{"id":27642,"date":"2019-02-11T19:26:04","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T19:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-swa-2019.pantheonsite.io\/?post_type=idea&p=27642"},"modified":"2023-07-10T18:09:03","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T18:09:03","slug":"plaza-life-revisited","status":"publish","type":"idea","link":"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/idea\/plaza-life-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"Plaza Life Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1550012464337{padding-top: 5% !important;}”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”27848″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]This research project reconsiders writer William H. Whyte\u2019s Street Life Project and seminal study The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces <\/em>(1980).\u00a0 It sought to understand how the types of new public spaces have changed some 40 years after he published his book and companion film, what has changed in how people use public realm spaces, and what makes well used spaces.\u00a0 The project first looked at 10 plazas in Manhattan by 10 different designers, constructed or renovated in the last 15 years. The sites range from the type of bonus plazas Whyte was observing, to infrastructural leftovers, alleys, transit plazas, private campus spaces, and tactical urbanist interventions. The team used new analytical tools such as a machine learning algorithm on video footage to develop heat maps describing dwell time, frequent and infrequent usage, and preliminary pedestrian counts.\u00a0 The team also used some of the same techniques Whyte did\u2014behavioral observations, site measurements, and hand tabulation.\u00a0 The goal was to identify common behavior patterns, collective activity, programming, physical elements, and understand context across the sites in order to inform future public realm design. \u00a0Findings and methods were published in a booklet called Field Guide to Life in Urban Plazas.<\/em>\u00a0 Currently, researchers are experimenting with an extension of the New York study on other sites using infrared data that allows evening site usage to be captured, as well as a higher level of anonymization.[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text el_class=”swa_column_header”]<\/p>\n

RESEARCH TEAM<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Emily Schlickman and Anya Domlesky<\/a>, XL research and innovation Lab at SWA
\nTom Balsley<\/a>, Chella Strong, Jen Saura, and Hallie Morrison, SWA\/Balsley
\nAnonymous, Data Scientist[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

THANKS TO<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Wade Zimmerman, Photographer
\nGerdo Aquino<\/a>, Bill Tatham, Julie Eakin, Paul Wehby, and Xiaoyin Kuang, SWA[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

RELATED PROJECTS<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]51 Astor Place<\/a>
\nPublic Life in the Urban Night<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

FEATURED<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The Guardian
\n<\/em>\u201cLizarding to lingering: how humans really behave in public spaces\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\/Architecture (UABB)
\nPlaza Life Revisited<\/a><\/p>\n

Harvard University Graduate School of Design, course guest lecture
\n\u201cPlaza Life Revisited: Machine Learning in Public Space Research\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

ASLA New York Merit Award
\nPlaza Life Revisited<\/a><\/p>\n

ArchDaily
\n“Pioneers: 6 Practices Bringing AI into Architecture”<\/a><\/p>\n

ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture
\nA Future of Computational Collaborators: Machine Learning and AI in Landscape Architecture<\/p>\n

Landscape Architecture Magazine
\n<\/em>\u201cLive and Learn\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

AIA Center for Architecture
\n\u201cPlaza Life Revisited: Field Guide Release\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University
\nRevisiting the Social Life of Small Urban Spaces<\/a><\/p>\n

Municipal Art Society (MAS) Summit Innovation Exhibition
\nPlaza Life Revisited<\/a><\/p>\n

JoLA: Journal of Landscape Architecture
\n<\/em>\u201cAssessing Automation: Methodological Insights from Experimenting with Computer Vision for Public Life Research\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

New York City Department of City Planning
\n\u201cPlaza Life Revisited: How People Behave in Urban Space Now\u201d<\/p>\n

American Urbanist: How William H. Whyte\u2019s Unconventional Wisdom Reshaped Public Life<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

University of California, Berkeley College of Engineering, Berkeley Innovation Human Centered Design Conference
\n\u201cUser Research for Public Realm Design: Post-occupancy Techniques and Technologies\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA)
\n\u201cPlaza Life Revisited: An Urbanological Study 40 Years after Wi\u00adlliam Whyte\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

ASLA Annual Meeting
\n\u201cTesting Ground: Leveraging Emerging Technologies for Landscape Practice\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

ASLA Annual Meeting
\n\u201cAfter Whyte: The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces Forty Years Later\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

ASLA-APA-AIA New York PlanScapeArch Conference
\nTechnology Panel<\/a><\/p>\n

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona<\/p>\n

Outsider Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

Instagram
\nAlgorithm reading video footage<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

FINDINGS<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Field Guide to Life in Urban Plazas: A Study in New York City<\/em><\/a>
\nVideo and heat map outputs<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"featured_media":28205,"template":"","ideas_category":[172],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlaza Life Revisited - SWA Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/idea\/plaza-life-revisited\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Plaza Life Revisited\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1550012464337{padding-top: 5% !important;}”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”27848″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]This research project […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/idea\/plaza-life-revisited\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SWA Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/swagroup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-10T18:09:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/1920x1080_ULI-Open-Space-Case_hero2-copy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SWAgroup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/idea\/plaza-life-revisited\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swagroup.com\/idea\/plaza-life-revisited\/\",\"name\":\"Plaza Life Revisited - 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