Professional Documents
Culture Documents
JEFF SAUSER
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ORGANICNESS Christopher Alexander, A New Theory of Urban Design, 1987 SERIAL VISION Gordon Cullen, The Concise Townscape, 1961 MEMORABILITY Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City, 1960 MAGIC Allan Jacobs, Great Streets, 1993 EYES ON THE STREET Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961
SITTABILITY William Whyte, The Social Life of Small Public Spaces, 1980 SOFT EDGES Jan Gehl, Life Between Buildings, 1980 Case Studies High Museum Piazza Centergy Plaza Woodruff Park Summary MULTIPLICITY Margaret Crawford, Everyday Urbanism, 1999
PROBLEM: NEED INCREMENTAL STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE URBAN SOCIAL INTERACTIVITY Quality urban spaces and districts foster social interaction that generates and sustains meaningful community. The most such successful urbanities emerge over long periods of time, experiencing series of revision and improvement that refine them into rich environments replete with social activity and, thus, healthy communities. It seems, therefore, that if a place lacks or loses infrastructure to accommodate community-building socialization, it should be injected or replaced in bits and pieces as the present inhabitants and users can absorb and inhabit it. Unfortunately, many new urban design projects neglect the notion of incremental development in their vision for the future. Instead of simply medicated, the troubled past is erased along with all of its potential and uniqueness and replaced with something untried, untrue, and likely to fail or at least severely stumble for lack of historical authenticity and local conditioning. EXTRACT DESIGN STRATEGIES FROM THE LITERATURE Over the past 50 years, numerous scholars and visionaries have put forth strong arguments for incremental development and an appreciation for accumulated complexity. In many cases, these authors pen entire methodologies not short of manifestos that, in great detail, proffer design approaches to improve the social character and capacity of urban places. Other, less architecturally prescriptive authors supply perspectives that can easily be translated into specific design strategies. This paper shall extract one key tool from each authors magnum opus to assemble a kit of critically seasoned incrementalist approaches to measuring and improving the socially interactive and, thus,
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CONVERT DESIGN STRATEGIES INTO TESTABLE METRICS AND IMPLEMENTABLE TOOLS To make them useful in practice, the rhetorical design strategies and approaches gleaned from the literature review must be converted into measurable quantities, specific observable conditions, and/or concretely implementable tools. Each authors contribution shall be thusly translated into something that can be directly measured in exiting urban environments and/or inserted therein to improve spaces capacity for and quality of social interactivity and subsequent community formation and maintenance. APPLY METRICS TO CASE STUDIES Three local case studies will demonstrate the metrics applicability to a variety of actual urban places. Having applied all metrics to each, the cases importantly become comparable in terms of their capacity to foster social connectivity in the public urban realm. Sites include the piazza in front of the High Museum in midtown, the Centergy Plaza at Tech Square, and the northernmost portion of Woodruff Park downtown. Though each site involves a unique set of specific conditions and concerns, all are of comparable size and urban centrality (they are all on or very near Peachtree Street, Atlantas flagship thoroughfare).
CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS Executing the case studies will reveal how the sites physical characteristics affect its social and experiential performance. This exercise could inform policy promoting similar study of new urban developments and redevelopments during their design or redesign process to ensure designers account for their projects social and experiential dimensions in addition to strictly physical and formal concerns.
Decades of scholarly urban design research have yielded a number of important treatises full of insights that can directly inform actual urban design work. This literature review shall engage nine of the most prominent works, parsing from their rich texts one key metric or strategy to be measured and/or documented in the case studies. While all of these authors potentially provide many such ideas, this paper will attempt to distill but one readily measurable concept from each perhaps future work could engage additional metrics from these authors as well as soliciting metrics from others. The metrics are not consistent in scale or objectivity: some apply more to the urban scale, some to the architectural, some to the personal or bodily; some are highly quantifiable, some are directly documentable, and some but subjectively conveyable. The authors are organized in this literature review according to these traits, first by scale (urban, architectural, and then personal) and then, within each scale group, by objectivity (most objective to most subjective).
