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Originally Posted by markson33
It's all just personal preference.
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Not exactly. There is a science to designing streetscapes to the extent you can observe how people typically interactive with their environment. Of course individuals will vary, but there is enough commonality to support some general principles of good design.
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I would disagree that parks are dead zones.
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As I noted above, open spaces don't HAVE to be dead zones. But plazas in front of office towers often are, because they are serving certain purposes for the owner of the office tower that are inconsistent with good public space design.
Interestingly, I would agree the triangle park outside Three PNC is a nice open space, but of course it has been designed like a separate parcel and not as an entryway to Three PNC:
Conversely, the plaza outside One PNC is horrible, and a great example of how these often subtract from the local streetscape:
If you could assure me we would be getting a cool, well-designed pocket park along Smithfield, and not a horrible entry plaza, then it could be an idea worth exploring. The problem is that even today, when the principles of good streetscape design are well known, the odds are against you.
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The canyon created by the Frank & Seder building and Kaufmans seems dark and dingy to me.
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So one helpful framing device for urban streetscape design is that being on the sidewalk should feel like being in a nice room. I think to the extent you feel it is "dark and dingy" there, it is in part because right now the Frank & Seder building is not in particularly good condition, and the street level in particular is not very nice. But when you put some effort into the storefronts, street lighting, sidewalk, and such, with that basic configuration you can get well-loved streets, in the same way that you can start with a plain room and then decorate and light it for a pleasing effect.
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