Plan Philly: Engaging in Urban Dialogue

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Open space is repose and recreation represented in urban design.  It attracts people into existing communities by providing interesting uses and captivating vistas of green  that mark a break in the urban fabric.  Open space brings a sense of human scale to dense city streets.  It is carefully planned and designed, though no buildings have usually been constructed on it.  Parks, streets, squares, alleys, and walkways represent the connective tissue that holds our daily life together, free and open to be used as the public needs it.  And how nearby buildings frame these open spaces and relate to distances is no mistake: building arrangement alone can affect how we move through public spaces.  It is oftentimes our only space for unplanned social interactions, and can provide interesting insight into what William Whyte calls our “schmoozing patterns.”

Emphasis was not placed on open space in cities until the early 20th century with the City Beautiful movement, whose advocates saw beauty as a social control device for creating happy and virtuous citizens that counteracted decaying inner-city neighborhoods.  Though urban designers have delved deeper into the social sciences since this movement, the incredible value of open space in urban areas still resonates throughout the discipline.  It gives us room to relax, a space to socialize, air to breathe, and a vista to appreciate the dense urban form around us.  The City of Philadelphia has just launched an intensive open space planning initiative with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society called the Green Plan, thus demonstrating the power such public space designs can have on mobilizing communities.

http://www.tiny.cc/IczTi
http://www.fairmountpark.org/
www.greenplanphiladelphia.com
www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org
http://www.smartgrowth.org/about/principles/principles.asp?prin=6&res=1024
www.openspace.org
http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/openspace.html
http://www.fundersnetwork.org/info-url_nocat2778/info-url_nocat_list.htm?attrib_id=7553
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/CITYBEAUTIFUL/city.html
http://www.scag.ca.gov/livable/Index.htm

PPC photo

The City of Philadelphia has launched an important open space planning initiative in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. Note the PHS project below.