OBSERVING THE PUBLIC REALM: WILLIAM WHYTE’S THE SOCIAL LIFE OF SMALL URBAN SPACES

Observing the Public Realm:

William Whyte’s The Social Life
of Small Urban Spaces
YASSER ELSHESHTAWY

One of the most enduring images for those studying public spaces in cities is that
of William Whyte, holding a 16-mm film camera, kneeling on the ground, and
recording activities in one of Manhattan’s plazas. This was part of his ‘Street Life
Project’ which was published in 1980 in a book and an accompanying film. The
influence was immense particularly because he showed that through the power of
simple observation recording and subsequent quantitative analysis one can derive
powerful conclusions. Indeed his recommendations shaped public policy in New York
City, and it became the basis for the work of urbanists such as Jan Gehl, who relied on
a very similar approach when studying public life in Denmark. Even today Whyte’s
approach forms the basis for urban informatics and what has become known as ‘the
science of cities’. In this paper, first I review Whyte’s work; secondly I look at how
his work permeated urban scholarship; and thirdly discuss his impact on my own
research. I conclude by considering how current urban design, with its focus on
sustainability and resiliency, would greatly benefit from the underlying principles
governing Whyte’s work.

The urban flâneur, that enduring archetype An explorer, a detached observer of urban
immortalized by Walter Benjamin is a figure life, a ‘man of leisure’, the flâneur was a fixed
with a strong hold on urbanists and those feature, real or imagined, of Parisian streets
interested in cities. The solitary figure diving in the nineteenth century. Yet such characters
into the crowds, thronging and toiling in have existed elsewhere as well and in differ-
the streets and plazas of our great metro- ent cultures. Who can forget, for example,
politan centres, defines the very essence of cos- the outlandish and exaggerated depictions
mopolitanism. Leisurely strolling while in Edward William Lane’s An Account of the
observing surrounding urban life is a pleasur- Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians
able act of voyeurism. As Charles Baudelaire (1860). More recently modern observers of
aptly put it: urban life include Jane Jacobs, Richard Sen-
nett and William H. Whyte, among many
The crowd is his element, as the air is that of birds others. William H. Whyte, a journalist by
and water of fishes. His passion and his profession profession, is of particular importance given
are to become one flesh with the crowd. For the his long lasting influence.
perfect flâneur, for the passionate spectator, it is The image of Whyte holding a 16-mm film
an immense joy to set up house in the heart of the
multitude, amid the ebb and flow of movement, camera, kneeling on the ground almost un-
in the midst of the fugitive and the infinite. detected in the midst of a large crowd, record-
(Baudelaire and Mayne, 1995, p. 9) ing activities taking place in one of Man-

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hattans plazas, is one of the most enduring impacted by Whyte, starting with my
for those studying public spaces (figure dissertation on a public space in Cairo, and
1). This was part of his ‘Street Life Project’ continues in my current focus on Dubai and
published in 1980 in his seminal book Abu Dhabi. The Urban Research Lab which
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces and I founded in 2012 adopts his methodological
an accompanying film. The influence was innovations and develops them further using
immense, particularly because he showed the latest advances in technology.
that through the power of simple observation This paper first reviews Whyte’s work
and recording and subsequent quantitative showing how revolutionary it was in studying
analysis one can derive powerful conclusions. cities, focusing on his book The Social Life of
Indeed his recommendations played a large Small Urban Spaces; second it looks at how
role in formulating urban design guidelines his work permeated and influenced urban
in New York City. His work influenced many scholarship; third it discusses his impact
urban scholars, urbanists and academics in on my own research. I conclude by looking
the interdisciplinary field of ‘urban studies’. It at how current urban design with its focus
also forms the basis for urban informatics and on sustainability and resiliency represents a
what has become known as ‘the science of continuation of Whyte’s work and also briefly
cities’, which is the understanding that ‘big’ discuss some of the drawbacks that arose
data can enable us to better understand how from his approach towards public life.
cities work. My own research was strongly

Figure 1. Back cover of The

Social Life of Small Urban
Spaces showing William
Whyte holding his 16mm
film camera.

