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Reports: Public space

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The attached square
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New Urban News Technical Page by Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell

Most urban open space, whether it is a plaza, square, or green, is detached from the surrounding blocks by a surrounding street. An attached open space is one that shares its urban block with one or more major buildings. According to William H. Whyte, from his empirical studies on urban behavior, the attached square (the type found at the midpoint of the urban-rural transect) is more likely to be used than one surrounded by traffic. Urban spaces are activated to a great extent by the life in the buildings at their edges, particularly if these buildings supply shopping, food, and drink. Whyte discovered that the most used attached squares were at the corner of a block, tapping into the diagonal pedestrian shortcut.

The plaza: Parking/plaza techniques
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New Urban News Technical Page by Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell

There is a strong reflex for a designer simply to attach the label “parking lot” to an area and then to get on with the design of the building. In fact the necessary function of parking can be a resource for the creation of public space. Overcoming the simplistic conception of “a place for cars” is the critical first step towards techniques that emphasize the creation of a pedestrian-oriented space.

Civic buildings and spaces
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Chapter 9 of the New Urbanism Best Practices Guide
Civic and religious institutions are an integral part of a community. New Urbanism urges that schools, post offices, town halls, libraries, and religious buildings be sited in dignified, prominent locations — usually on an important green, plaza, or square, at a key main street intersection, or terminating a significant axis. They should not have parking lots in front of them. Many civic buildings in new urban communities use traditional architectural styles, but some are modern in design. Others interpret traditional design ideas in new ways.

The rotary
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New Urban News Technical Page by Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell

In understanding the components of urbanism at any point along the Transect, it is useful to differentiate between the organization of movement and the organization of spatial enclosure. Within the broad class of urban components based on more or less circular forms, the circle, the circus, and the rotary differ in their movement and spatial organization. The circus (see June 2001 issue) has a high degree of spatial definition, and usually also strongly organizes movement.  The rotary, by contrast, has as its goal the accomplishment of regular movement no matter what the character of the associated space.

Pedestrian ways: The forecourt
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New Urban News Technical Page by Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell

The varieties of semi-public  spaces must be differentiated from the family of wholly public spaces that includes the square (in its various sub-species), the plaza, and the green. Two of these semi-public  spaces, the quadrangle (formed by individual  buildings)  and the courtyard (formed by a continuous perimeter range) occur at all scales, but most commonly at the scale of the entire block.  A third type, the forecourt, also occurs at different scales, but usually associated only with a single building.

The turbine square
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New Urban News Technical Page by Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell

A square is a public space, defined by building frontages, seldom larger than a block, usually occurring at the intersection of important streets. The streetscape of a square consists of a formal landscape of trees, lawn, and paved paths. A plaza is similar but its streetscape consists primarily of pavement. The standing of civic buildings is invariably enhanced when they are located within or along these types of public spaces.

The circle
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New Urban News Technical Page by Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell

Rotary, circle, and circus identify urban spatial elements associated with circular traffic movement. The first tends to occur towards the Rural end of the Transect, the last towards the Urban Core, while variations on the circle occur in between.

The circus
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New Urban News Technical Page by Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell

A circus is a regular, concavely curved urban open space;  a circular variant of the urban square. Circuses are the spatial manifestation of the popular roundabout of modern traffic engineering, as buildings are disposed in support of the vehicular geometry. Although a simple intersection, the streets entering a circus give the effect of converging in an intensely spatial urban place.

The plaza: The civic plaza
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New Urban News Technical Page by Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell

It is often the case that important civic buildings are physically smaller than the private structures around them. Since the human species is given to mistaking size for significance, it is important to understand the ways in which civic buildings can indicate their importance without size, luxury, or hyperactive massing. The space around a civic building is the most important resource for this purpose.

Pedestrian ways: The court and courtyard
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New Urban News Technical Page by Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell

The passage and the forecourt, discussed in earlier issues of the Technical Page, are movement spaces linking the public realm of the street with the semipublic realm of an interior entry space. The court and the courtyard are semipublic exterior spaces, used for movement but principally conceived as places in their own right. They are semipublic in that they are open to strangers, but on a conditional basis. Both the court and the courtyard are  isolated from the street and are principally for the use of those who occupy the buildings.

The plaza: Past and Future
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New Urban News Technical Page by Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell

Within a traditional urban fabric, public space has an identity; it exists as more than mere residue after the construction of buildings and roads. Public spaces associated with some communal activity are particularly important. The combination of internal use and external space affect the public life and activities through which a community defines itself.