LITERATURE REVIEW
URBAN
INTEGRATION
Bill Hillier The Social Logic of Space 1984
ORGANICNESS
Christopher Alexander The Social Logic of Space 1987
SERIAL VISION
Gordon Cullen The Concise Townscape 1971
ARCHITECTURAL
MEMORABILITY
Kevin Lynch The Image of the City 1960
MAGIC
Allan Jacobs Great Streets 1993
PERSONAL
SITTABILITY
William Whyte The Social Life of Small Public Spaces, 1980
OBJECTIVE
SOFT EDGES
Jan Gehl Life Between Buildings 1980
MULTIPLICITY
Margaret Crawford Everyday Urbanism 1999
SUBJECTIVE
At the urban scale, Bill Hillier provides an entirely quantifiable measure of integration to explain a sites position and level of connection (both infrastructural and symbolic) within the overall urban network. Christopher Alexander informs a simple survey of surrounding structures vintage to help enrich the perception of historical context. Gordon Cullen offers a way to document the visual and spatial experience of approaching and moving through an urban space to help choreograph a dramatic procession. At the architectural scale, Jane Jacobs indicates a need to gauge a sites internal visibility spectrum to make sure users feel safely observable from more angles and less likely to feel vulnerably screened or isolated. Kevin Lynch explains the importance of memorable structures or formations that help viscerally position a place within an urban network of landmarks. Allan Jacobs seeks the presence of magic about a site, a highly subjective feature that cannot be measured but should be considered and possibly embedded in a project.
At the personal scale, William Whyte suggests a practical census of seats and seating types within a site to make sure there are enough sitting opportunities of sufficient variety for passers through. Jan Gehl calls for roughly countable layers along sites edges that contain interactive people and provide shades of transparency and social interest. Margaret Crawford advocates the accommodation of various, unforeseen uses and spontaneous activities to ensure a place engenders diverse socialization and supports democratic freedom. The proceeding pages elaborate on these authors insights and elucidate how their work translates into variably measurable metrics to be exercised in the case studies that follow.
INTEGRATION
ORGANICNESS
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SERIAL VISION
Serial vision: to walk from one end of the plan to another, at a uniform pace, will provide a sequence of revelations which are suggested in the serial drawings, reading from left to right. Each arrow on the plan represents a drawing. The even progress of travel is illuminated by a series of sudden contrasts and so an impact is made on the eye, bringing the plan to life.
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Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961
Good city streets support a heterogeneous population of locals and strangers, lingerers and passersby, old hats and new arrivals. There are certain morphological characteristics necessary to accommodate that much sociological diversity without engendering disorder. Jane Jacobs suggests these include a clearly defined public domain (as obviously distinct from a clearly defined private domain), eyes upon the street to surveil goings on, and enough passersby and other street users to keep things safely active (as opposed to forebodingly lonely). Eyes upon the street is perhaps the most famous (and architecturally measurable) of these related concerns. Public urban spaces should promote and support natural surveillance by avoiding visual obfuscations and hiding articulations that create blind spots pedestrians might fear passing. Additionally, Jacobs calls for the buildings to orient themselves towards the street so their occupants are architecturally compelled to observe the outdoors and thereby keep an eye on whats happening: There must be eyes upon the street, eyes belonging to those we might call the natural proprietors of the street. The buildings on a street equipped to handle strangers and to insure the safety of both residents and strangers, must be oriented to the street. They cannot turn their backs or blank sides on it and leave it blind. Ultimately, the issue doesnt stop at safety. A comprehensively visible public space potentiates a comprehensively utilized public space (as William Whyte writes, people dont go places they dont know are there). If the space can be entirely ascertained and evaluated from its edges, it stands a better chance of honest, earnest use (as opposed to a space of ambiguous extents which might be avoided altogether for fear of its hidden mysteries). The more hidden corners and enshrouded edges, the more effort one must expend to simply fathom the space before s/he can even decide if s/he wants to stay. More often than not, when faced with such a task, the passerby passes by. By this measure, the better urban space provides more universal visibility from more vantages within and along its boundaries. The space syntax team originating at University College London provides a powerful tool to evaluate this eyes on the street capacity. Depthmap, their flagship utility, calculates isovists (the area of viewable territory from a given point in a built environment) across a grid cast throughout the space and then graphically indicates which regions of the space provide more view (or larger isovists) relative to all others. Areas thusly coded red are directly visible from more positions across the whole space; areas coded blue are largely invisible from other vantages across the space. A space is said to have high eyes on the street capacity if it sports few darkly colored, less visible regions and is more uniformly brightly colored and highly visible.
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MEMORABILITY
PLACEHOLDER IMAGE
PLACEHOLDER IMAGE
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MAGIC
19
SITTABILITY
21
SOFT EDGES
23
MULTIPLICITY
PLACEHOLDER IMAGE
PLACEHOLDER IMAGE
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The literature review having digested the nine authors and translated their work into singular concepts, three case studies will now test the resultant metrics measurability and applicability to the design and evaluation of existing urban sites.