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William Whyte: An Observer of Public Life The scale of the projects is uncongenial to the
human being. The use of the open space is
revealing; usually it consists of manicured green
Background areas carefully chained off lest they be profaned,
and sometimes, in addition, a big central mall
William Hollingsworth Whyte, also known so vast and abstract as to be vaguely oppressive.
simply as Holly Whyte, has been described There is nothing close for the eye to light on, no
as an urbanist, organizational analyst, a jour- sense of intimacy or of things being on a human
scale. (Whyte, 1958)
nalist or perhaps more aptly as a people
watcher. After serving in the Second World Jane Jacobs went on to write the classic The
War he joined the editorial staff of Fortune Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961).
magazine in New York, where he began to As she recounts, she received a grant from the
examine the culture, life style and residential Rockefeller foundation because of the article
milieu of postwar suburbia. While there, he she wrote for Fortune and this allowed her
wrote some very influential texts including to write the book (Kaufman, 1999). Whyte,
The Organization Man, a classic study of post- on the other hand, pursued his passion of
war suburbia (Whyte, 1956). He argued that studying and observing city life.
these new communities were ‘the packaged He began by looking at public plazas
villages that have become the dormitory of which had proliferated throughout Man-
the new generation of organization men’ hattan. Developers had been given incentives
(Glazer, 1999). He also promoted what came to create open spaces in front of their high-
to be known as environmental determinism, rises, such as the now famous Seagram plaza.
a correlation between the physical layout of The idea was simple: he wanted to know
homes and settlements, and social behaviour. which plazas ‘worked’ and which did not.
Accordingly, they were a key factor in pro- His approach was meticulous using time-
moting or inhibiting social contacts, helping lapse cameras, and charting in meticulous
to account for patterns of friendships versus fashion the number and locales of people
isolation. This was followed by The Last using these open spaces. This was done
Landscape in 1968 which explored the impact under the umbrella of the ‘Street Life Project’,
of unchecked development of the American a long-term study sponsored by the Rocke-
landscape (Whyte and Durst, 1968). His feller Brothers Fund. The project aimed at
focus was on loss of farmland, diminished mapping social activity in public spaces
recreation space, and various forms of man- through interviews, diagrams and film. The
made pollution. This included ‘aesthetic result was the 1980 book Social Life of Small
blight’, lack of clear place identity and isola- Urban Spaces and an accompanying movie
tion from nature (Platt, 2003). According to (Whyte, 1980, 1988b). He continued this work
Platt this led to ‘a life-time career devoted to and in 1988 published City: Rediscovering the
better understanding how people interact in Center (Whyte, 1988a).1
shared or common spaces’ (Ibid.).
In 1958 he collaborated with Jane Jacobs
and others as editors of an issue of Fortune The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
magazine titled The Exploding Metropolis. In it Holly Whyte became widely known for his
and through a series of articles they criticized focus on the plazas of Midtown Manhattan.
urban renewal programmes popular at the An often-overlooked fact though is that he
time. Particularly, they directed their anger started both the book and the movie with
at high-rise structures placed in the middle of images of children playing in the streets of
vast open spaces which had been promoted Harlem. At the time such spaces were con-
by the likes of Le Corbusier in his Ville sidered outside mainstream urbanism and the
Radieuse. According to Whyte: haphazard and slightly chaotic scenes con-

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 BOOKS THAT SHAPED OUR THINKING

