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CHALLENGE
Evaluating the Social and Business Value of Placemaking
A global technology company operates publicly accessible retail areas, community spaces, and plazas at 6+ large mixed-use office buildings and campuses across the U.S. and Europe. My team at Gehl served in a program and operations strategy capacity for the Global Placemaking Lead overseeing these areas from 2020-2025. When the global placemaking program launched, real estate stakeholders didn't have visibility into what was happening at their assets & experienced difficulty advocating for improvements and communicating positive impact. I piloted and scaled an impact evaluation program to fill this need Note: This case study uses illustrative visuals and figures to convey project scope and scale where information is not available publicly. Actual details are confidential
Client
Fortune 10 Technology Company
Location
U.S. and Europe
Year
2025
I led the design and implementation of an evaluation program from 0 to 1. Insights informed annual budgets and emergent decision-making for two years The assessment approach integrated multi-method research, KPIs, and regular stakeholder collaboration. A custom dashboard housed monthly metrics data from local operations teams. I presented qualitative insight reports from onsight data collection twice a year
THEMES
placemaking · public-private partnerships · public programming · wayfinding · place design · marketing and events · impact assessment · public life · mixed-methods evaluation · data-informed strategy
HIGHLIGHTS
01
Evaluation Framework Design
Defined core guiding questions and key metrics to evaluate performance and impact across public life, visitorship, public perception, marketing, and place quality
02
Dashboard Development
Led a foundational design sprint for a lean team of 3, and managed an iterative development process involving feedback from key stakeholders to build a custom dashboard using Tableau and Looker Studio
03
Program Pilot & Scaling
Following a successful pilot at 2 sites, scaled the program to all operational spaces across the U.S. and Europe: Trained local teams, collaborated with cross-sector stakeholders and retail/placemaking operations teams to navigate sensitivities, build alignment on key metrics, and encourage shared ownership. Set up tools and processes for seamless YoY implementation
During the 3 year initiative, I managed a rotating team of up to 7 members to support dashboard development and data collection and analysis. The team included designers, data analysts, and third-party vendors. We worked closely with operations teams to streamline data collection
STAKEHOLDERS
real estate design and development · asset management · retail curation · marketing and events · corporate security · workplace operations
Testimonial
The team played an important role in demonstrating the company is committed to understanding how we can have tangible local value through our development, bringing rigor to our insights building process.”
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