Prove It: The Value of Community Infrastructure
What if the most important question about community infrastructure isn’t “What will it cost?” but “What will it return?”
That was the premise behind Troyer Group President, Jonathon Geels’ recent talk, “Influence, Economics, and the Necessity of Advocacy,” presented as part of the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Future Now Summit in Detroit in June. The talk, and the entire Summit, challenged designers of the built environment to measure what matters and use evidence to influence decisions, investment, and policy.
Watch: Jonathon’s talk on the Landscape Architecture Foundation website
Landscape Architecture Is More Than Design
Landscape architects have long understood that parks, trails, streetscapes, and public spaces create value. They support health, strengthen neighborhoods, improve environmental performance, and bring people together.
But understanding that value isn’t enough. We need to prove it.
When communities are deciding where to invest limited public dollars, landscape architecture needs to be part of the conversation about outcomes, not simply aesthetics or amenities. That means connecting design decisions to economic development as well as public health, mobility, environmental resilience, equity, and quality of life.
This is one reason we’ve continued exploring the economics of public spaces through our Parkonomics work at Troyer Group.
Read: Everyday Economics of Our Shared Public Spaces
Evidence Creates Influence
Data alone doesn’t create influence. Evidence becomes powerful when it changes a decision.
For landscape architecture, that involves finding more resonate ways to measure the outcomes of our work and translating those outcomes into language that elected officials, community leaders, developers, and residents can use. A park isn’t simply a collection of amenities. A trail isn’t simply a path. A streetscape isn’t simply a beautification project. These examples exist as parts of interdependent systems, functioning ecosystems, as well as being independent and dynamic themselves.
Ultimately, they all are examples of community infrastructure that supports broader economic, political, and social goals.
Troyer Group’s work on the Our Parks Master Plan for the City of Elkhart took this approach by using data to evaluate economic, health, environmental, equity, accessibility, and community impacts. It was also a comprehensive analysis to help support the understanding of the systemic role community infrastructure plans in overall wellbeing. With that understanding of context, the plan then proved a robust matrix for decision-making. The goal was not simply to create a better plan, but to give local leaders a stronger basis for prioritizing investment.
“Fantastic job. [The plan provides] a thorough assessment of our parks. It’s an impressive tool and I look forward to our community utilizing it moving forward.” – Aaron Mishler, City of Elkhart Common Council
Read: Our Parks: Enrich and Engage | Elkhart, Indiana
Advocacy Is Part of Practice
If design is an expression of optimism – a belief that through design we are making a positive impact – then advocacy and activism would not only be a necessary reflection of that expression, but an important demonstration of it. – Jonathon Geels, President, Troyer Group
Advocacy shouldn’t be something that happens only through professional organizations or after a design is complete. It should be part of how landscape architects practice.
If we can demonstrate that public spaces contribute to stronger economies, healthier communities, greater mobility, environmental resilience, and civic identity, then we have a responsibility to use that evidence to advocate for better decisions. That changes the role of the landscape architect and it has significant financial implications. Beyond the impact to our shared communities, this matters for firms too. According to the global consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, the value of government affairs and regulatory intervention can be upwards of 30% of overall earnings. In a multi-billion dollar services industry that means thousands of more jobs annually and much, much greater impact of the profession.
With integrating advocacy into practice, we move from designing as a stand alone process to helping a community understand why an investment matters.
Read: “Organizing the Government Affairs Function for Impact” on McKinsey & Company’s website
From Amenity to Infrastructure
Perhaps the biggest shift is in how we describe what we do. When you only have a fleeting few moments to capture attention, the precision of language is critical.
A park can be an amenity or it can be community infrastructure.
A trail can be recreational or it can support mobility, health, economic development, and connectivity.
A public space can be decorative or it can become an economic and social catalyst.
The difference isn’t necessarily the physical project. It’s the way we understand, measure, and communicate its impact. It’s not to say that these aren’t beautiful, recreational features for pleasure, but we do ourselves a disservice if that’s the only lens we look at them through. That is the opportunity. If we want a greater voice in the decisions that shape our shared communities, we need to prove the value of what we do.
And once we have the evidence, we need to use it. That’s where influence begins. And with influence comes the opportunity to shape better decisions and, ultimately, better communities.