trast with the ordered and somewhat staged who ‘had a keen interest in conservation …
quality of public life in Downtown New subsidizing projects involving rural land use,
York. Yet such a focus – he ends the movie beautification, reclamation, city planning, the
in Harlem as well – may reveal some of the shaping of suburban growth and civic design’
mindset that Whyte had while he examined (Kaufman, 1999).
public life in a city such as New York. The The book’s various sections (eleven in
spontaneous nature of children in Harlem, total) describe the different qualities that con-
jumping over water and playing ball offers a tribute to the use (or non-use) of the observed
counterpoint to the numbing quality of city spaces. It is followed by two appendices: one
living that seeks to regiment, structure and summarizing the open space zoning code;
order its citizens. Indeed, recognizing the and the other detailing the methodology
potential of this neighbourhood he writes used in documenting activities and people.
that while it ‘had its share of problems’ it Indeed it is this section that constitutes the
nevertheless worked. Its stoops and fire most valuable contribution as it describes
escapes acted as ‘viewing areas’. And, ‘though in meticulous detail the equipment used,
we did not know it then, this block had method of filming, and also analysis. Written
within it all the basic elements of a successful in the pre-digital age, going through des-
urban space’. criptions involving the use of stock film, digital
The book by standards of such topics is clocks to mark time, and pushing film seems
quite small, about 125 pages in its 1990, eighth like a throwback to another era. Yet it is
printing, edition. Described by Whyte as a remarkable how some of these very concepts
‘manual’ on what works and doesn’t in small have been adapted to the age of digital
urban spaces, it came out of a desire to study cameras, GIS mapping and computer based
the proliferation of such sites in Manhattan. analysis. Aside from these methodological
Due to zoning laws that encouraged musings – and I will return to them in my
developers to give up some land in return discussion on the influence of Whyte – his
for higher buildings, plazas became a fixture findings pertaining to the use of public spaces
in Manhattan. Some attracted a lot of people are truly remarkable and have shaped the
while others did not. Thus, in 1971 Whyte discipline of urban design to a large degree.
formed the Street Life Project, which aimed Some are self-evident and intuitive. For
at studying, mapping and documenting these example, people attract other people; increas-
places. In total Whyte and his team studied ing the amount of sittable space increases
sixteen plazas and three small parks. In 1975 the number of people using the plaza; and
his recommendations were adopted into an the significance of food in attracting users
open space zoning code. Interestingly, he (figure 2). Others are less so. For example,
was part of the Conservation Foundation his observation that there is a self-regulating
whose focus was on nature. Yet they found effect taking place whereby people would
that efforts to ‘conserve the city’ and focusing know, intuitively, if a space has reached its
on ‘what makes a city alive’ were compatible ‘effective capacity’ thus preventing over-
with their objectives. Whyte describes his crowding; the significance of movable chairs,
efforts as a kind of scientific approach, which have since become a main fixture of
generating basic data that could be useful urban spaces in Manhattan. He displays a
for various concerned parties. But he also remarkable degree of tolerance (considering
had a practical concern, evidenced by the when it was written) towards the ‘undesir-
development of guidelines and support from ables’ and argues that they are largely harm-
the New York City planning authority. He less. Yet he recognizes that some spaces
also had the support of wealthy patrons such can be taken over by dangerous activities,
as philanthropist Laurence S. Rockefeller, common at the time in New York. He pre-

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sciently notes though that this occurs due a wretched model for the future of the city’.
to certain physical features; the fencing of And yet, while he clearly adopts a normative
Bryant Park, for example, created a space position about the positive quality of an
removed from the street proper, making it active public realm, where large numbers of
invisible, and thus conducive to all sorts of people interact and communicate with each
illicit behaviour. other (a throwback to some sort of village
His disdain for some modernist planning like communal existence), he recognizes that
principles is evident, heaping scorn on not all cities are the same. Context, scale
what he describes as ‘concourses and mega- and density are significant factors affect-
structures’ contributing, as he put it, towards ing whether his observations hold true
a ‘flight from the street’ and that ‘they are elsewhere. But it is here where things get a

Figure 2. Farmers market

in Union Square, New York.
An adaptation of Whyte’s
recommendation for increased
food outlets in public spaces.
(Photo: Yasser Elsheshtawy)

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bit problematic. There is a certain sub-text plazas, the regulars, the ‘sidewalk vendors’,
throughout his discussion, and this was and countless businessmen and women who
clearly the case with Jane Jacobs as well. traverse, sit and simply use the space. It is
Namely, that there is an idealized version of such an unencumbered view, giving us a
city life. And this version can only be found slice of life in Manhattan. No ethnographic
on the streets of Manhattan, the ultimate description, no matter how meticulous, can
model that all cities seeking grandeur must even come close to depicting the kind of life
follow. However, cultural differences and the that unfolds in Whyte’s brilliant movie. The
degree to which people are willing to expose urban landscape in all its glory is in front of
themselves in public vary to a great degree. our eyes.
Some cultures are much more comfortable
in indoor and controlled settings; those
Influencing Urban Scholarship
‘megastructures’ that turn away from the
street may offer the only recourse for an Whyte’s influence has been not just at the
active public realm, and so on. level of methodology but also in how we
It needs to be noted though that Whyte’s view cities: not as places that induce anomie
main focus and concern was Manhattan. It and stress à la Simmel and company but as
should not be expected that he would engage places that are rife with potential for human
in some sort of cross-cultural endeavour interaction. In cities humans can find solace
(although he alludes to this in some parts). in each other. It is a remarkably optimistic
Yet his (and Jacobs’s) descriptions were quite view that has been expressed by many
powerful and seductive and thus became to observers. For instance Paul Goldberger, an
some extent an aspirational model. Yet in architectural critic for The New Yorker, writes
my view Whyte’s lasting influence is in his in his Foreword to The Essential William H.
methodology. His approach to studying pub- Whyte (Whyte and LaFarge, 2000):
lic life mimics that of a scientist. By observing
His objective research on the city, on open space,
his subjects from a distance, camera in on the way people use it, was set within what I
hand, and meticulously analyzing various think I must call a moral context. Holly believed
behavioural occurrences, he influenced gen- with deep passion that there was such a thing as
erations of urban design professionals. While quality of life, and the way we build cities, the way
a social scientist, a participant observer in we make places, can have a profound effect on
what lives are lived within those places. (Quoted
their disciplinary parlance, who would talk, in Platt, 2003)
interview, code and note behaviour, Whyte
emphasized distance and remoteness. He This unbridled enthusiasm towards public
did not want to make people feel that they life and being exposed to others character-
are being observed. Instead he felt that as a ized the work of many observers and writers
researcher depicting behaviour, they must be in the 1960s and 1970s. Jane Jacobs for in-
undisturbed and not influenced by any kind stance, who had collaborated with Whyte, is
of observational tool. In his guidelines for in that category. Her Death and Life of Great
taking photographs and filming he places a American Cities can be considered a fore-
lot of emphasis on unobtrusiveness, avoiding runner with her focus on street life in New
eye contact, and suggests specific techniques York City’s Greenwich Village. Similarly
on how to hold the camera. urban sociologist Richard Sennett who cham-
This comes across in the 55-minute movie pioned the kind of vibrant urban life that
that accompanies the book. Both witty and Whyte so meticulously observed. His The
informative it offers an objective view of Uses of Disorder (originally published in 1970)
life in Manhattan’s public spaces. We get is a fascinating study of city life celebrating
to know the various characters that inhabit its dynamism and diversity (Sennett, 1970).

