We highlight here some great articles we’ve read this week dealing with art, creative placemaking, and building great communities. You’re sure to find some inspiration to make your life and our community even better!

1. The Economic Value of a Unique Place: When it comes to communities, aesthetics and design are economics, because they are critical to a unique place…. “The image of a community is fundamentally important to its economic well being … Decisions such as where to invest, where to work, where to retire, and where to vacation are all made based on what a community looks like.”

2. Long Distance Trains and Public Space: Good public spaces (busy parks, main streets, plazas) attract a diverse cross-section of a community or city and at best, can facilitate interaction across perceived differences. The train exemplifies this by providing circumstances for much more intensive interactions among strangers than usually happen in cities.

3. Ida’s Bittersweet Success: An Interview With Pawel Pawlikowski: Also, it’s a kind of love letter to Poland, although it doesn’t seem like it. A love letter to a certain point in culture, in the early 60s, a slight kind of creative arrogance, an “I don’t care what the world thinks”.

4. The Future of the Library: We live in an increasingly isolated culture, for individuals I mean…. I think we need physical spaces for people to come together. Along these lines, the American Public Library is one of the last non-commercial spaces that are left. If you are in a place in your life where you just need a place to hang out, you come to the library.

5. A Playground Made of Snow and Ice: PinPin Studio teamed up with ICEHOTEL and other local partners to create this winter wonderland featuring a maze, ice slides, seating, and a “snow lantern” that glows at night. The entire playground took less than a week to build.