Project for Public Spaces

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Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and sustaining public places that build communities. Planning and design rooted in the community forms the cornerstone of PPS’s philosophy. Building on the techniques of William H. Whyte's Street Life Project, this approach involves looking at, listening to and asking questions of the people in a community to discover their needs and aspirations.

Founded in 1975 by Fred Kent, PPS works with individuals and communities to create a vision around the places that they view as important to community life and to their daily experience. One key to this process is reaching out to people - including those who might not otherwise participate in an improvement effort - where they live, work and congregate. The process uses systematic on-site observations, time-lapse filming, and customized interviews and surveys to gather people's input and document and analyze their activities. Planning grows out of these observations as well as workshops and public forums where people have an opportunity to contribute ideas and concerns about improvements and physical changes in their neighborhoods.

PPS has developed the concept of placemaking.^{[citation needed]}