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Similar to Whyte’s 1956 The Organization Man, which ‘uses data to better understand how
it attacks the middle class for abandoning cities work. This understanding can remedy
the city in favour of the security of suburbs. a wide range of issues affecting the everyday
That continued in 1977 when Sennett pub- lives of citizens and the long-term health and
lished The Fall of Public Man (Sennett, 1977). efficiency of cities – from morning commutes
Arguably he articulated the intellectual and to emergency preparedness to air quality’
theoretical base for Whyte’s arguments. (see [Link]
Thus, Whyte’s output emerged within a cer- Relying on big data, a cumulative aggre-
tain intellectual framework, a Zeitgeist that gation of information provided by city inhabit-
became part of a wider criticism directed at ants, such information can be used to better
modernism. understand how the built environment
Remarkably, his work was echoed in impacts behaviour. And it provides urban
Europe, specifically in Denmark, where a planners with the necessary tools and know-
young architect named Jan Gehl was calling ledge to plan for cities that are resilient.
for a more active public life in the harsh In many ways one could argue that Holly
climate of Scandinavian cities. He authored Whyte’s work anticipated many of the ideas
the highly influential Life between Buildings, behind smart growth and new urbanism and
which was first published in Danish in 1971 the now fashionable urban resilience move-
and translated into English in 1987 (Gehl, ment.
1987). This was followed in 2010 by Cities for Many organizations and programmes con-
People (Gehl, 2010). Relying on quantitative tinue Whyte’s work, including the Regional
observations, this approach was particularly Plan Association, Project for Public Spaces
useful for application in urban policy and (founded in 1975 by one of Whyte’s assistants,
continues to shape and direct urban planning Fred Kent) (see [Link] ), the
in many cities throughout the world. In fact Municipal Art Society, Trust for Public Land,
it has turned into a cottage industry of sorts and the Chicago Openlands Project. Events
with Gehl’s consultancy advising planning are held celebrating his work and legacy
departments, mayors and the like on ‘public including a 2002 symposium in New York
realm design strategies’ ([Link] City. About 300 urban design practitioners,
com). writers, ecologists, grassroots activists
In their focus on quantification both Whyte and students gathered for ‘The Humane
and Gehl anticipated some of the ideas and Metropolis: People and Nature in the 21st
concepts that would form what is now Century – A Symposium to Celebrate and
known as ‘the science of cities’. Encouraged Continue the Work of William H. Whyte’. The
by the proliferation of digital technologies, Ecological Cities Project at the University of
many of the painstaking and time-consuming Massachusetts, Amherst, organized the event
methods used in the observation of people (see [Link]
in public settings can now be automated. humetro/). Moreover the extensive output
This has opened up a great deal of re- of films, more than 3,000 reels, produced by
search potential and different modes of Whyte and his assistants became a basis for
visualization. For example, the work done by studying the effect of technology on human
MIT’s Senseable City Lab with its focus on interaction. A group of researchers from
real-time visualization of people movements MIT digitized these films and attempted
in urban settings (see [Link] to reproduce comparative videos using the
edu). Or consider the research conducted same vantage point. Between 2008 and 2010
at New York University’s Center for Urban they accumulated enough footage to start a
Science and Progress (CUSP). Their focus is comparison with the original Whyte film.
on the burgeoning field of ‘urban informatics’ Among the sites they investigated were the

