Evaluating and Improving Your Urban Spaces

I wanted to write this post in connection with the post done on Thursday of last week: The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. In that post I shared a video and synopsis of the principles of small urban spaces. In this post I would like to go over the ways in which we can evaluate our urban spaces and use the principles taught in the video to improve those spaces.

Evaluating Urban Spaces:
Although an evaluation of an urban space can be fairly subjective, we will use the guidelines from The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces as a way to measure the effectiveness of any space.

The main principles taught in that video are as follows:

• Sitting Space - If there is no place to sit there is no reason to stay. Planters, ledges, movable chairs, benches, etc can all serve as sitting space.
• Social Space's relationship to the street - I would define this as access. Is the park easily accessible and in a naturally popular area?
• Light or sun - Few people enjoy the cold, and in a social space fewer enjoy darkness.
• Water features - These provide white noise and focal points or relaxation for visitors to the social space.
• Trees and plants - These offer shade protection and a feeling of comfort.
• Food - Food often brings people together.
• Entertainment - This can be street performers, musicians, sculptures, art, festivals, etc. Are there things that bring people into the space and create memories?

When evaluating any urban space it needs to be done with at least these things in mind. Simply grade your public space on those items above and give it an overall score.

Improving Urban Spaces:
Once you have given it a score in each of the areas focus on those areas with the worst scores. Then brainstorm ways to transition this space into a better urban space. In doing this think of long and short term strategies.

For example if the sittable space is lacking look to put in movable chairs and tables, and eventually add planters or ledges to permanently provide seating.

These things will allow you to better understand the space and why it is or is not working well for your community. For more ideas of visioning and improving your area please contact me or comment on the post.

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces has become sort of a staple in the Urban Planning field. It was one of the first experiments of its kind done to define basic principles of good urban spaces. It's 58 minutes long and a bit hard to watch in places, but I have posted the video below. If you don't care to spend the hour watching it I have given a synopsis below the video which goes into locations and principles of the video. If you have any thing to add to my notes on this video please leave them in the comments.



The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces was done by the Municipal Art Society of New York, and the narrator on the project was William H Whyte. He worked closely with the Street Life Project in doing research on these small urban spaces.

Some of the urban spaces mentioned and shown in this video are:

• Seagram Plaza
• 101st Street East Harlem (Near Central Park)
• Adventure Playground (In Central Park)
• St. Mark's Square 
• 77 Water Street
• Paley Park
• Green Acre Park (Why it's a good public space)
• Renaissance Center
• Atlantic Richfield Plaza

• Disneyland
• Rockefeller Center
• First National Bank of Chicago Plaza
• Pershing Square
• Bryant Park
• Keller Fountain Park
• McGraw Hill Park
• Jeanette Park
• San Antonio Riverwalk
• Charles Center
• Central Park
• Fountain Square
• Crystal Court
• Faneuil Hall Marketplace

Under use is the great problem with most parks and urban spaces because they don't follow the principles below.

Principles:

• People tend to sit where there are places to sit (Sitting space) - One linear foot per 30 square feet. They don't have to be benches, they can be ledges or planters and need to be two backsides deep to allow for better seating. Movable chairs are always a bonus.
• Street (Relationship to the street) - the location of the park and movement on the street past the park are important. The entrance to the park needs to be inviting and exciting to bring people in as well. Plazas need to be connected to the street or their visitors drastically decrease, so no sunken down or elevated plazas and none on higher levels in buildings. Avoid putting fences around the plazas and parks.
• Sun (Lighting is what is most important) - The sun is most important in "nippy" weather. What people 
• Water (Water features) - The sound of the water helps mask traffic noises and conversations, it serves as white noise. Allow people to play in the water, make it interactive or close to waterfronts.
• Trees - Trees and plants offering micro climates, shade, protection, etc
• Food - "If you want to seed a place with activity, put in food." Pushcarts, cafes, machines, etc. Also with the food station provide receptacles. These stands offer gossip and social spaces as well as meeting spots, and friendly greetings to the parks.
• Triangulation (External stimulus of some kind) - This means street performers, musicians, sculptures, art, or other focal point of parks. 

Other Points:

• Sociability and people meaning people bring more people because of people watching, safety, and entertainment.
• Pigeon Ladies*
• Comfort
• Better access for all people
• Retail properties nearby
• Scale of park to match city size

Other Helpful Links:
http://www.pps.org/reference/wwhyte/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jessieg383/Social_Life_of_Small_Urban_Spaces
http://rebelmetropolis.org/revisiting-the-social-life-of-small-urban-spaces/