More real estate developers turning to ‘creative placemaking’ in bid to generate buzz

Real estate developers around the world are increasingly looking to Canada for inspiration on public space experiments known as “creative placemaking” that attempt to fuse artistic expression, community consultations and cold, hard commerce.

“They come to us because they realize, ‘We need to do something different, and we don’t know what it is,’” said Coralie Olson, managing partner with MASSIVart a placemaking consultancy that focuses on engaging artists with public space. At speaking events in Canada or the U.S. for organizations such as the Urban Land Institute, Ms. Olson has found herself fielding more and more inquiries about her own company’s projects or those of her Canadian peers, mainly from real estate developers looking to understand how they can add “something” to a housing or office site to capture the public’s attention.