated.
In addition, a unified Glass Street brand has been
created with local artists, and the streetscape
has been transformed. Street banners have been
installed; two neglected green spaces have been
transformed into usable pocket parks; three high-
aesthetic, large-scale, community-based murals
grace Glass Street’s major gateways; three brand-
new public art bus shelters have been installed;
and four blocks of new ADA accessible sidewalks
featuring sixteen traffic-calming tree wells, eighteen
street lights, and five functional art benches have
been installed.
Although the list of achievements sounds like a
lot of large-scale wins, a major part of Glass
House Collective’s initial workplan focused on the
small moves that collectively ended up making a
big impact while these larger investments were
underway.

6. 6
Glass House worked with artists and residents to
build temporary tree planters and install them along
the street. They hosted a Better Block community
engagement street party. They commissioned an
artist to erect a sculpture of four hundred borrowed
ladders from in and around the community, in order
to animate a vacant lot which is now home to a
pocket park; this temporary animation continued
momentum until the pocket park could be designed
and created.
After initially focusing heavily on public
infrastructure, Glass House expanded their
scope to invest in an artist residency. With their
support, three artists set up studios along Glass
Street in 2014, aiming to share their skills with the
neighborhood. One of the three artists, Rondell
Crier, has secured his own funding and continues to
be a strong positive force in the community and still
operates a studio on Glass Street today.
Glass House also supported the creation of the
Good Neighbor Network. An initiative of eight
active community residents, they came together to
set priority areas for themselves and get to work.
The momentum they started encouraged new
community leadership that has become contagious
throughout the neighborhood. Glass House
adopted their priority areas and continues to work
alongside this group today.
However, by the end of 2014, Glass House
Collective’s initial workplan had been achieved: the
street was cleaner and more inviting.

7. 7
THE NEXT BIG THING
Glass House Collective chose to help define the
next phase of their commitment on Glass Street by
launching a two-day intensive urbanism workshop
called The Next Big Thing in April 2015. The
workshop brought over one hundred respected
professionals together with East Chattanooga
residents to define Glass House’s new workplan.
With donated services, some small stipends, and
a list of local sponsors donating everything from
coffee to AV equipment, the effort truly embodied
a “lighter, quicker, cheaper” workshop model to
match the team’s “lighter, quicker, cheaper” design
brief.
Glass House was able to bring three expert mentors
to the team: Maurice Cox, Planning Director for
the City of Detroit; Mike Lydon, urban designer
and author of the book Tactical Urbanism; and
Stroud Watson, the design father of Chattanooga’s
urban comeback and the Design Studio which
he founded nearly forty years ago. The project
mentors roamed the workshop space while nine
teams comprised of diverse disciplines and local
knowledge were led by expert team facilitators.
Teams were asked to consider how improved
urbanism could have a positive impact on the needs
of the neighborhood: business viability, quality
public spaces, access to services, improved housing
options, increased public safety, and opportunities
for the community to engage and contribute.
The result were dozens of creative, realistic, and
scalable urban revitalization tactics for improving
residential, commercial, and public space within
a five minute walk of Glass Street. Designs
specifically addressed implementation within one
month, one year, and three year time frames.
While not all proposals that were generated will
be implemented exactly as designed, Glass House
Collective is working directly with the neighborhood
to adapt the designs, ultimately using a bunch of
little things to create ‘the next big thing’ on Glass
Street. What’s more, Glass House is bringing
the workshop ideas to the people quite literally.
A custom bicycle cart built by artist-in-residence
Rondell Crier is designed to carry maps and
drawings, chairs, and surveys to the doorsteps of
residents, so every member of the community can
help prioritize the ideas in person with Glass House
Collective staff and volunteers.
Teams worked within a specific set of balanced values:
PLACE ­­« — » PEOPLE
Designs were to value the places
– both figure and ground --
that give form to the community,
while always valuing the people
that give life to the community.
MOVEMENT ­­« — » ACCESS
Designs needed to address the movement
to, from, and through the community,
while being sure to address the equity of access
into, out of, and within the community.
INVESTMENT ­­« — » CHARACTER
Designs were to encourage
investment in the community and by the community, but
were to do so by encouraging activation of the
existing culture and assets of the community.

