search menu flickr twitter phone angle-left angle-right angle-up angle-down file-pdf link-ext doc-inv sitemap location map calendar credit-card clock facebook-squared minus plus cancel ok instagramm download inkwell
Urban Street Design Guide Index

Urban Street Design Guide
Guide Navigation
Purchase Guide
Interim Public Plazas

Interim Public Plazas

Interim public plazas transform underutilized areas of roadway into public spaces for surrounding residents and businesses. Using low-cost materials, such as epoxied gravel, movable planters, and flexible seating, interim public plazas reconfigure and revitalize intersections that might otherwise be unsafe or underutilized. Like parklets, interim public plazas are the result of a successful partnership between the city and a neighborhood group or business association.

Partners maintain, oversee, and program the space. While many public plazas proceed from an interim phase to final reconstruction within 3–5 years, the intermediate application allows the community to build support for and benefit from the public space in the near term before major capital construction.

Click a number for more information

Art installations, performances, vendors, and markets can improve the quality and identification of a public plaza, while engaging local artists, communities, and business owners.

Benefits & Considerations

Public plazas have the potential to:

  • Make intersections safer, more compact, and easier to cross for pedestrians.
  • Slow traffic speeds and mitigate potentially dangerous intersection conflicts.
  • Activate a public place by reclaiming space unused or underused by motorists.
  • Energize surrounding streets and public spaces, creating foot traffic that can boost business and invigorate street life in a neighborhood.1

Application

Interim public plazas are most commonly applied under the following circumstances:

  • A dedicated partner, typically a business or neighborhood association, or a community with unmet demand for public space, wants to activate, program, and take ownership of an underutilized road space and can maintain it throughout the year.
  • An underutilized street segment has low vehicle traffic, pedestrian demand is unmet, and foot traffic is overflowing into the roadway.
  • Safety or operational issues with existing traffic call for a temporary reconfiguration of the intersection.
    See Complex Intersections
  • Funds have been allocated to the permanent installation of a plaza, but capital implementation remains several years away.

Critical

1Parking shall not be allowed or permitted within the public plaza. Parking may be maintained adjacent or parallel to the plaza, but should be designed along the footprint of the future capital implementation.
2Interim public plazas shall be constructed with ADA-compliant tactile warning strips at the crosswalks. Extra attention should be paid to how sight-impaired individuals will navigate these spaces.
Stripe a double white line along the edge of the plaza to legally prohibit vehicles from entering the space.

Recommended

Plazas should be defined using low-cost, durable materials, such as epoxied gravel, paint, and thermo-plastic.2 Climate factors into the selection of specific materials and their long-term durability.
3 Plazas should be designed with a strong edge and defined using a combination of striping, bollards, and larger fixed objects, such as granite rocks and/or planters.
+ More Info
Prior to implementation of a public plaza, cities are advised to post an informational placard advertising the plaza to ensure that local stakeholders are aware of the installation.
+ More Info
Tables and seating may be movable to permit flexible use of the space and to limit costs. Whether or not to secure seating at night should be determined by the maintenance partner.3
+ More Info
Corners and other areas of a plaza subject to encroachment by errant or turning vehicles should be reinforced using heavy objects and bollards that alert drivers of the new curb line.
Adequate lighting should be provided at plazas at all times of day.

Optional

4Heavy planters, granite blocks, moveable seating, and other street furniture elements may be incorporated into the interim design.
+ More Info
Location: Pearl Street Triangle (Dumbo Improvement District), Brooklyn, NY
Bicycle parking may be installed in coordination with the installation of a temporary plaza.
+ More Info
Art installations, performances, vendors, and markets can improve the quality and identification of a public plaza, while engaging local artists, communities, and business owners.
+ More Info
Plazas should be designed to accommodate freight loading and unloading where access to the curb is required at early morning hours for adjacent businesses.
Drainage should be considered in the design of the pilot plaza. Sites should have minimal cross slope or be designed using edge treatments that mitigate the overall slope.

Footnotes

+ More Info
  1. Measuring the Street: New Metrics for 21st Century Streets (New York: New York City Department of Transportation, 2012).
  2. Street Design Manual, (New York City: New York City Department of Transportation, 2009), Ch. 3.
  3. The Madison Square public plaza in New York City is maintained by the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership and the Madison Square Conservancy. Staff removes tables and chairs each night to prevent theft and clean the space.

    Sabina Mollot, “Flatiron street to become pedestrian plaza,” Flatiron 23rd Street Partnership, accessed June 3, 2013.

References

+ More Info

Adapted from the Urban Street Design Guide, published by Island Press.

References

References for Interim Public Plazas: 3 found.