Module 3 - "Influential Urban Thinkers"

William H. Whyte: Prolifically Sitable

William H. Whyte was an author and urbanist whose career began in 1946 following his graduation from Princeton University and military service in the United States Marine Corps. His most notable was produced during the sixteen year period he spent as an assistant and advisor to the New York City Planning Commission. Whyte worked also as a prolific writer whose penmanship crossed many subjects and produced several novels throughout his career. He is perhaps most well-known for authoring The Social Life of Public spaces, a documentary piece that focuses on the success, vitality, and healthy of many noteworthy public spaces in the United States.

In addition to the fame Whyte garnered from The Social Life of Public Spaces, the many books he has written, and a career with the New York Planning Commission, he also worked extensively as a mentor to The Project for Public Spaces, “a nonprofit planning, design and educational organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger communities”. (pps.org) Of his many contributions to the architectural union, perhaps his most meaningful has been The Social Life of Public Spaces. The hour long documentary, which is charming for its vintage, provides for those interested, and otherwise a glimpse in to the mind of a person carefully considering human pattern and tendency. The result of this groundbreaking work is nothing short of an insurmountable contribution to the field of urban design. Whyte’s seminal work continues to provide planners and designers with a framework for creating successful public spaces.

As it may be, I am left wondering whether or not the most impactful segments of The Social Life of Public Spaces are not the many interesting proven truths that are the result of this work, but the moments where Whyte himself acknowledges that some of the greatest achievements in urban design exist in spaces where people are given the flexibility and freedom to exercise their own inventiveness and ingenuity. By this, I mean spaces where space is universal, public furniture can be moved, or places that leave open their definition to be determined by its guests. This notion of self-guidance reminds me a good deal of what Whyte’s fellow urbanist, Allan Jacobs, would refer to simply as “the magic”.  A sort of organic dance that happens when humans are given the right kind of climate for finding their own comfortable spaces. This concept of greater public involvement in design suggests that maybe some of the healthiest and most active public centers are those that relinquish some control to the users themselves. Spaces that are created with less ego and more responsibility.