What is placemaking?
Per Wikipedia, "Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. Placemaking capitalizes on a local community's assets, inspiration, and potential, with the intention of creating public spaces that improve urban vitality and promote people's health, happiness, and well-being."
The Friendship Heights Alliance's placemaking efforts include installing native plant pollinator gardens and planters along the corridor to soften the public realm, bringing vibrant flowers into the neighborhood, and providing high-quality, brightly colored furniture to encourage people to sit and stay.
Friendship Heights Pollinator Commons
The ultimate goal of the Friendship Heights Pollinator Commons is to create a series of native plant pollinator gardens throughout Friendship Heights. These gardens will be located close enough together to allow native insects, with relatively small ranges, to visit multiple sites — establishing a strong visual presence of native plants throughout the neighborhood. Currently, the Alliance has established two gardens: one in Maryland (5496 Friendship Boulevard) and one in D.C. (5200 block of Wisconsin Avenue near the Jenifer Street metro exit).
As new sites are identified and the gardens expand, the Pollinator Commons will continue to be a collaborative environmental stewardship project, connecting D.C. residents to Maryland residents, teens to seniors, and pollinators to people. To learn more about getting involved as a garden volunteer, please email our Marketing and Program Manager, Journee, at journee@friendshipheights.com.
Tulips
Each spring, the Friendship Heights Alliance is adding more color and a fresh dose of inspiration with hundreds of colorful tulips – a nod to the vibrancy and hope of our visual identity and tulip logo, as well. Snap your own photos of the tulips as they emerge, and tag us on social @friendshipheightsalliance! Flowers and greenery soften the public realm and encourage people to linger.
What's next?
The Alliance team is working on future phases of our long-term placemaking plan, and working with property owners to improve tree boxes and sidewalk areas throughout the neighborhood.