Ethan Kent

Ethan Kent works at PPS, supporting placemaking organisations, projects, and leadership around the world for a global placemaking movement to build systemic change towards place-led urbanisation.

During the almost twenty years at PPS – founded by his father – he travelled to more than 800 cities and 55 countries to promote and advance the cause of Placemaking and public spaces. He has worked on over 200 PPS projects and led a broad spectrum of placemaking efforts. Utilising his broad experience and knowledge, Kent creates and conducts placemaking training courses for professionals of various disciplines, from city planning staff in Vancouver, to public housing developers in Sweden.

Kent wants to institutionalise placemaking in cities, and therefore initiated and led local Placemaking Partnerships and Campaigns with public, private and non-profit leaders. He has applied his strategy in many cities including Chicago, San Antonio, Seattle, San Francisco, Flint, MI, Mexico City, Quito, Nairobi, Adelaide, and Mississauga.

This approach has had the most tangible effect in New York City where Ethan co-founded the NYC Streets Renaissance Campaign. The campaign and its projects led to a significant shift in NYC transportation policy including a Public Plaza Program, managed by former PPS staff, that is reclaiming street space for dynamic new public spaces throughout the city.

Ethan also forges major partnerships to advance public spaces and Placemaking, including leading the creation of the “Heart of the Community” program with Southwest Airlines,

He is a Senior Fellow with the Insitute for Place Management.

Ethan Kent will speak about his experiences at the conference Co-Creating the City on Thursday 21 June.