8. 8
LESSONS LEARNED
As a case study in creative placemaking, the
revitalization work that Glass House Collective is
leading can offer key insights relevant to those
leading revitalization in communities similar to Glass
Street and East Chattanooga.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Every community needs an organization like Glass
House Collective; they are the workhorses for
what would otherwise just be “good ideas.” They
are the face of accountability for healthy change
on Glass Street, and they are on the street every
day, a testament to their civic investment that
the community can see and connect with. With
a very small group of people, they do the daily
work of ‘turning the aircraft carrier’ that is their
neighborhood’s challenges.
COMMUNICATING PLACE
Creative placemaking is not a luxury and it is not a
‘band aid for broken arms,’ it is a communication
device for the Glass Street community. The work is
meaningful, not just because it is an investment in
place but, if done authentically, it is also a reflection
of the place. Particularly in communities that are
transitioning or vulnerable or evolving, creative
placemaking uses art to communicate the assets that
the community already has: its people, its culture, its
history, its social capital.
AUTHENTIC ENGAGEMENT
Community engagement is central to creative
placemaking; to create an authentic expression of
place, you must know and love the place, warts and
all. That work can be hard, time consuming, and
even uncomfortable. Yet with accountability comes
the autonomy of trust.
As example of the effect of this authenticity on
Glass Street, it is important to note that the three
founders, Katherine Currin, Garth Brown, and
Teal Thibaud, all happen to be blond haired
and blue eyed, in contrast to the predominantly
African-American community of their surrounding
neighborhood. Early in their work, it was not
uncommon for the three to be referred to as “trust
fund babies,” by those who were not convinced of
the group’s commitment to the neighborhood. Yet
after three years of investment in the community,
Glass House Collective’s current Executive Director
Teal Thibaud has been asked to join the local
NAACP chapter, a testament to the trust that
has been nurtured between the leaders of the
community and the leadership at Glass House.

9. 9
HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE
Urban design begets creative placemaking
begets urban design. There is both ‘hardware’
and ‘software’ to great places, and both need
investment. Urban design is the ‘hardware,’ it is the
zoning changes and the streetscape plans and the
public hearings and the park masterplans. Creative
placemaking is the ‘software,’ it is the community
events and the public art installations and the
artists in residence and the citizen leadership. If
a community only has exceptional hardware, it is
simply a stage-set, not a real place. If a community
only has exceptional software, the physical
environment will always be a barrier to its success.
Great places must have both.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Authentic place is not the result of a “project” that is
drafted, rendered impeccably, and then completed
as designed. Placemaking takes a more holistic,
adaptive approach. As cities now commonly turn
to the practice of budgeting for outcomes, it is
important to remember that outcomes are difficult
to predict when working in communities that are
challenged. The community-based work being
done by Glass House Collective is responsive;
their strategy must be nimble, to react to the ever-
changing needs of their community.

10. 10
OUTCOMES FROM
INVESTMENT
Glass Street and the work of Glass House Collective
display a wealth of examples of the common
good that can come from citizen-led community
revitalization.
Based on The Next Big Thing urbanism workshop,
Glass House now has a workplan that they will
follow for the next three years. Beyond that time
frame, the organization is unsure of next steps.
It is important to remember that in the life of a
challenged community, three years is a lifetime of
potential changes, and so to try to predict now
what the needs of Glass Street will be in three years
is nearly impossible. What is possible is to plan
little things that can have a big impact.
Taken less than three years apart, the two images
above show the physical outcome of creative
placemaking. The first image shows the Alabama
Furniture Building on Glass Street, as it was when
the current owners chose to purchase it and begin
restoring it, inspired by the work Glass House
Collective was already doing in the neighborhood.
The second image shows that same space in
April 2015, during The Next Big Thing urbanism
workshop. The building was broken, but the owners
slowly worked to stabilize it and then start to repair
it, and the result was transformative. It happened in
less than three years.
2012
2015

11. 11
In addition to the ongoing renovations to the
Alabama Furniture Building as well as Glass
House Collective’s original headquarters, their
programs have resulted in the investment of
more than $70,000 toward streetscaping, over
$228,000 toward city sidewalk and lighting
improvement, $90,000 toward three new city
bus shelters, $73,000 toward redevelopment of
vacant properties into public space, and nearly
$42,000 toward facade improvement grants.
Individual artists received grant money totaling
nearly $350,000 for creative placemaking
initiatives, and over $36,000 in grant money
supported placemaking events in the community.
Thanks to the placemaking programs that Glass
House has developed with the community, Glass
Street has seen eight buildings renovated with
private investment amounting to $1,132,000.
Additionally, three new community development
and improvement organizations have taken root
in the Glass Street neighborhood, fifteen new
community leaders are working to effect positive
change in their community, and neighbors have
dedicated nearly one thousand volunteer hours
toward improving their neighborhood.
Glass Street hosted seventy-six public events over
three years, and ninety-four pieces of positive press
brought news of the civic investment happening
on Glass Street to the greater Chattanooga
audience as a result. Fueled by the empowerment
of the programming Glass House Collective has
established and the dedication their team has
displayed, Glass Street is seeing incremental
renewal that is authentic to the existing community
and is being carried out by the community itself.
Glass House Collective’s work speaks for what their
community already knew: that with love, dedication,
collaboration, and hard work, the neighborhood
can be a vital part of the Chattanooga Story. It
also documents the returns that the investment of
placemaking can provide, on a street that is a vital
part of the history of its city.
Glass House Collective will have met their
mission when Glass Street is part of the larger
conversation about the future of Chattanooga:
when organizations much larger than theirs stand
up for the well being of the Glass Street community,
when city agencies invest in the needs and concerns
of the Glass Street community, and when all
Chattanooga citizens care about Glass Street as if
it was their own, aware that its success is a critical
part of everyone’s shared love for Chattanooga.
Placemaking has proven a meaningful spark toward
this mission, one that challenged neighborhoods
throughout the country share and one that responds
to the right of every citizen to make the place where
they already live great.