James Rojas

James Rojas is an urban planner, community activist, educator, and artist who runs the planning, model-building, and community-outreach practice Place It!. Through Place It!, he has developed an interdisciplinary, community-healing, visioning, and outreach process that uses storytelling, objects, art-production, and play to help improve the urban-planning outreach process. He is now an international expert in public engagement and has traveled around the US, Mexico, Canada, Europe, and South America, facilitating over 500 workshops, and building over 100 interactive models. His research has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Dwell, Places, and in numerous books. Relevant areas of expertise include using model-building as a means of community and planning outreach; working with underserved, disadvantaged communities and bringing overlooked voices to the planning discussion; making the physical form of cities relevant to broad audiences; and understanding how immigrants—especially Latino immigrants—see and understand urban and suburban space in the US and why they oftentimes reshape those forms in the ways that they do.

La voz del Duwamish #15- Taller "Sueña, Construye, Juega" con James Rojas

A Duwamish Valley Affordable Housing Coalition review

Hola Comunidad, espero que todos estén teniendo un lindo comienzo de Mayo! Para este episodio, acompañenme al taller de "Sueña, Juega, Construye", un taller realizado por James Rojas donde su enfoque es conectar a la comunidad Latina. Van a poder conocer sobre quién es James Rojas, y cómo fue que este taller fue realizado. También, verán un montaje de todo lo que sucedió durante el taller y conocerán algunas historias de nuestros miembros de la comunidad latina.

Espero y disfruten!

Hello Community, I hope everyone is having a nice start to May! For this episode, join me for the "Dream, Play, Build" workshop, a workshop hosted by James Rojas where his focus is to connect the Latino community. You will be able to learn about who James Rojas is, and how this workshop was carried out. Also, you'll see a montage of everything that happened during the workshop and will hear some stories from our members of the Latino community. I hope and enjoy!

-Con amor, Fatima

Equity and Walkability: Improving Pedestrian Infrastructure in Underserved Neighborhoods

A Smart Growth Network Webinar

National conversations about equity have expanded into the pedestrian realm and have prompted increasing numbers of communities to examine how to improve pedestrian infrastructure in underserved neighborhoods.

Nondrivers represent nearly...

Nondrivers represent nearly one quarter of the population and yet often are not included in planning and policymaking discussions. This session looked at how nondrivers are organizing to improve pedestrian infrastructure to better serve people of all ages, as well as those who cannot drive, do not have access to a car, or who cannot afford to own or maintain a vehicle.

The 10 Minute Walk program is an innovative approach to help ensure that all community members have easy and safe access to parks and green spaces. A coalition of mayors and stakeholders is working to achieve universal park access and create an equitable, safe, resilient, and healthy environment for communities to thrive. Watch to learn more about this great initiative.

Finally, for two decades, James Rojas and John Kamp have been looking to art, creative expression, and storytelling to shake up the classic community meeting. They shared their insights and experiences, and provided pointers for building common ground and inviting active participation among diverse groups.

Dream Play Build: Hands-On Community Engagement for Enduring Spaces and Places

An America Walks Webinar

People love their communities and want them to become safer, healthier, more prosperous places. But the standard approach to public meetings somehow makes everyone miserable. Conversations that should be inspiring can become shouting matches. So what would it look like to facilitate truly meaningful discussions between citizens and planners? What if they could be fun?

James Rojas and John Kamp have been changing the norm on community meetings for 20 years and America Walks was honored to have them share their expertise in a webinar! Their new book Dream Play Build explains their unique approach called “Place It!,” which draws on three methods: the interactive model-building workshop, the pop-up, and site exploration using our senses. Dream Play Build offers wisdom distilled from workshops held around the world, and a deep dive into the transformational approach and results from the South Colton community in southern California. While much of the process was developed through in-person meetings, the book also translates the experience to online engagement--how to make people remember their connections beyond the computer screen.

James Rojas

La voz del Duwamish #15- Taller "Sueña, Construye, Juega" con James Rojas

Equity and Walkability: Improving Pedestrian Infrastructure in Underserved Neighborhoods

Dream Play Build: Hands-On Community Engagement for Enduring Spaces and Places

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