A BIG Start!
Just two months ago, we launched BIG Creative Consulting with the aim of supporting organizations doing the work of bringing people together. We advance this mission though strategy, engagement, events and activations.
Starting a new venture always comes with uncertainty, but the incredible response from day one has provided confirmation that we are on the right track!
Below is an update of some of what we have been working on since the launch.
Thank you for all of the great support and encouragement.
What’s the Value of Third Place
to Your Mission?
The idea and value of ‘Third Place’ has become a through line in so many of the recent conversations—on The Sidewalk Ballet, in the projects we’re supporting, and in the way people talk about connection right now. No matter who we’re speaking with—placemakers, community organizers, city leaders, artists—this idea of Third Place keeps resurfacing: the importance of the spaces where we simply show up for one another.
Maybe it’s because so many of our traditional third places are under pressure. Maybe it’s because we’re all feeling the strain of disconnection. Or maybe it’s because, in a moment when everything feels fast, loud, and overstimulated, these understated corners of public life remind us what community actually feels like.
We’ve been thinking a lot about how to turn that talk into action, and we’ve narrowed it down to a few ideas. Chip suggested we should spend more time at the bar. Abra’s suggestions were a lot more centered on processing and being productive.
Ultimately we put some thoughts into a short piece—about how third places shape belonging, what we lose when they fade, and why they’ve been on our minds lately. If you’re interested, you can read it here.
Because we think it’s a conversation worth having, we’ve also put together some prompts for you to share with your team and spur a discussion at your next staff/board meeting, or just over a group lunch. Whether you work in the arts, human services, education, a downtown district, or a municipality, how do Third Places support your mission? We would love to hear what you and your team discover through this conversation, and how places for informal connections play into your work. Read More
An ongoing conversation about CITIES and the PEOPLE who shape them
We could not be more excited or proud of the launch of the Sidewalk Ballet podcast. If you haven’t yet given a listen, we really hope you will soon.
We’ve been fortunate to host a top-tiered line up of guests right out the gate, and we’re just getting started. Each episode brings new ideas and perspectives around how we can build strong, sustainable and meaningful and joyful cities and communities.
Episode 1 - Third Place With Karen Christensen
Where the idea of “Third Place” comes alive. Author and publisher Karen Christensen joins Chip to explore the cafes, hangouts, and everyday spaces that quietly hold our communities together—building on the legacy of Ray Oldenburg and her forthcoming book The Great Good Place -Havens and Hangouts at the Heart of Community.
Episode 2 - Majora Carter plus SF Black Wall Street
Majora Carter is a visionary urban revitalist, real estate developer, and Peabody Award–winning broadcaster who has reshaped how communities imagine their futures. In this episode, she and Chip dig into resilience, ownership, and what it truly means to reclaim your community—challenging the idea that any neighborhood is destined to stay low-status, and offering a powerful framework for building prosperity from the inside out. Plus, a powerful companion story from SF Black Wall Street on rebuilding a “third place” for Black creativity, entrepreneurship, and belonging in the heart of San Francisco.
Episode 3 - Nate Storring on Project for Public Spaces at 50
PPS Co-Executive Director Nate Storring reflects on 50 years of placemaking, the legacy of co-founder Kathy Madden, and how public space is being reshaped by equity, governance, and the blurred lines between public and private life. Also in this episode, Abra Allan revisits a 2020 SPUR and Gehl project that investigated coexistence in public spaces—an early, innovative look at how cities can design for connection amid difference.
Episode 4 - Kady Yellow - Coauthoring Public Space
International placemaking leader Kady Yellow on lowering barriers to civic life and building shared ownership in public space—from Jacksonville to the world. Plus, a companion story on community-led resilience from Sunamganj, Bangladesh.
Episode 5 - Jay Pitter - Stewarding Public Joy
Award-winning Placemaker Jay Pitter reframes joy as essential civic infrastructure. Drawing from her upcoming books—including Black Public Joy—she and Chip explore how cities can meet trauma with care, memory with dignity, and build spaces where people truly belong.
Find Sidewalk Ballet on your Favorite Podcast Platform
Join BIG Creative Consulting March 10th-12th, 2026 at the IDA + CDA Place Matters Conference in Long Beach, CA
Spoiler Alert: BIG Creative will be facilitaing a breakout session, “Securing Downtownn’s Creative Future”, discussion about Creative Land Trusts.
This Month in Unreal Urbanism:
The Corridor Everyone Knows
(Or Thinks They Do)
Cities all over the world have their signature walks. New York has the High Line. Chicago has the 606. Barcelona has La Rambla. And then there’s Emerald County’s most beloved pedestrian route — a pathway so iconic that generations have traveled it, photographed it, and even mythologized it. The official name is the Emerald County Department of Transportation Multi-District Pedestrian Connectivity Corridor (or ECDOT-MDPCC), But surprisingly, literally no one ever called it that.
Residents ignored the name entirely and just referred to it descriptively, the way everyone now calls the Campanile del Duomo di Pisa the “Leaning Tower”. Over time, just as in Pisa, the descriptive nickname stuck.
This 2.73 mile stretch of brick rivals the fame of Sunset Boulevard’s stars and yet… almost no one knows the story of how this now-legendary corridor actually came to be.
We went behind the curtain (wink) to bring you this 100% accurate case study. Let’s just say, what started as a fairly black and white process became a bit more colorful as the community participation began.
There were the expected conflicts — debates about color, materials, and whether the project respected regional brand guidelines. But also:
a design workshop derailed by a heated argument about whether the way-finding needed to be ‘dumbed-down’.
a resident who filed dozens of environmental objections that staff concluded “wouldn’t hold water,” which for reasons unknown caused deep offense.
Nimby’s, Yimby’s and even a group asserting “it was in my back yard all along”
Community members at one of 17 design charettes
By the time the project reached the Emerald County Review Committee, what started as a simple pedestrian connector had evolved into something far stranger, far more bureaucratically complicated, but also far more vibrant, and far more beloved than anyone expected.
If you’re like me, the last thing you need is more books on your list. If you’re like me, you’re also going to keep adding books to your list. I’ve started a “Bookshelf” section of our website with some recommendations of some of the books I am reading, or have read. These books all somehow inform or connect to the work of city building, placemaking, community. So far it’s a short list, but you’ll get the sense of the diversity and tone. Three of this first set of books have a thread of migration; Distinct explorations of seeking belonging in new cities, whether the arrival was a force of push or pull.
Gentrifier - Anne Elizabeth More - What begins as a “gift” becomes a window into the systems that determine who is welcomed, who is exploited, and who builds community anyway. Moore’s strength is showing how belonging is forged neighbor to neighbor, not program to person.
Exit West - Mohsin Hamid - I don’t read much fiction, but this one got me. It’s a migration story wearing the clothes of fantasy — and it works beautifully.
Dark Age Ahead - Jane Jacobs - In this reflection on Dark Age Ahead, I somehow ended up comparing Jane Jacobs to Cyndi Lauper. I’ll let you decide if I’ve lost my mind or if I have a point.
Flâneuse - Lauren Elkin - Elkin reveals how women walking cities rewrite the geography of power and the politics of place. It’s a beautiful book that makes you see every street, every city, and every story — differently.
What are you reading? drop us a note with your recommendations
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Header photos by Crystal Birns
Big Creative Consulting, 981 Mission Street, San Francisco, United States