Downtown Petaluma
Downtown Public Realm Visioning
Starting in late 2018, Reed Gilliland and SiteLab Urban Studio broadly shared a presentation promoting a Visioning process for the downtown area’s public spaces. The goal was a more vital, inclusive, and vibrant downtown. The idea was well received, and by early 2020 the City of Petaluma was ready to start the process. Then COVID arrived. We have since been working to keep the idea alive and front and center with a series of smaller interventions, including the Parklets projects and “I am Petaluma” in Putnam Plaza – the linchpin as we see it. And still we persist.
Petaluma Parklets
We had the pleasure of collaborating on two parklets in Petaluma with artists Niki Adani, Zoe Fry and Kevin Clark; Managing Principal at Summit Engineering Yi Yang; and photography by Blanc Page Media. This editorial from the Sonoma Index-Tribune calls them the ‘prettiest parklets on Earth’ so, wow, and thank you! We’re grateful for the funding from Creative Sonoma and support from the Petaluma Downtown Association to co-create these meaningful spaces.
I am Petaluma
I am Petaluma is a vehicle for learning how to build community together through ownership and activation of our public spaces and in collaboration with artists. With the objective to flex collaborative muscles and start to heal community divides, this is a call for creative engagement from all participants, including grantors, donors, passersby, city government, local business, and community members. Led and coordinated by re:public and Rebuilding Together Petaluma, and funded by the Petaluma Public Arts Committee and Creative Sonoma’s ArtSurround program, I am Petaluma is a two-month community-centered program in Petaluma’s Putnam Plaza to foster listening and inclusion.
