Instead of hibernating each winter, imagine enthusiastically leaping outdoors each day — despite the weather. That’s one of the goals of winter placemaking. Communities reimagine how they design and use their public spaces to inspire more outdoor time, support locally owned businesses, and celebrate culture throughout winter.
What’s Placemaking?
Think of all the public spaces where you live, work, or travel by every day — parks, streets, and other publicly owned spaces. Placemaking turns those public spaces into places that boost our health, happiness, and well-being. Using a community-based process, placemaking builds upon some of our greatest assets — places open to the public — using permanent or temporary elements such as seating, public art, gardens, and crosswalks. Now sprinkle this community-based process with blustery winds, darker days, and slicker surfaces and you have winter placemaking!
According to the 880 Cities Winter Placemaking Guide, “Winter placemaking is a means to re-envision the ways that public spaces are created and used in winter in order to foster social connection, physical activity, and the many benefits of a vibrant public realm all year round…[It’s] about giving communities the power, capacity, and resources to re-envision winter as a time of year where community connection is fostered, and age-inclusive activities are abundant.” Read the full guide.
Winter Placemaking Inspiration
To turn up the heat on winter placemaking, here is some inspiration from communities warming up to winter. Please read on!
Middleton, WI, asked its residents how its downtown plaza could build connections during winter and combat social isolation. The process led them to convert summer trails to winter skating tracks. They also added art installations, a fire pit, and an electric fireplace. The plaza now hosts a winter solstice celebration, including a musical crawl at neighboring downtown businesses. Learn more.
Edmonton, Alberta, piloted a warming hut project along its river valley. They designed passive solar huts to retain heat and give walkers a respite from the cold while visiting local businesses and other attractions.
There’s something very special about a whole community who embraces the unique natural winter season we all share. In Edmonton, we love being outside on bright snowy days and hearing the crunch of snow underfoot. We get excited about skating under the stars and sipping hot chocolates around an outdoor fireplace in the dark. There’s so much living to do outside–during winter. We live here on purpose and with purpose. – Winter City Edmonton
The Frostbite Festival takes place in Harrison, MI, each winter. The event transforms a frozen lake into a 9-hole golf course, using tennis balls and shallow holes in the ice. It also includes a sled-building contest, polar dip, and soup cook-off.
Grand Rapids, MI, boasts the largest winter festival in America, the World of Winter. From January to March, the city becomes a winter wonderland with light-based art installations, hands-on exhibits, and special outdoor events. Some highlights include a Disco on Ice party, a music performance using a piano crafted from ice, and a human “Hungry Hungry Hippo” Tournament. Last year’s event drew 4.8 million visitors.
Keene Ice and Snow Festival
Photo by Mark Rebillard
Luckily, I don’t have to travel far to see winter placemaking at work where I live. The Keene Ice and Snow Festival in Keene, NH, turns our Main Street sidewalks into an ice sculpture gallery. I can’t wait for the 22nd Annual Keene Ice and Snow Festival on Saturday, February 1, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This year’s festival features an ice carving competition between twelve professional ice carvers from the Monadnock Region and throughout New England.
“The festival is a day of free family fun that brings local ingenuity and creative vibrancy to downtown Keene during the peak of winter,” said Mark Rebillard, Deep Roots Massage & Bodywork owner and Keene Downtown Group chair. “Each ice sculpture is set on a pedestal and illuminated from underneath to shine long into the evening. A beautiful night to walk around before dinner at your favorite downtown restaurant!”
“When people take an active role in shaping their community, they emerge with new social connections and a stronger sense of trust—in one another, and often in their government, too,” said Leah Karlberg, Urban Planner and Designer at Happy Cities.
We hope to see more placemaking in our members’ and partners’ communities next winter and throughout 2025. (Shoot us an email if you have examples to share!) Happy New Year!
Featured photo by Stephen Andrews on Unsplash