Placemaking

Retired urban planning professor Ellen Shoshkes taught PSU’s Public Space class for several years and partnered regularly with Campus Planning staff to get her students involved with placemaking projects on campus. Prof. Shoshkes focused her Fall 2019 Public Space class around one of PSU’s skybridges. Campus skybridges were identified in PSU’s 2019 Open Space Plan as an opportunity site for open space activation. The project was coined “Pie-in-the-Sky” and concluded with a “pop-up” event with free pie on the skybridge as a way to increase foot traffic and draw campus engagement with the class. Shoshkes’ students incorporated furniture, elements of interior design and wayfinding, along with a survey for feedback around future use of the space. 

Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) Capstone projects supervised by engineering instructor Evan Kristof have partnered with the Planning & Sustainability Office multiple times to study Montgomery Plaza. The first Capstone project was completed in March 2020 and resulted in the project team recommending  infrastructure improvements on the plaza. Beginning in January of 2025, a new group of CEE students has taken on Montgomery Plaza as their Capstone project. They are currently evaluating the next phase for the plaza, a curbless environment with onsite stormwater treatment, power, and potential outdoor covered space for winter gatherings. The students have also created a survey to engage their community and gather information around how people use the plaza and what they would like to see in the future. 

PSU art student Nick Pelster worked with the Planning & Sustainability Office to create a partnership between “The Courts Skatepark” and PSU. The Courts was a pilot skatepark located on PSU property just south of Shattuck Hall. The lot was in need of activation; Nick and the skate community started activating the space and eventually a partnership was born. Nick, now a graduate student in the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, is currently working on a new site on campus for The Courts 2.0.