CASE STUDIES
The three sites are similar in many ways to maintain comparability but different in enough ways to ensure different results for each. All three are smaller than a block and immediately bordered on at least one side by building facades. Located within a few blocks of Peachtree Street, they are all centrally and importantly located with the potential heavy usage. The High Museum plaza is unique in that it does not directly front a street and its surrounding institutions largely determine its activity. Centergy Plaza exists at the mixeduse threshold between Georgia Tech and the rest of the city but does not itself contain any particularly important civic or cultural institutions or landmarks. Woodruff Park sits in the citys physical and symbolic heart, surrounded by the regions most significant skyscrapers and filled with representatives from its top and bottom socioeconomic classes.
INTEGRATION
Metric reach Directional reach
ORGANICNESS
Average age Age Range
SERIAL VISION
Qualitative Assessment
MEMORABILITY
Key feature
MAGIC
Qualitative Assessment
SITTABILITY
Area per seat # Seat types
SOFT EDGES
Depth
MULTIPLICITY
Qualitative Assessment
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Like the literature review, the case studies metrics are organized by scale (urban to personal) on the first order and objectivity (most to least) on the second.
At the urban scale, integration is quantified by space syntax GIS software (red lines indicate the most integrated streets and street segments, dark blue lines are the least). Measuring organicness involves mapping the sites neighboring buildings and coloring them according to their age (light grays indicate younger buildings, darker grays indicate older). Serial vision is represented by a series of views from a path mapped on the site plan. At the architectural scale, eyes on the street is quantified by space syntax Depthmap software (areas of red are visible from the most points on the plan, areas of blue are visible from the least [relatively]). Memorability involves representing the sites most distinctive and place-orienting feature. Magic is represented by photo details supporting a subjective account.
At the personal scale, sittability is quantified by counting the seats and calculating how many square feet the site contains per seat provided. Soft edges involves roughly counting the occupiable layers between street or plaza and building interior (or wall face). Multiplicity involves reporting observed or speculated spontaneity and documenting the spatial features that enabled and/or accommodated it.
The following case studies demonstrate how these metrics might be measured and/or observed. This papers subsequent and final section considers how this work might inform policy.
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Located within the northern half of the citys midtown neighorhood, the site is well served by transit, a few blocks east of I-75/85, adjacent to Peachtree Street (the citys flagship thorougfare), and surrounded by highrise office buildings and condos. Part of a recent addition to the Woodruff Arts complex, the plaza in front of the High Museum of Arts newest annex sits in the middle of Atlantas premier cultural campus. In addition to the museum, the complex includes symphony hall, a theater, an art college, a bar, and an outdoor cafe. The plaza is most populated when new exhibits open at the museum, but people also pass through and congregate in conjunction with visits to the other adjacent institutions. Often dressed to advertise or celebrate current exhibitions, the plaza sometimes supports banners, sculptures, or performers in and about its bounds.
CASE STUDY 1
INTEGRATION
Metric reach = 33.8 Directional reach = 2.25
ORGANICNESS
Average age = 21 Age Range = 34
SERIAL VISION
Spatially dynamic
MEMORABILITY
Public art installation(s)
MAGIC
Transparency
SITTABILITY
Area per seat = 442 ft2 Seat types = 2
SOFT EDGES
Average edge = 2 layers
MULTIPLICITY
Scant
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INTEGRATION: The plaza resides in a dense urban district of high integration (relative to the rest of the city). The 1-mile metric reach of its bounding streets (left) is very high (33.8 miles) but, like much of the city, directional reach (right) is low (2.25). Note: this plaza is blocked from street view by museum buildings, potentially imparing actual integration values.
URBAN 1
ORGANICNESS: Though surrounded by a single institution (or family of institutions), the plaza enjoys moderate organicness by virtue of the institutions relatively longstanding history in this place. Over the years, buildings, often of architectural notoriety, have been added to the campus in an increasingly varied assembly of structures and styles. A. Symphony Hall, 1968 B. High Museum, 1983 C. High Addition, 2002 D. Table 1280, 2002
SERIAL VISION: Especially when entering via the narrow, ivy-lined stair corridor, this plazas serial experience is very spatially dynamic. The stairs space is constricted but ends facing the glassy cafe and opens into the exposed plaza. From there, the space extends across grass, along the Meier wings blocky facade, and past diverse sculptures, terminating at Peachtree Street.
