- A Toolkit for Performance Measures of Public Space    47 kb by    Mehta, Vikas | mehta@arch.usf.edu    Short Outline What are the characteristics of 'good' public space? And, what are its measures? This paper suggests six performance measures that represent the responsiveness, level of democracy, diversity, and meaningfulness of urban public spaces. Abstract New types of public spaces are emerging around the world and old public space typologies are being retrofitted to contemporary needs. Our collective memories and attachment to public space are grounded in the past notion that public space is an arena for public life, a meeting place for different social groups, for the creation and exchange of ideas, for everyday discourse and for the display of symbols of society and civic culture. Even with this new interest in public space, the variety of functions of public life that public space fulfills is diminishing. A significant proportion of public spaces emerging as controlled environments are modifying our needs in public life by separating, segregating, and filtering both the uses and users. In doing so, these environments not only change our expectations from public space but the very meaning of it. What are the characteristics of good public space? And, what are its measures? It is suggested that good public space is responsive, democratic and meaningful (and I would add diverse). This is a holistic and comprehensive definition that captures the essence of various views and paradigms on the role of public space. This paper suggests a set of tools as performance measures to evaluate the quality of public space by examining its responsiveness, level of democracy, diversity, and meaningfulness. The study focuses on main streets in three cities in Boston metropolitan area. All three streets are recognized as public spaces and are considered to be people-places with a variety of public amenities. People visit these streets to satisfy daily needs, to shop, eat and drink, meet friends, play, relax, and so on. However, some parts of the streets are great public spaces - with different kinds of people, activities and interactions. The three streets were studied over eight months using structured observations, surveys and interviews. Six performance measures were developed to represent the responsiveness, level of democracy, diversity, and meaningfulness of the streets. Together these performance measures constitute a “good public space index.” This paper suggests a methodology for evaluation of public spaces based on a holistic set of criteria that represent the true role of public space in contemporary society. Keywords Good public space, performance measures, streets Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2007: Urban Trialogues   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper