This Place Is…

The Nashville Street Life Project

September 24th, 2006

Hooray for cities that actually practice the people-centered place design process! The Nashville Civic Design Center recognizes that creating public gathering places that attract groups of people is essential to keeping a downtown alive.

Through surveys (to assess people’s perception of places), observation (including behavioral mapping of which parts of the park are used throughout the day and how), and pedestrian counts, they studied Church Street Park’s…

…sociability (are people seen in groups there? is it a good place to meet)

…access and linkages (does the park draw people in? does it have clear entrances?)

…activities (are there good gathering points? are there enough places to sit?)

…and image (how do people perceive this park?).

Check out their preliminary findings (6.6mb PDF, best to right click and download).
LINK: http://www.civicdesigncenter.org/projects-streetlife.html

Entry Filed under: Methodology, How To