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 BOOKS THAT SHAPED OUR THINKING

Figure 3. Steps leading to the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Increased opportunity for rest,
socializing and people watching. (Photo: Yasser Elsheshtawy)

steps leading to the Metropolitan Museum I would eventually stumble upon his The
in NYC (figure 3). Their focus was human Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Indeed my
behaviour and among their findings was that well-worn copy of the book is dated 1994
‘our tendency to interact with others in public (I started in 1991) and contains numerous
has … improved since the ‘70s. The P.P.S. annotations and highlights. It is remarkable
films showed that in 1979 about 32 percent going through these how his methodology
of those visited the steps of the Met were in particular impacted my own work till this
alone; in 2010 only 24 percent were alone in day. I saw the movie in the library, digital
the same spot’ (Oppenheimer, 2014). copies on the internet were not available
Aside from these academic and profes- then, and was captivated by the wealth of
sional influences The Social Life of Small information that could be obtained by simply
Urban Spaces was an inspiration for countless observing people.
papers, academic theses and dissertations. While the conceptual underpinnings of
They are too numerous to mention but in his work were important, they did not play
the next section I will discuss the impact of a major role in formulating my theoretical
Whyte on my own work. framework, which was much more influ-
enced by the writings of Amos Rapoport,
Richard Sennett, Jan Gehl, Jane Jacobs and
Personal Influence
others. However his main impact was the
My first encounter with William Whyte’s meticulous manner in which the behaviour
writings happened when I was a beginning of people in public settings was recorded:
PhD student at the University of Wisconsin. specifically his quantitative approach, count-
I had chosen ‘The use and design of urban ing people, determining length of stay in a
public spaces’ as a major field of study and, plaza, and categorizing behaviour. As I was
given the topic, it became inevitable that formulating a methodology for studying

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 OBSERVING THE PUBLIC REALM: WILLIAM WHYTE’S THE SOCIAL LIFE OF SMALL URBAN SPACES

a pedestrianized street in Cairo, which my time at UAE University as a faculty

included behavioural mapping, I used very member where I submitted a proposal for
similar techniques (figure 4). However, I was studying public spaces in Dubai. It included,
unable to use a film camera to construct a among other things, direct observation of
time-lapse film. This was due to a number behaviour in various public settings such
of reasons. For one, 16-mm camera and film as street corners, plazas and squares. Given
were not widely available, because the era of the state of technology, the ability to record
digital videotaping had begun. While video time-lapse video via digital media became
would have been a possibility the equipment much easier and accordingly I was finally
was too large and cumbersome to be of any able to mimic the work of William Whyte.
practical use. Additionally filming in Cairo, This was manifested in two major research
in a low-income neighbourhood, has its projects: the Hor Al Anz Street project and
own perils requiring countless permissions. the Baniyas Square Project ([Link]
Thus, I relied on photography to construct [Link]). Both of which used
a narrative of public space use although GIS based behavioural mapping techniques
I always regretted the fact that I could not and included extensive time-lapse of select
record film, which would have provided me spaces. These films were subsequently sub-
with a much richer set of data (Elsheshtawy, jected to meticulous analysis. Results have
1996, 2006). been published in two journals and can also
That opportunity arose much later during be seen online (Elsheshtawy, 2013, 2014).

Figure 4. Notations on a behavioural map documenting activities in a public space in Cairo. (Source:
Elsheshtawy, 1996)

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Another research project took place in Abu influenced by the work of William Whyte
Dhabi in collaboration with NYU which in- (figure 5).
cluded a much more extensive filming of an
existing square in the center of the city (see
Conclusion
[Link]
spaces-inside-abu-dhabis-central-area). All Whyte continues to be an inspiration to
of these projects were done through the many urban designers and planners. His
Urban Research Lab at UAE University. work revolutionized how we both look at,
Many of the techniques and methodologies and study, cities. This review showed that
used in studying and observing public life his outlook emerged within an intellectual
in the urban centres of the UAE are directly climate that critically examined the legacy

Figure 5. Author during

filming of a public space in
Dubai. (Photo: Omar Bastaki)

