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theses

My research in Manhattan’s Chinatown investigates how the sidewalk experience brings vitality to the neighborhood, in particular, leading to the developing of different typologies of sidewalk appropriation and their implications on social activity and use. This appropriation reflects how the public space is used and appropriated by shop owners or residents in both planned and insurgent, permanent and temporary ways. The flourishing of street life is also the primary source of the urban vitality in Chinatown that makes it so different from commercial areas in other places in modern Manhattan.
In order to identify the key features that bring the street vitality, this thesis researches on the shaping of street space in Manhattan’s Chinatown from two aspects – the top-down perspective and the bottom-up perspective. By collecting data and documents regarding the history and development of Manhattan’s Chinatown in terms of planning policies of street shaping, it is the immigration’s policies and the city planning board’s effort that shape the Chinatown as a commercial and tourist district to provide an exotic experience. From the bottom-up perspective, seven typologies of sidewalk appropriation are developed, using Activity Setting Analysis and Environmental Behavior Observation, based on the spatial characteristics and activity opportunities. These different uses of sidewalk space indicate that sidewalks in Manhattan's Chinatown are mixed-use space with clear separation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, while the mixed-use of space is realized by adding multiple nodes along the linear paths that attract pedestrian.

ETD_9779

M.L.A.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-c1bp-xj67

ETD graduate

The author owns the copyright to this work.