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EYES ON THE STREET: Though hardly visible from the street (especially because of intervening topography not captured by the map on the right), once inside the plaza itself, visibility levels are moderately high. With the exception of some corners and corridors, the plaza is geometrically quite rectilinear and without significant blind spots.
ARCHITECTURAL 1
MEMORABILITY: The architecture surrounding the plaza is monochromatic and formally subdued, giving memorable attention over to the artworks displayed on the grounds within. This Lichenstein house a permanent installation and probably most vividly characterizes the space. Occassionally the plaza contains other works that temporarily distinguish its experience.
MAGIC: The plazas most poignant sense of magic comes from the new museums almost totally transparent first floor along the plazas west and north edges. The effect is masked by reflective glare from the plazas center, creating a feeling of containment. But approaching the facade reveals uncannily clear views across the museum floor and to the city beyond, juxtaposing art and skyline.
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SITTABILITY: All seats in the plaza are chairs around tables (4 chairs around each table). The cafe tables are set with silverware and roped off from the rest of the plaza - they are for restaurant patrons only. The plaza tables are grouped under trees but can be rearranged more freely. The plazas adjacent lawn provides the only other potential sitting option.
PERSONAL 1
88 total seats 38,900 ft2 442 ft2/seat 2 seat types
SOFT EDGES: If not for its generously glazed groundfloor walls and externally visible internal exhibits (plus the western view through the building to the city beyond), the plazas edges would be quite hard. The only other softening elements include seating areas, entry queues, and spare, covered walkways.
Storefront 1 layer
MULTIPLICITY: School groups appropriate an otherwise relatively unused lawn; the plaza often hosts temporary art installations and outdoor events; clearly visible from the plaza, activity in the museum lobby is only varies from normal docility when exhibits first open or during private events. Overall, the plaza does not foster much usage multiplicity.
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CENTERGY PLAZA
Located just across I-75/85 from Georgia Techs main campus in midtown Atlanta, Centergy plaza comprises a central position within the relatively new Tech Square redevelopment district. Surrounded by high-tech offices, restaurants, university functions, and other services, the area is heavily trafficked by a diverse population most days. Since the recent completion of the widened 5th Street bridge, Tech Square has become the universitys front door, with Centergy plaza providing the districts largest open space apart from the fields on the bridge itself. The plazas 5th street frontage supports the most use and population diversity, with a Tech Trolley stop, a heavily used east-west sidewalk, and a number of restarants and cafes. The plazas north side is predominantly populated by office workers walking in and out of the office buildings. The future calls for more high-tech office development in the vacant lots just north of the site which would likely affect how the plaza functions.
CASE STUDY 2
INTEGRATION
Metric reach = 24.5 Directional reach = 44.5
ORGANICNESS
Average age = 6.8 Age Range = 2
SERIAL VISION
Visually dynamic
MEMORABILITY
You are here map
MAGIC
Extensive groves
SITTABILITY
Area per seat = 270 ft2 Seat types = 3
SOFT EDGES
Average edge = 3.5 layers
MULTIPLICITY
Controlled
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INTEGRATION: Located amidst midtown Atlantas street grid, Centergy plaza is very integrated into the urban fabric infrastructurally. While its 1-mile metric reach is high (44.5), its directional reach is exceptionally high relative to the rest of the city (an effect of the grid). If 5th Street did not dead end at West Peachtree Street two blocks to the east, this value would be even higher.
URBAN 2
ORGANICNESS: Built all at once, Tech Square is highly inorganic. The buildings around the plaza share the same style and materials, though there is some scalar variation. Because the plaza is entirely surrounded by structures of a common vintage, it is unlikely this place will accrue organicness (unless part of the block is replaced or drastically changed in the future.) A. Centergy Office Buildings, 2003 B. Global Learning Center, GT, 2003 C. GT School of Management, 2003 D. Midcity Lofts, 2002 Average building age = 6.8 years Building age range = 2 years
SERIAL VISION: Varied shading conditions promote a diverse visual palette as one passes from covered arcade to tree-lined bench rows to bright open plaza center. Moving to the northwest corner, a constricting view down a staircase toward the parking deck affords a narrow vista of Midtown towers and vacant lots - a sharp contrast to Tech Squares mid-rise built-out persona.
