Placemaking Resources
We believe in translating what we do into free resources for people to utilize in their own practice. Below are downloadable toolkits containing synthesized lessons from past projects, which we hope will aid you in your work of creating great places.
Friendly Front Yards Toolkit & Resources
The Friendly Fronts Toolkit inspires and guides individuals and entire communities alike on how to turn their front yards into places where serendipity happens. Based on our successful 2016 pilot project, this toolkit translates our local efforts into a nation-wide movement that catalyzes an explosion of social capital, joy, and a renewed agency around how we can all “create places where we feel alive.” Pilot participants met on average 5 new neighbors after 3 months of making changes to their front yards.
Friendly Storefront Toolkit
What does your storefront and the storefronts of your community communicate? Do they reflect a sense of invitation, respect, and joy? Or do the storefronts make one feel like a commodity, merely a “consumer”: someone to transact but not form a relationship with? This toolkit provides you—and entire retail districts—with an easy, fun, and effective path to create community and drive commercial activity, one Friendly Storefront at a time. 45% of pilot participants saw an increase in the number of people who stopped and noticed their storefront.
Placemaking Your Main Street
This toolkit provides you with a basic placemaking framework and process for creating value in your community with a focus on commercial districts but applicable to any kind of place. The principles, processes, and practices outlined in it are the same ones we use and have refined over five years and 50+ projects of all sizes within our work as The Musicant Group. Over 1,000 main street practitioners have been trained on this methodology.