HER City, conceived and led by Jay Pitter Placemaking, is a public space initiative that explores how urban design and social attitudes shape women’s safety, leisure, and joy—and reimagines how cities can centre those experiences. Implemented in partnership with a range of collaborators, including the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto) and Placemaking Week (Chattanooga, Tennessee), HER City is both a deeply reflective inquiry and a joyful public activation. It positions women not only as users of public space but as storytellers, critics, designers, and co-creators of spatial futures.

At its core, HER City is an action-oriented, three-part engagement process. It begins with a dynamic presentation that traces the history of urban design, examines how spatial bias has shaped women’s experiences, and outlines strategies for creating public spaces that foster safety, delight, and belonging. This is followed by a women-led storytelling circle and guided public space audit that illuminate barriers and possibilities through lived experience. The process culminates in a women’s public space play date—a vibrant activation featuring games, songs, possibility mapping, and collaborative action boards that spark tangible ideas for transforming public spaces. Each phase is asset-based and celebratory, while still naming the structural and cultural conditions that have historically constrained women’s presence and participation in the public realm.

The HER City approach is grounded in the understanding that design is not neutral and that public spaces have long been shaped by gendered assumptions. Domestic spaces—associated with care and nurturing— were historically designated as women’s spaces, while the city was conceived as a realm of mobility, adventure, and opportunity for men. These biases continue to shape how women and gender-diverse people experience streets, parks, and plazas—from harassment and surveillance to exclusion from leisure, play, and civic life. HER City seeks to shift this paradigm by focusing not only on safety but also on joy, play, and abundance—creating conditions where women are not merely sidestepping barriers but seizing the fullness of public space.

The initiative is highly adaptable and shaped by the distinct character and priorities of each city and community partner. Engagements have focused on diverse groups—including newcomer women, young women, women with disabilities, and women living on the streets—and have included participants of all ages and family structures. In some cities, HER City engagements have also included professional development sessions with municipal planners, urban designers, and women’s organizations, extending the project’s impact beyond the events themselves and into policy and planning practices.

Each HER City partner receives a comprehensive HER City Toolkit containing checklists, case studies, and practical approaches for creating gender-responsive spaces, as well as a HER City Action Plan documenting key lessons, stories, and placemaking recommendations that emerge from the engagements. Through storytelling, collective action, and joyful public rituals, HER City demonstrates how public joy can serve as a design principle and a social strategy, transforming public spaces into places where women not only feel safe but thrive.