Friday Nov. 7

1. I thought that some of the author's main points were how to attract people to a plaza. I thought that Whyte had many interesting points. One interesting thing that I read was how women and men interact with a plaza differently. A woman is more likely to scout the area while a man is usually going to sit down where ever. I thought it was amusing, it reminded me of the different ways a man and a woman would shop. Another thing that I thought was interesting was how people would venture away from the plaza if their building was in it. On reason was to "put some space between themselves and their boss." Another thing that I thought was very interesting but not that surprising was how a popular plaza would have more women than men. Whyte linked the high proportion of women would mean that the plaza was a nice place to be. There seem to be a noticeable discrepancy in seating between men and women. Men tend to sit at the front and women will tend to sit in secluded areas. However, it seems that the men will sit around the women.
2. There seem to be a few differences betweeen the design of an urban space and a consumer product. I thought it was extremely interesting that the aesthetics of a plaza really did not matter and that aesthetics are extremely important to consumer products. Perhaps this is due to the fact that a plaza is mainly used for behavioral uses, not reflective or visceral. Another thing that was surprising was that the surroundings were not important at all. Whyte writes about how at first he thought that perhaps the surrounding buildings had something to do with the popularity of a plaza. In fact, his research showed that the surroundings have almost nothing to do with the popularity of a plaza because people are looking at things that are eye level, not looking up at the buildings. This seems to contradict the design concepts for a consumer product, the surrounding of a product is its package, an extremely important part of the product.
3. If I were designing a plaza I would make sure that it was in the center of the city. I would also make sure that there were ample places to sit and more importantly, that the seating was comfortable. I would have a plaza that was not sunken because it is disattractive to people. I would make sure that the plaza is appealing to women because if the women enjoy being in the plaza, men will follow.