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of modernism which had, arguably, led to dose of al fresco dolce vita. Everything would
alienation. The role played by city spaces be fine if everywhere was a bit more like
in fostering a sense of community was Siena’ (Wainwright, 2014). Those purveyors of
one way in which such negative outcomes public life, and he directs his ire particularly
could be mitigated, as Whyte and his peers at Jan Gehl, do not acknowledge power and
tried to argue. Yet there was a downside. conflict and that what may appear to be
The increased focus on city spaces and the public is in fact an extension of the private
creation of pedestrian friendly zones led to realm – ‘office lobby without walls’.
gentrification with its inevitable outcome of Whether one should blame Whyte for
social exclusion. Greenwich Village, lovingly such developments, and some of them are
depicted by Jane Jacobs, one of Whyte’s no doubt true, is arguable. His concern
peers, has turned into an unaffordable neigh- was with the physical environment, but he
bourhood due to increased rent and the also knew that true and authentic public
influx of high-end establishments. One may life can only arise from an embrace of
thus conclude that Whyte’s (and Jacobs’s) diversity, unexpectedness and messiness.
findings were co-opted by developers and He bookended his movie with scenes from
politicians to create sanitized spaces that Harlem as an example of a successful neigh-
exclude the undesirables. By enhancing bourhood, which had somehow been over-
city liveability, land value and in turn rent looked. And one should also note that
are raised thus pushing away those who because of Whyte and others, gentrification
cannot afford the increased cost of living. notwithstanding, Manhattan has become a
This has been poignantly highlighted by liveable place where one can walk in safety.
Sharon Zukin in her lament concerning the It has spaces that offer a respite from tense
loss of authentic urban places in New York urban surroundings. Many of those were
(Zukin, 2010). Moreover Zukin argues that planned relatively recently. The Highline,
Whyte has contributed to the securitization for example, is a creative design of an urban
of public spaces, promoted by Business park utilizing abandoned infrastructure. It
Improvement District commissions (BUID’s), has become a success in terms of attracting
since he ‘argued that the best way to control people (and turning Chelsea and the Meat-
behavior in a public space is for everyone packing district into a high-end haven of chic).
to keep everyone else under surveillance’ The Lincoln Center Plaza garden with its
(Zukin, p. 139). Thus parks such as Bryant raised platform, moveable seating and ample
Park (previously a haven for drug users) shading is a good case for how the prin-
are now under private control. The once ciples of Whyte concerning plaza use are
notorious Times Square has turned into an still applicable today (figure 6). The recent
outdoor mall. For many these are welcome outcry over Mayor de Blasio’s call for the
developments, in spite of the apparent loss de-pedestrianization of Times Square is
of freedom. Others decry the absence of the another example of how public space con-
gritty character from the 1970s when many tinues to arise passions (Kimmelman, 2015).
public spaces were home to drug users, seedy The now fashionable urban discourse
theatres and shady characters. concerning urban resilience and the previous
Such concern with public space would on emphasis on social sustainability, all take as a
the face of it conceal conflict and the desire of starting point the issue of social equity. This
corporations to control what happens at their involves among other things unimpeded and
doorstep. The result is a dull sameness that unfettered access to a city’s public spaces,
permeates cityscapes. As Oliver Wainwright, viewed as a necessary component for a
an architectural critic, suggested: ‘It’s all healthy and vibrant urban setting. How we
people-centred common sense, with a good measure and quantify such a quality, and

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Figure 6. The Lincoln Plaza in NYC. The value of moveable seating, another Whyte recommendation, in
creating zones that respect people’s privacy. (Photo: Yasser Elsheshtawy)

the extent to which such techniques can be social control at al-Rifa ‘i Mosque and Sultan
adapted to modern technologies, is perhaps Hasan Square, in Ammar, P. and Singermann,
one of the most significant and enduring D. (eds.) Cairo Cosmopolitan: Politics, Culture, and
Urban Space in the New Globalized Middle East.
legacies of Holly Whyte. Cairo: AUC Press, pp. 295–312.
Elsheshtawy, Y. (2013) Where the sidewalk ends:
informal street corner encounters in Dubai.
NOTE Cities, 31, pp. 382–393.
1. Whyte died in New York in 1999 at the age of Elsheshtawy, Y. (2014) Searching for Nasser
eighty-one. Square: an urban center in the heart of Dubai.
City, 18(6), pp. 746–759.
Gehl, J. (1987) Life between Buildings: Using Public
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