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EYES ON THE STREET: Highly open to the street and geometrically uncomplicated, the plaza contains no blind spots except along the northern stairs leading down to the rear driveway. If a wider view-shed penetrated the office building along the plazas northern edge, the space would become much redder relative to nearby intersections and corridors (see area map at right).
ARCHITECTURAL 2
MEMORABILITY: A visually generic and uninspiring physical environment, the place must provide a map to position itself within the city - little memorarbly stands out here. Part of an arbitrarily detailed urban system, the maps you are here marker orients the passerthrough in relation to a prescribed collection of civic and corporate landmarks in place of a personal set.
MAGIC: Though not particularly powerful, the extensive tree plantings inspire a somewhat magical ambience, especially on a sunny day when the open plaza is oppressively exposed and vacant but the shady grove is pleasantly cool and well-populated. People seem unusually pleasant and happy in this generously shrouded condition.
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SITTABILITY: Benches line the plazas interior and a cafes and fastfood eateries line its front corners with tables and chairs. Overall, there is a good variety of seats, especially among the benches, which provide various shade conditions and are thus used heavily. Office workers mingle during cigarette breaks and students congregate while eating or waiting for the Trolley.
PERSONAL 2
115 total seats 31,100 ft2 270 ft2/seat 3 seat types 1 picnic table 2 chairs/table 2 seats 11 benches 3 seats/bench 33 seats 20 cafe tables 4 chairs/table 80 seats
SOFT EDGES: The edges around Centergy Plaza are very thick and complex. The central plaza is rung with benches, landscaping, arcades, and storefronts. Bike parking and cafes also intersperse at places. At midday, the trees within the landscape layer generate a shade gradient from bright at plaza center to dark along the storefronts, emphasizing the edges deep softness.
MULTIPLICITY: The wine bar hosts live jazz outdoors occassionally, along with periodic events of other sorts; landscaping also educates the passerby and improves the owning corporations image; a multi-modal, mixed-use tableau ensures activity variety. While the plaza often bustles with diverse activities and uses, they are very controlled and rarely sponteneous.
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WOODRUFF PARK
Located in the heart of downtown Atlanta, this northern portion of Woodruff Park is surrounded by some of the citys most important corporate offices and historic architecture. This particular stretch of Peachtree Street is one of the corridors most active and dynamic, including major hotels, tourist venues, and countless eateries (many mainly open only for lunch). Centered just south of the site, the growing Georgia State University adds increasing student volumes to an area characterized by white collar workers, tourists, street vendors, and the homeless. During the day, the park is full of lunching office workers, resting pedestrians, and congregating homeless people. At night the park is all but empty, save a wandering tourist, passing police officer, or sleeping homeless person. A long waterfall wall flanks the parks east side and a shady grid of trees and benches fills most of its north half. The space is auditorily characterized by the mix of traffic noise with the waterfalls steady roar.
CASE STUDY 3
INTEGRATION
Metric reach = 57.5 Directional reach = 19.3
ORGANICNESS
Average age = 56 Age Range = 105
SERIAL VISION
Varied views against constant feature
MEMORABILITY
Vast waterfall wall
MAGIC
Cooling waters roar
SITTABILITY
Area per seat = 202 ft2 Seat types = 1
SOFT EDGES
Average edge = 2.5 layers
MULTIPLICITY
Liberal
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INTEGRATION: Centrally located within the citys most integrated district, Woodruff Park achieves a very high 1-mile metric reach value (57.5). Its directional reach (19.3) probably registers lower than it should: the westerly blocks apparent angularity on these maps suggests the GIS data used for the analysis was inaccurate (blocks are much more square in reality).
URBAN 3
ORGANICNESS: Located at the citys center, the plaza is surrounded by some of the regions most significant urban edifaces, from the 19th century Flatiron Building to the modernist Equitable Building to contemporary Georgia State additions. This might be one of Atlantas most architecturally rich and organic environments. A. Candler Building, 1906 B. Georgia-Pacific Plaza, 1983 C. Suntrust Bank Building, 1971 D. Flatiron Building, 1897 E. Aderhold Learning Center, GSU, 2002 F. Equitable Building, 1968 Average building age = 55.5 years Building age range = 105 years
SERIAL VISION: Set in the citys heart, every view from this section of Woodruff Park includes a different part of Atlantas diverse skyline. Each vista, however, cannot avoid including the plazas primary feature, a long waterfall wall. Starting from the southeast corner, move along the waters edge in the open sun until the shady gridded grove where diverse people rest.
