How to build a winter city
In the spring, summer, and fall, Boston’s parks and public spaces are full of life. But as the cold weather comes around each year, we bundle up and hunker down for the winter. This could mean less time outside seeing and meeting neighbors. In the midst of a national loneliness epidemic, this further exacerbates isolation and leads to increases in loneliness, anxiety, depression, and stress.
Retreating in cold weather is due, in part, to a lack of winter activities available in Boston’s numerous public spaces. Its public infrastructure is not set up to support year-round placemaking. While winter markets are common in December, most of them close shop by the end of the year — leaving spaces vacant in the cold, gray months of January and February. With little access to power, bathrooms, and water, the barriers to activating public space in the winter can be insurmountable.
What you can do
Create a unique experience
It can be hard to get someone to leave their house on a cold day. Creating an attraction that is eye-catching can be the thing to get someone over the hurdle. When we set up a sauna on Boston’s City Hall Plaza in the winter of 2024, it was a surprising yet welcome addition. Immediately, it became a point of interest for the public and garnered quick attention from media and passersby alike. In fact, within a few days of launching, all of the over 700 slots that we had available for the six-week pop-up were filled.
Of the people that came for a sauna session, 97% said they had an amazing experience and 14% specifically mentioned they enjoyed the uniqueness of it all. By drawing people in with the unusual nature of the sauna, we created a space where strangers could meet and connect with each other in the dead of winter. In fact, 81% of visitors met someone new during their session. These connections combat isolation and will lead to long-term positive health benefits.
Plan for the average, not the extreme
When you picture winter, you might think of a blizzard, or trudging through head-high snow banks. Sadly with climate change, the reality is that in Boston, winters look less like four months of snow, and more like weeks of gray days in the 40’s. In the 2023/2024 winter season, Boston got only 9.7" of snow and the average high temperature in January and February was 38°F and 42°F respectively.
This change in climate also means that we can rethink how we approach placemaking in the winter. In the early months of 2023, we worked with the City of Boston on a program to bring a rush of activities and games to parks around the city after a snowstorm. However, we soon realized that it was almost impossible to plan for snow. It was on the more dreary days when parks needed people and activity the most, so we focused our efforts here and brought it to life with events.
Rather than planning winter placemaking for sub-zero temperatures and snow, you can reduce costs and lift constraints by focusing on bringing people together on cloudy days.
Keep people moving, well lit, and warm
It’s no secret that people like light and warmth in the winter. These tried and true methods are already in full force during the early winter as markets pop up across the city. We often participate in Union Square Main Streets’ Holiday Stroll — creating an outdoor living room with a fire pit to toast marshmallows, giving out free hot chocolate, setting up small trampolines to keep people moving, and stringing up warm lights. There is something about a fire that attracts people to gather around — no matter if they are cold or not!
In the winter of 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, we partnered with Outdoor Afro to set up a scavenger hunt around Union Square. At a time where gathering inside was not possible, we created an opportunity for people to do a communal activity. We had a few participants say it was the first time they had gotten a chance to actually spend time with friends in months. Though we have returned to gathering indoors, the lessons of the pandemic are not for nothing. Through movement, light, and warmth, we can (and should) create opportunities to spend time outside in the winter.
Winter city of the future
At CultureHouse, we are just at the start of our winter placemaking journey. We envision a future where we have the same vibrancy in our public spaces in the winter as we do in the summer. Here are some ways we can get to this future together:
Run programming year-round
Why should all the markets end in December? Running events and programs in public spaces through the winter will create a reason to go outside year-round. From live music, to food, to festivals, if it can happen in the summer, there is a way to adapt it to the winter. Try this by hosting a winter block party on your street!
Build winter attractions
Many public spaces go unused in the colder months — a perfect opportunity to transform them into unique winter attractions. From ice skating and curling rinks to sauna villages, experiences that don’t exist in the summer can be a great way to keep a place alive year-round. When designing new parks and public spaces, create a winter activation plan that can be implemented from day one.
Create infrastructure and policy to support winter usage
During the pandemic, we saw how quickly some additional infrastructure and policy can change the way people experience winter. Making it easier — through policy and infrastructure — to have heat lamps, fire pits, power, water, bathrooms, and outdoor dining set-ups will lower the barrier for cold weather activities to take place.
While winter is changing, it’s not going away any time soon. It’s long past time that we embrace it and build a winter city that keeps our community happy, healthy, and connected year-round.
CultureHouse is a nonprofit organization that improves livability in local communities by transforming unused spaces into vibrant social infrastructure. To get in touch, partner with us, and learn what we’re all about, visit culturehouse.cc.
