Mark Kelsey

Mark Kelsey

This assignment forced me to think critically about the decisions I was making. Unlike our first assignment, where we were tasked with simply sketching a space from memory, this assignment required considerable observation and attention to detail. Moreover, the purpose of this second assignment was to use the two sketches to tell a story or emphasize the contrasts between Copley Place and Newbury Street. After spending time in both locations, I decided that the best way to articulate these differences was by illustrating their vastly different patterns of use.

For the purpose of this assignment, I mapped pedestrian density onto a basic floorplan of the two locations. Areas shaded red had high density of pedestrians, while yellow had medium density and green areas were virtually devoid of pedestrians.

Copley Place and the Prudential Center are shopping malls of the traditional style. Brimming with boutiques, luxury retail outlets, and restaurants, they are multi-story, and meander in many directions. However, they have few entrances or exits, and the majority of foot traffic appears to come from adjoining office towers. This creates a handful of very densely trafficked choke points, the most noteworthy being the footbridge between malls.

Newbury Street, on the other hand, is a very porous environment, with pedestrians entering from side streets, walking the length of the street, or entering from inside its many brownstone buildings. High densities were still observed, mostly clustered around intersections and at popular outdoor cafes and terraces. But pedestrian traffic was overall more dispersed and fluid.

I should note (and I meant to include this with my diagrams) that the pedestrian traffic is mapped as I observed at 12pm on Friday, February 26. Visiting these shopping centers at a different time, or perhaps over the weekend, would surely yield different insights.