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EYES ON THE STREET: Geometrically simple, almost totally flat, and without tall visual obstructions, the plaza can be completely observed from almost every vantage except around its northern and southern corners. The tree grove might be the only section potentially containing blind spots.
ARCHITECTURAL 3
MEMORABILITY: Easily the plazas defining feature, the long waterfall along the back edge frames and characterizes the entire space. The sparkling, roaring wall foregrounds the citys impressive skyline, provides a unique backdrop to passing figures, and creates a memorable atmosphere in which to pause and socialize.
MAGIC: Dominated by the waterfalls roar, the plaza is both isolating and democratizing in magical simultaneity. Because of its wide openness, one can always see almost everyone occupying the plaza but can never hear anyone unless very near them. Thus, a diverse population can silently share the same, cool space in peace and relaxation.
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SITTABILITY: The only seat type in this section of Woodruff Park is the well-dimensioned linear bench system that runs along the waterfall and amongst the trees. Wide enough to sit, eat, or sleep on, the seating accommodates enough different sorts of activities to transcend its formal homogeneity.
PERSONAL 3
SOFT EDGES: The plazas edges are characterized by water on one side, landscaping flanked by sidewalk on the other, and a continuous bench/ledge all around. Located at a key intersection downtown, the entire plaza could be considered a large-scale urban edge, layered as follows: street, sidewalk, landscaping, benches, trees, open, benches, water.
Pool 1 layer
MULTIPLICITY: The waters edge accomodates small scale meetings and snacks; the southern expanse hosts civic gatherings, including the monthly Critical Mass bike ride starting line; and the heavily shaded, well-benched interior accommodates congenial homeless congregations. Centrally located and accommodatingly designed, this plaza enables much multiplicity.
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The three preceding case studies demonstrate how the literature reviews metrics apply and result in real places. By connecting perceived social and experiential phenomena with the physical space that produces, enables, inhibits, or otherwise accommodates it, the urban designer learns in transferrable detail how design decisions affect the life of a space.
One word of caution: though similarly studied, these sites are not necessarily directly comparable nor should one be deemed better than another simply because it scored more favorably according to a particular metric. The case studies are meant to help elucidate the sites on their own terms, not in relation to each other. Furthermore, the same score for a metric might prove favorable for one site but not for another. Each metrics measurement depends on so many variously contingent factors that a comparison based on these metrics alone especially a judgmental comparison would hardly be tenable.
Instead, the metrics should be used to clarify current conditions or gauge the effects of potential changes to the current given condition. A designer could run the analysis, make (or propose) a change, and then re-run the analysis to see how the change affects the social and experiential nature of the site. This utilization method informs the studys potential policy implications as outlined in the following pages.
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This study has potentially powerful policy implications: if the mapping and analysis process demonstrated by these three case studies was required of all designers and developers at the outset of their projects planning phase, it is likely their projects would consequentially incur more favorable social and experiential characteristics. The Environmental Impact Statement process mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) operates in this way: by forcing designers to engage with certain issues at the designs first phase ensures the final design will satisfactorily respond to the issues after implementation. The urban design field needs a similar regulatory evaluation system to ensure designers adequately accommodate the citys social and experiential needs and wants call it an Experiential Impact Statement. If, at the beginning of a development project (or maybe, more aptly, at the beginning of a redevelopment project), a designer was required to consider and document the metrics described here (and more), s/he would more than likely incorporate what that process illuminated about the sites social and experiential conditions and potentials into subsequent design phases and into the final, built product. CURRENT BUILDING REGULATION AGENCIES AND PROCESSES At a projects planning outset, the EPA requires that the lead development party prepare an Environmental Impact Statement. Preparing this document requires the developers to outline the projects environmental consequences and confront these realities well before the project is built or even very extensively planned (to move forward with the planning process, a projects early-stage Environmental Impact Statement must be meticulously assembled, publicly vetted, and federally approved). Having outlined and evaluated their projects environmental impact early in the design process, the developer becomes compelled to adjust their later design concepts to avoid potential negative impacts uncovered by the Environmental Impact Statement process. Had the developers been spared this process, environmental consequences might never have crossed their minds and the project might have ended up an ecological blight. Other regulating agencies also require such preliminary project studies to ensure their particular concerns are accommodated before construction begins. Engineering bodies regulate structural and topographical issues to ensure the building sits in the ground and stands up properly; fire departments verify plans on the drawing boards support fire safety; ADA requirements govern accessibility; banks confirm financing solvency; and so on.
