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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 5 May 2020
American public space, rebooted: What might it feel like?

Continued from Front layout of Pakistan’s capital
city was designed in part
“But people need a struc- to discourage mass gathe-
ture. They need to be told rings.
there’s something greater.” But those are public spa-
Enter the “institution,” a ces responding to visible
word with multiple perso- threats. Retooling spaces
nalities — some truly public, to an invisible virus — the
some partially public, some crux of what American in-
purely commercial. All figu- stitutions face today — is
re in this mid-virus re-enga- different.
gement. All are part of the Will we wear masks in
web of public trust, and all banks, where a masked
have a tone to set. man means something dif-
“Institution” means govern- ferent? Will the DMV, the
ment buildings — post of- butt of a thousand long-line
fices and courthouses and jokes, suddenly lack lines?
DMVs. It means town squa- Will we retreat to our cars,
res and public parks, chur- bypassing public space en-
ches and nursing homes tirely in what Cusick calls
and college campuses “people moving from bub-
and, of course, hospitals. ble to bubble, like the Jet-
It can also mean skyscra- sons “?
per lobbies, shopping malls, In this April 2, 2020, file photo, caution tape surrounds the playground at Country Side Community In 1943, after a German
hotels, big-box stores and Park in Elk Grove, Calif. Associated Press bombing of the British Par-
supermarkets — the touch liament, Winston Churchill
points of a consumer so- advocated rebuilding the
ciety whose open, public ciety’s functions in ways not goe says. Already, there ces: If you don’t show up House of Commons cham-
operation means a society yet fathomed. are hints of what institutions for your 12:15 p.m. slot at ber exactly as it had been.
is edging toward normal. “Democracy depends to and the spaces they occu- the playground, you’re out He invoked the importance
Eric Martin, a Bucknell Uni- a surprising extent on the py could look like. If even of luck. of the physical institution in
versity associate profes- availability of physical, some come to pass, they — Churches holding servi- preserving national ideals.
sor of management who public space, even in our could alter Americans’ re- ces in shifts. Ballparks and “We shape our buildings,”
studies disaster responses, allegedly digital world,” lationship with the public movie theaters deliberately he said, “and afterwards
cites an established place John R. Parkinson writes in realm. keeping seats empty, hal- our buildings shape us.”
like Katz’s, the crowded “Democracy and Public — Vibrating pagers like ving attendance. As isolation ebbs, a similar
New York deli made fa- Space: The Physical Sites of those used at chains like A bit dystopian? Maybe. question confronts Ameri-
mous in “When Harry Met Democratic Performance.” Red Lobster. Already some But there are warmer alter- cans repopulating the pu-
Sally.” How business like The digital world has kept hospitals are handing them natives, too. blic places they share. How
that act, he says, will speak many institutions going in out; instead of entering a Nan Ellin, dean of the col- will these places reshape
volumes. the United States since mid- lobby, wait in the car until lege of architecture and society — and how will
“It doesn’t change quickly. March. It has allowed an you buzz. planning at the Univer- trepidations about a post-
It’s been around forever. approximation of office life — Arrows on the ground, sity of Colorado Denver, is isolation world shape them
That’s what it means to be to continue. It has, along and other physical markers working with her students in turn? We can only go so
an institution. And so we with a robust supply chain, to encourage and enforce and the city to close some far.
allow these places a legi- brought to our doors some distance. Imagine side- restaurant-heavy blocks to “You cannot hold the air to
timacy that we might not of the goods we usually go walks with scoring every traffic so the street can be yourself. The air is shared,”
with other places,” Martin and get. 6 feet (2 meters) so those used as outdoor cafes and says Marci J. Swede, dean
says. But those same functions, walking could make sure “the tables can be farther of the school of educati-
“We think those are legi- paired with unease, could they’re the human equi- apart from one another.” on and health sciences at
timate organizations. So if work against the return to valent of a few car lengths “We don’t want to lose North Central College in Il-
they’re doing it, if they’re public spaces. behind. Or large sculptu- our public ground. But we linois.
changing, we say, ‘Oh, this “Technology is reshaping res deployed to separate want to have a safe public “’No man is an island’ has
is real,’” he says. what it means to be in a people. ground,” says Ellin, editor no more truth than when
Something else unites these public place,” says John — New designs for eating of “Architecture of Fear” we’re talking about the air
places. In each, the wo- R. Stilgoe, a historian and places. McDonald’s is al- and author of “Good Urba- we’re breathing,” she says.
man on the next bench, landscape expert at Har- ready prototyping a soci- nism: Six Steps to Creating “And it’s hard to be around
the man ahead in the vard who has spent his ca- ally distanced version of its Prosperous Places.” She other people when you
checkout line, the family reer exploring and chroni- restaurant that could be a adds: “We need little hooks don’t have that sense of
down the pew are sudden- cling the landscapes where template for fast-food spa- to get there so people can trust.”q
ly potential vectors — or Americans move around. ces around the world. start to be with one another
potential victims. So we’re “How do you define the — Checkerboard grids again in a way that feels
assessing the public realm ‘public realm’ when an on the grass in parks, with safe.”
in the way we assess a sa- enormous percentage people allowed to occupy Architecture has always
lad bar when we walk into of the American public one square only if those sur- dictated behavior. In
a restaurant. spends the majority of its rounding it are empty. Or China, where controlling
That can impede a free so- day in its pajamas?” Stil- time-sharing of public pla- people is a government
priority, Beijing’s avenues
are lined with metal fences
just high enough to keep
linda.reijnders@cspnv.com people on sidewalks.
The sprawling, segmented