Through her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs
opened the eyes of many planners (including myself) to the reality of
what made for city success or failure as a human environment. In effect
she said the 'radiant' city approach espoused by Le Corbusier, and so
popular with planning professionals at the time, had no basis in
reality - 'the emperor had no clothes'.
She presented a readable and
thorough analysis of cities as people actually experience them. One of
her most recognized observations was the importance of 'eyes on the
street' for cities to succeed as human environments. The examples that
follow are just a few of the observations set forth in her book and
communicated throughout her lifetime and beyond.
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| North Beach District of San Francisco H Graem © 2012 |
City Districts
For the districts or communities of a city to succeed as places of
"exuberant diversity", four conditions are seen as indispensible:
(1) The district serve more than one primary function
(preferable more than two). These functions must assure the presence of
people outdoors on different schedules, for different purposes, but
able to use many facilities in common.
(2) Most blocks must be small, with frequent opportunities to turn corners.
(3) The district must include buildings that mingle the old and the
new, including a significant proportion of old ones that vary the
economic yield necessary for profitable operation. The mingling must be
close-grained.
(4) There be a sufficient dense concentration of people, including both residents and workers.
Jane states, "The necessity for these four conditions is the
most important point this book has to make." She cited the North Beach /
Telegraph Hill district of San Francisco as an example of such
exuberant diversity.
Streets
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| Morning exercise in Shanghai, China H Graem © 2007 |
(1) A clear demarcation between what is public space and what is
private space. These spaces should not ooze into each other as they
tend to do in suburban settings and low income housing projects.
(2) There must be eyes upon the street. The buildings - to assure the safety of both residents and strangers - must be oriented to the street. There should be no backs or blank sides along it.
(3) The sidewalk must have users fairly continuously. These users would add to the effective eyes on the street and induce the people in the buildings along the street to watch the sidewalks in sufficient numbers. Nobody enjoys looking out a window to an empty street.
Parks
Successful parks are in nurturing diversified neighborhoods capable of using and supporting parks. This means genuine economic and social diversity with people on different schedules free to use the park at different times.
The park itself should be characterized by intricacy at eye level - a change in height, tree groupings, openings to different focal points - which result in differences in use across the park.
Other keys to a successful neighborhood park include (1) a center, main crossroad and pausing point, a climax, (2) sunny places as well as shade for the summer, and (3) buildings around the park to create the sense of enclosure.
Border Vacuums
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| San Jose Main Library H Graem © 2006 |
This vacuum effect can be minimized by bringing nodes of activity up to the border area, rather than placing all of them in the use's center.
Park uses in large parks can be brought up to the border, acting as a link between the park and the bordering street. Such uses can live a charming double life. Universities could make portions of their campus border more like a seam and less like a barrier if they placed uses intended for the public at key points along their perimeter.
The combined San Jose City and San Jose State University Library at a corner of the university campus acts as key link between the campus and the greater San Jose community. Within the library lies a skylit corridor linking the street entrance visible in the image with the interior campus on the other side.
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