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POLICY IMPLICATIONS
But who regulates urban design? More specifically, who regulates the social experience of urban design projects? CURRENT URBAN DESIGN REGULATION AGENCIES AND PROCESSES Zoning controls land uses, setbacks, buildable area, and other general development aspects, but while zoning is one of the first limiters checked during the early design phase, conforming to zoning does not require engaging with the projects potential experiential or social impact.
Form based codes and other building codes more formal than basic zoning laws come closer to governing a projects experience and influencing its design accordingly at early concept development stages, but again, all the designer must do is follow the code to comply s/he is never compelled to actively engage with the projects impact on the social and experiential phenomena, even if the code was written to protect or promote a certain experience or social agenda. Design review boards are highly project-specific and contextual in their evaluation. They consider whether a proposal conforms to their vision of the place it is slated to inhabit and, in their deliberations, they likely consider the projects possible social and experiential consequences in addition to its physical and formal impact. But, again, their ruling only indirectly influences the projects actual design process they are not on the team that conceives the project in the first place so their often highly valid and applicably informed concerns are therefore not embedded in the projects design.
There doesnt seem to be an agency or process that ensures urban designers are taking social and experiential issues into account during their projects initial design phases the most critical time to influence a development process. Perhaps it is time for an Environmental Impact Statement of sorts tailored to address these urban design concerns. EXPERIENTIAL IMPACT STATEMENT Just as developers of large enough projects are required by the EPA to complete an Environmental Impact Statement early in the design process, urban designers could be required to complete an Experiential Impact Statement at or near the beginning of their schematic design stage. The procedure would involve mapping and analyzing the projects site and its surroundings with various quantitative and qualitative methods to ensure the designers are cognizant of the myriad social and experiential consequences of their work. The resultant document would resemble something like an extended version
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of one of this papers case studies and would help guide the designers as they develop their project, ensuring they keep social and experiential issues at their attentions fore.
The Experiential Impact Statement could be mandated by the city, solicited by a request for proposal, and/or demanded by a client. However ultimately implemented, the document and its production process is not intended to strictly regulate urban design outcomes instead it simply needs to be part of the design and development process to ensure the issues it exposes are addressed by designers, recognized by clients and even, in some cases, presented to the general public. More educational tool than regulating device, the Experiential Impact statement process could positively influence urban design projects social and experiential qualities in the following ways: INTEGRATION
One of the more straightforward metrics, the designers of a project subject to the Experiential Impact Statement would run the GIS analysis on their site and its environs as demonstrated by this papers case studies. This process would help them understand where their site resides within the citys network of integrated and not-so-integrated mobility channels. They would learn sociospatial importance of the streets binding their site and the streets connecting their site to the rest of the city. Perhaps this knowledge would inform their buildings footprint or orientation. It might also inform how they perforate their site with public open space and passages they could knowingly capitalize on potentially important routes alongside and/or through their project (or at least avoid disrupting them). ORGANICNESS
With an idea how their projects vicinity has developed over time, designers would become equipped to engage their surrounding historical context. Having researched the origins and histories of neighboring sites and structures, they might feel more compelled to engage that built heritage (whereas they might have otherwise ignored it). They might see their project as another piece of the longstanding urban puzzle instead of a discrete investment manifestation in a vacuum. This would contribute to the overall urban experience by encouraging symbolic relationships between structures old and new about the city.
