Fred Kent is the founder and president of the nonprofit organization

Project for Public Spaces Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is a nonprofit organization based in New York dedicated to creating and sustaining public places that build communities, in an effort often termed placemaking Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the pla ...

. The organization is dedicated to creating public places that foster communities. He studied with

Margaret Mead Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s. She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard C ...

and worked with

William H. Whyte William Hollingsworth "Holly" Whyte Jr. (July 11, 1917 – July 11, 1999) was an American urbanist, sociologist, organizational analyst, journalist and people-watcher. He identified the elements that create vibrant public spaces within the city ...

on the "Street Life Project," assisting in observations and

film analysis Film analysis is the process in which a film is analyzed in terms of mise-en-scène, cinematography, sound, and editing. One way of analyzing films is by shot-by-shot analysis, though that is typically used only for small clips or scenes. Film anal ...

of corporate plazas, urban streets, parks, and other open spaces in New York City.Fred Kent « Project for Public Spaces - Placemaking for Communities
In 1968, Kent founded the Academy for Black and Latin Education (ABLE), a street academy for high school dropouts. He was Program Director for the Mayor's Council on the Environment in New York City under Mayor

John Lindsay John Vliet Lindsay (; November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular ...

. In 1970, and again in 1990, Kent was the coordinator and chairman of New York City's Earth Day. Kent is also an avid photographer, shooting thousands of photographs of public spaces and their users.

Education

He attended Columbia University, where he studied geography, economics, transportation, planning, and anthropology.

References

Project for Public Spaces

External links

Listen to an interview with Fred Kent on CBC’s "The Current," October 24, 2005
"Some exciting new solutions to bad city planning and urban design are being discussed this week in Regina. It's called "Building Our Communities: A National Conference on Community Sustainability." One of the speakers is Fred Kent. His company, the New York-based Project For Public Spaces, teaches cities how to create a sense of place within their bleaker blocks. For instance he's responsible for the redesign of Bryant Park in front of the New York Public Library. It used to be a haven for drug dealers and thieves and now it's a hugely popular public gathering spot." {{DEFAULTSORT:Kent, Fred American urban planners Columbia University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people