What’s Next?

Our city’s response to the Market Street Prototyping Festival has been overwhelmingly positive. Together, we instigated inspiration, joy, and connection on our city’s streets. Together, we have paved the way for an inspired Market Street and for a new way of thinking about how we engage all San Franciscans in shaping the future of their city.

We believe that there is an ongoing need for this sort of experimentation and prototyping. Initiatives like the Prototyping Festival allow all those who are passionate about our city to engage in the civic process and to provide hands-on contributions to solving our community’s biggest challenges. With that belief in mind, we will be focusing our efforts in a few key areas:

First, we want to get some of the best ideas from this year’s festival back out on the streets for longer periods of time to continue our learning and maintain community engagement. We are working closely with civic partners to identify the best times & locations for this.

Second, the lessons we learn from these extended prototypes will inform how we incubate the next iteration of semi-permanent installations on Market Street as we continue to get ready for the city’s Better Market Street project, slated for 2018. The incubated installations will be part of future festivals.

Third, we plan to hold another Market Street Prototyping Festival in 2016, during which we’ll invite citizens to submit more new ideas for consideration.

Partnership was central to the success of the 2015 festival and will remain central to our next steps. As we move ahead, YBCA and the San Francisco Planning Department are deepening their partnerships with other city agencies, Gehl Studio and the Gehl Institute, Autodesk & Instructables, and Design Captains including California College of the Arts, Exploratorium, Gensler, and Studio for Urban Projects. Together, we are redefining how we approach citymaking, and we invite you to continue this journey with us.

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