Glitter is a Philadelphia-based neighborhood cleaning service that lets neighbors pool resources to care for their block—creating local jobs while experimenting with where individual, collective, and municipal responsibility for public space meet.

The Boston Office of Civic Organizing works to make it easier for residents to participate in civic life and take action in their neighborhoods. Its programs range from civic leadership and neighborhood events to micro-grants, mobile City Hall services, and Love Your Block, which supports resident-led neighborhood cleanups. The office describes its role as reducing barriers to civic participation and helping residents “connect, collaborate and take action.”

The School of Cities is a unique multidisciplinary hub for urban research, education, and engagement creating new and just ways for cities and their residents to thrive. Based at the University of Toronto and in a fast-growing, culturally diverse, and economically dynamic urban region, the School of Cities supports leading scholars, practitioners, and community members spanning disciplines and lived experiences to co-create new understandings, policies, and practices.

PlacemakingUS is a national network connecting people who care about creating more inclusive, vibrant, and people-centered places. Through gatherings, workshops, peer learning, and collaborative projects, the organization brings together placemakers from across disciplines and communities to share ideas, tools, and experiences. Rather than promoting a single approach to placemaking, PlacemakingUS helps build relationships among the people doing the work—supporting a growing community committed to shaping public spaces with, rather than simply for, the people who use them.

The Times Square Alliance works to improve and promote Times Square, one of the world’s most recognizable urban districts. The organization manages public spaces, provides sanitation and public-safety services, supports businesses, produces events and public art, and advocates for the continued vitality of Times Square as a place for New Yorkers, workers, performers, and visitors from around the world.

Downtown Partnership of Colorado Springs works to ensure Downtown Colorado Springs remains the economic, civic, and cultural heart of the region. Through economic development, placemaking, advocacy, events, public-space improvements, and support for local businesses, the organization brings together public and private partners to strengthen a vibrant and welcoming downtown.

The DowntownDC Business Improvement District works to strengthen the heart of Washington, DC as a vibrant, welcoming, and economically thriving urban center. Its work spans public-space management and activation, economic development, hospitality, events, placemaking, and advocacy, bringing together businesses, property owners, residents, and civic partners to support the continued evolution of downtown.

Tampa Downtown Partnership works to cultivate a vibrant, diverse, and welcoming downtown through programs focused on economic development, public space, transportation, placemaking, and quality of life. Bringing together businesses, residents, civic partners, and community organizations, the Partnership helps shape Downtown Tampa as a connected and active urban center.

Third Place Makers is a placemaking platform founded by Ivy Lupco that explores and advances the people, ideas, and strategies behind vibrant communities and meaningful places. Through its consulting practice and conversations with place-management professionals, it connects ideas with action across placemaking, community engagement, activation, partnerships, and public-realm strategy.

The City Renewal Authority leads the renewal of central Canberra, working across public space, development, placemaking, events, and community engagement to create a more vibrant and welcoming city centre. Its work spans places including Civic, Braddon, Dickson, Haig Park and the Acton Waterfront, with projects ranging from major streetscape improvements to grants, cultural programming and public-space activation.

University Circle is a busy cultural hub with institutions like the Cleveland Natural History Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, a modern mirrored structure with regularly changing exhibitions. Severance Hall hosts performances by the Cleveland Orchestra, and paths wind past roses and maple trees at the Cleveland Botanical Garden. Casual college bars, ramen joints and Asian fusion eateries dot the area.

The Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce works across the bi-state region of Iowa and Illinois to support businesses, strengthen the regional economy, and advance a more vibrant community. Its work spans economic development, business advocacy, talent attraction, placemaking, and initiatives that support the region’s downtowns and commercial districts.

The Downtown San Diego Partnership is a nonprofit organization that serves as the principal voice and driving force behind the economic prosperity and cultural vitality of Downtown San Diego. It also serves as the managing organization for several special districts including the Property and Business Improvement District, otherwise known as the Clean & Safe program, that provides essential public services in the 275 blocks of Downtown.

The Downtown Toronto BIA Alliance brings together six of Toronto’s leading Business Improvement Areas to strengthen the economic vitality, public spaces, and cultural vibrancy of the city’s core. Through collective advocacy, urban innovation, and cross-sector collaboration, the Alliance works to ensure downtown Toronto remains a thriving, inclusive, and dynamic place to live, work, and visit.

Established in 1970, Bloor West Village became the world’s first Business Improvement Area, pioneering a model for collective investment in commercial districts that has since spread around the world. Today, the BIA continues to support its Toronto neighborhood through beautification, events, marketing, advocacy, and initiatives that strengthen the local business community.

Ground Shift Studio is a Washington, D.C.-based public art and consulting studio working at the intersection of art, transportation, and climate resilience. Founded by artist and urbanist Chelsea Ritter-Soronen, the studio treats the ground beneath our feet—streets, sidewalks, plazas, and other paved surfaces—as both a canvas and a piece of public infrastructure.

The Southwest Business Improvement District (SWBID) serves the area south of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., using public art and creative placemaking as central tools for shaping the neighborhood’s public realm. Through murals, artist collaborations, temporary installations, and other creative interventions, SWBID brings color, storytelling, and a distinct sense of place to streets, sidewalks, and shared spaces throughout Southwest.

The United States-Japan Foundation (USJF) is an independent philanthropic organization working to strengthen bilateral ties and address shared challenges. We empower next-generation leaders and fund innovative initiatives, catalyzing collaboration and exchange among stakeholders in search of solutions.

IMK Architects is a Mumbai-based architecture and urban design practice with a long history of work across institutional, residential, civic, and public-space projects. Led by Rahul Kadri, the firm’s work includes the Malabar Hill Forest Trail, an elevated public path through one of Mumbai’s urban forests.

The National Mall Coalition advocates for comprehensive, forward-looking stewardship of America’s most prominent civic gathering place. Bringing together preservationists, planners, educators, and citizens, it works to ensure the National Mall remains vital, accessible, and capable of serving future generations.