TU DARMSTADT II GENDER IN BUILT ENVIRONMENT II PROF. DR. DONNA J. DRUCKER M.

SC ARCH IMRAN KARDAS

Film review
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces by William H. Whyte

The Film The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces is a documentary from 1979 by
William H. Whyte about the success and failure of urban spaces. Whyte is an
american urbanist, who also worked with the New York City Planning Commission.
Whyte started a research group to study the use of public spaces in large
American cities. He and his team looked at the behavior of various demographics
in these spaces and tried to identify the key points why some plazas are popular
and others are not. The target group of this documentary are architects and city
planners.

Since 1961 New York City zoning provisions allowed higher densities and additional stories for
office buildings in exchange for public plazas in front of the buildings. As a result, a lot of plazas
were built in New York City but most of them were barely used by the public even when they were
in the center of the city. But a new urban space has also the power to change or bring up new
habits in to peoples lives. Whyte refers here to the plaza at the first national bank in Chicago.
The film begins with the plaza in front of the Seagram Building (completed in 1958), which was a
good example in urban design and started the discussion to change the zoning provision allowing
to build taller in exchange for public spaces in front of the building.
The documentary starts by pointing out that the situation of the plaza in a city is key to its success.
Whyte suggests a plaza generally has a reach of about three blocks from which it is easily
accessible. As an example he shows the Seagram Plaza during lunchtime full with young office
workers from adjacent office buildings, who tend to sit in the sun most of the time.
Besides this, sociability and street view are also very important requirements for a successful plaza.
Whyte shows various people doing activities like watching other people, eating, playing games
with each other. He points out that a large amount of groups in a plaza is a good indicator for its
success. Because groups not just pass by, they decide to go to a place for a reason. However, a lot
of individuals, most of them are men in the film, also like to be in good plazas, because being alone
in a crowd doesn't feel bad when watching other people on the streets. This seems to be the main
activity people do in a plaza. This point is also very important why for example the rear of the plaza
at Seagram is the favorite spot for some people and also why some indoor plazas are also good.
The film then goes on and shows how urban spaces are used differently by men and women.
Mostly, groups of men and women are separated. The film shows a group of men watching women
passing by but there are no women watching men or trying to get their attention. Whyte calls the
group of men the girl watchers and points out that no one of them was successful picking up a girl.

REVIEW 02 - GENDER IN BUILT ENVIRONMENT !1

TU DARMSTADT II GENDER IN BUILT ENVIRONMENT II PROF. DR. DONNA J. DRUCKER M.SC ARCH IMRAN KARDAS

He adds also that the main reason for their behavior is machismo. Therefore, plazas are not a good
place to flirt.
Furthermore, men are more likely to sit in the front row of a plaza while women tend to sit more in
the back. A diagram of the sitting behavior at Paley Park in New York shows where the different
genders tend to sit. To clarify, women are more particular about the place they spent time in an
urban space. For this reason a higher number of women at a plaza also indicates that this plaza is a
good one.
Also, some areas like edges of pools or corners are more crowded than other places in plazas. For
instance, couples tend to sit at the edge of the pool in the middle of the Seagram Plaza. The
popularity of these places is coherent to the availability of sitting spots. As mentioned earlier the
corners of the Seagram Plaza are favored, but especially the stairs are very useful as a sitting spots.
Whyte criticizes plazas with low or no sitting places and also seating which is too high or otherwise
uncomfortable to sit. Although people are adjustable, the sitting place should be comfortable for
the plaza to be successful. Bad seating arrangements are often the reason for the underuse of a
plaza. Whyte demonstrates various designed benches and movable chairs as good examples for
sitting places, which also give people some independence.
Some natural elements like sunlight, water and trees are also important things to attract people to
spend time in an urban place. People like to sit in the sun and protected from the wind. Especially
water and the sound of water is very useful to make a nice and restful place. In addition, people
want to interact with the water which, however, is sadly forbidden in a lot of plazas. Trees in
combination with a sitting spot are favored by people when going in to a plaza.
In addition to sitting spots and natural elements food is another good feature to make a lively
crowd because eating people attract other people. Snack bars and outdoor cafs also give people
new habits in their daily routine to stop by and spend time at the urban place. Attractions like
sculptures or street artists further increase the appeal of an urban space. For example, interacting
with the sculpture and talking about it to each other makes people to spend time at that place.
Scale plays another role in the design of plazas. People find places which are unproportionally
bigger than the human scale very difficult to interact with. As a consequence these places are
empty and barely used.
In conclusion, people like to be outside in urban spaces which are crowded and lively. People like
to be on streets or at places with street view because they want to take part in the life of the city.
Whyte points out that the street is where the life is of cities. Urban spaces that foster these qualities
are more likely to succeed.

REVIEW 02 - GENDER IN BUILT ENVIRONMENT !2