Kathy Madden
Co-Founder Project for Public Spaces.
1947-2025
Kathy Madden was a prominent urban public spaces expert, placemaking leader, and an environmental designer who began working with PPS, helping to found the organization, in 1975. During this time, Kathy was involved in all aspects of the organization’s work, directing over 300 research and urban design projects and training programs throughout the U.S and abroad. Until 2018, she also served as director of PPS’s Placemaking Training and Public Space Research and Publications programs.
Kathy co-authored and wrote both books and articles, including the PPS best-selling publication How to Turn a Place Around, which has now been translated into over 10 languages. She lectured extensively and conducted, in conjunction with other PPS staff, PPS’s How to Turn a Place Around training program in New York. While at PPS, she taught for six years at the Pratt School of Architecture Graduate Program in Urban Design.
In 1995, Kathy started the Urban Parks Institute with a $2.2 million grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund. The Institute brought together over 2,000 parks leaders from both the private and public sectors in eight national conferences and four regional workshops. The Institute produced a volume of research and publications related to urban parks, and created a major online resource center for urban parks best practices and research, Urban Parks Online, which attracts over one million page views annually.
Chip spoke with Nate Storring of Project for Public Spaces about Kathy’s Legacy, shortly after he passing in Fall of 2025. Episode 3