Alan Chan, Associate at di Domenico + Partners, traced the evolution of the Chinatown Night Market at our October committee meeting. Chinatown Night Market is a grassroots activation launched in 2021 to reclaim Forsyth Plaza as a safe and welcoming gathering place during a moment of crisis. The market came out of the Van Alen Institute and Urban Design Forum Neighborhoods Now initiative, in collaboration with di Domenico + Partners, Think!Chinatown, and Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE). The initiative transformed the underused plaza into a vibrant cultural space using community-led, iterative design. Alan shared how partnering with local organizations lead to unstructured engagement with community members that shaped culturally relevant programming that was tailored specifically to Chinatown. Furthermore, each iteration of the market was informed by insights gained from observations and intercept surveys to improve crowd flow and better activate the existing plaza.

A major theme was capacity-building and advocacy. Alan and team created templates, workflows, and planning tools that enabled community partners to run the market independently, while collecting metrics to demonstrate its social and economic impact. The project illustrates how public-space activations can be both inclusive and adaptive, amplifying community voices and showing the city what infrastructure and support are needed. The Chinatown Night Market ultimately stands as a model for responsive, culturally grounded placemaking rooted in collaboration, observation, and continuous refinement.

Photographer: Francis Wu