Along with our co-host Downtown Detroit Partnership, we’re thrilled that Detroit, Michigan, USA, will be the host city for the 5th International Placemaking Week!
Placemaking Week is a global gathering of placemakers that emphasizes hands-on learning and innovative social events, while leaving behind a public space legacy. Embracing a wide variety of sectors and disciplines, the event creates a dynamic forum where attendees develop and share concrete strategies to advance placemaking both locally and globally.
This year’s biggest placemaking event will take place over three days and consists of plenaries, breakout sessions, on-site and mobile workshops, networking receptions, and more. Attendees will visit public spaces around Downtown Detroit and sites across the city that have made it the exciting living laboratory that it is today.
Read more about why we’re excited about #PlacemakingWeek in Detroit and why you should join us!
Visit our Travel page to book a hotel room through discounted room blocks. Check back as we add venues!
Detroit has weathered some of the toughest place-based challenges—economic disinvestment, population decline, vacancy, and even bankruptcy—yet has emerged stronger because of its unmatched resilience and grit. Sparked by Detroit’s story, the theme for this year’s conference, “From Recovery to Resilience through Placemaking,” serves as a powerful reminder of the power of placemaking to help cities meet the many challenges of our world today.
At the heart of Detroit’s resurgence is Campus Martius Park, a national model for urban revitalization and downtown's crown jewel. Led by our conference co-host, the Downtown Detroit Partnership and through public-private partnership with the City of Detroit, Detroit’s success sparked momentum 22 years ago that continues rippling citywide.
From the Riverfront and Eastern Market to the Joe Louis Greenway and neighborhood parks, Detroit's transformational projects demonstrate how community-centered placemaking turns forgotten spaces into thriving destinations that strengthen community identity and civic pride. These efforts show how Detroit turned hard times into opportunities for reinvention—putting the city on a path to national competitiveness.
As communities everywhere face growing challenges from affordable housing to social isolation to tightening budgets, Placemaking Week will serve as a forum to discover how public space can become a catalyst for positive change.
From our beautiful international riverfront to our vibrant downtown to our new neighborhood Arts Alleys, Detroit has embraced the importance of placemaking to every community. We are proud to partner with the Downtown Detroit Partnership to host Placemaking week this year and look forward to showing off our best examples as we learn from our guests from other great cities.
— Mayor Mike Duggan, City of Detroit
Project for Public Spaces organized the first three International Placemaking Weeks in Vancouver in 2016, in Amsterdam in 2017, Chattanooga in 2019 and in Baltimore in 2024 bringing together 400+ placemakers to learn, network, experience real public spaces, and support a citywide campaign for great places.
Embracing a wide variety of sectors and disciplines, the event creates a dynamic forum for attendees to develop and share concrete strategies to advance placemaking both locally and globally.
Project for Public Spaces organized the first three International Placemaking Weeks in Vancouver in 2016, in Amsterdam in 2017, Chattanooga in 2019 and in Baltimore in 2024 bringing together 400+ placemakers to learn, network, experience real public spaces, and support a citywide campaign for great places.
Embracing a wide variety of sectors and disciplines, the event creates a dynamic forum for attendees to develop and share concrete strategies to advance placemaking both locally and globally.
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Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025, Project for Public Spaces has spent the past five decades bringing some of the most successful public places in the world to life. Today, it remains committed to putting community participation at the center of everything it does, from placemaking partnerships with corporations and foundations to workshops, trainings, conferences, on-the-ground design and planning services, and more. The interdisciplinary team has helped over 3,500 communities in 52 countries create inclusive places that change society for the better. Project for Public Spaces is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