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SERIAL VISION
Instead of generating a single money-shot perspective to promote their projects, designers would have to represent their sites and proposals with series of images that emphasize the dynamic experience incurred by passing through and/or past it. Whereas the money-shot represents a single moment from a single vantage that isnt always honestly portrayed, the image series more faithfully expresses the multi-angled reality of a space as seen moving through space and time. This helps the designer consider the users extended experience of the project (rather than just a single view at a single moment) and it helps stakeholders realize more precisely what effect the project will have on its part of their city. EYES ON THE STREET
Required to run the Depth Map isovist analysis on their sites and proposals as demonstrated in this papers case studies, designers may quickly quantify and visualize the visual range from all points and ascertain where people might or might not feel exposed or secluded, safe or vulnerable. This tool makes it easy to see exactly where troublesome corners might exist and it helps the city specifically recommend where design adjustments should be made. MEMORABILITY
On one hand, if, while preliminarily surveying and scouting their site, designers were required to acknowledge and document the particularly memorable and distinctive aspects in and surrounding it, they might be more inclined to preserve existing points of heritage. On the other hand, if asked to report exactly how they plan to memorably mark their project before too many plans are drawn, stakeholders and citizens can more directly vet their attention-grabbing strategy to be sure it contributes to the citys overall system of landmarks and icons. Perhaps the designer would even be asked to place their site and their proposal within that system to prove it participates appropriately in the monumental dialogue. MAGIC
to reflect in a statement about the potential for magic around the site and comment on how they might work to enhance (or at least not detract from) it. It is unreasonable to require every building to create magic (or memorability for that matter), but the designers should at least be made aware of its presence and/or possibility. SITTABILITY Another very straightforward and practical device, seating studies would ensure designers are providing adequate sitting conditions for the people inhabiting the space. By comparing the number of users (or expected users) to the spaces area, designers can pragmatically ensure they are including enough seats to fill demand. Providing a planned seating schedule would help ensure the space will include an adequate variety of seat types (benches, chairs, tables, ledges, etc.) in enough environmental conditions (shade, sun, water, loud, quiet, etc.) to satisfy typical, heterogeneous demand. SOFT EDGES
If asked to explain their approach to and/or understanding of the sites building edges, designers will be forced to engage the visual and physical boundaries of their structures. By providing schematic sections documenting the layers they intend to introduce early in the design process, the authorities can confirm that the project will be sufficiently porous and epidermally activated given surrounding conditions and precedent. MULTIPLICITY
While this metric might not be directly measurable, it helpfully encourages the designers to consider all hours of the day, week, and year as they imagine how their project will be occupied. Perhaps the designers would be required to execute a documentary study of the site and its environs during the early design phases to observe and report the complete variety of activity the area contains and supports around the clock. Recognizing or at least acknowledging the potential for spontaneity and dynamism might help expand the designers imagination about what all their project might be able to accommodate. ANALYITICAL GESTALT OR CATCH 22 In a perfect world, designers subject to the above gauntlet would, in turn, produce projects that embody the best of what each metric seeks to ascertain.
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Realistically, however, after running the analytical gamut, it might become clear that few sites and/or designers can positively deliver on all fronts. Perhaps, in a particular case, excelling according to one metric directly entails floundering according to another. For example, certain labyrinthine site conditions might promote serial vision but inhibit eyes on the street. It is not this studys purpose to make sure all sites pass all tests. Instead, the study and its metrics simply hope to expand the ways and means by which designers analyze their site and anticipate their proposals effects. REDEVELOPMENT VERSUS NEW DEVELOPMENT The spectrum of urban design project types runs from minimal redevelopment within mature urban fabric (such as revising a downtown plaza) to entirely new developments separate from existing urban structure (such as a new city or district built from scratch). In the former case, this study should be used to evaluate preexisting social and experiential conditions and then measure how proposed redevelopments will influence and interact with what surrounds and came before them. In the latter case, this study should be used to expand the design imagination and help ensure the new project fosters social and experiential richness. HOW TO USE, DEVELOP, AND ADVANCE THIS STUDY This study should be used as a model to inform a more sophisticated and comprehensive process of urban design analysis and evaluation. There are always more authors perspectives to include and more ways to measure and/or document the expandable set of quantitative and qualitative metrics. Recommended next steps include further vetting the study by applying it to more places elsewhere in the world and expanding it into a policy initiative intent on positively influencing urban design development and enriching the public evaluation process of urban project proposals (akin to the Experiential Impact Statement concept introduced above).
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Alexander, Christopher. A New Theory of Urban Design. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. Crawford, Margaret. Everyday Urbanism. New York: Monacelli Press, 1999. Cullen, Gordon. The Concise Townscape. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1971. Gehl, Jan. Life Between Buildings. Denmark: Bianco Lunos Bogtrykkeri, 1980. Hillier, Bill, and Julienne Hanson. The Social Logic of Space. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. Jacobs, Allan. Great Streets. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993. Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House, 1961. Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: Technology Press, 1960. Whyte, William. The Social Life of Small Public Spaces. Washington DC: Conservation Foundation, 1980.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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All images on pages 9-25 scanned from associated texts except the following: Page 9 Top and bottom: courtesy of Dr. John Peponis, Georgia Tech
IMAGE CREDITS
Page 15 Top: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christianmontone/3843460642/ Bottom: http://www.peripheralfocus.net/images/Eindhoven_Syntax_Map.jpg Page 17: Top: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8511649@N03/3084877212/ All other images produced by the author.
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