Maria Popa - Activity 7 Seagram Building Plaza

The Seagram Building Plaza is one of the “successful plazas” Whyte studied. He attributes its success to the fact that it is open to the street, has plenty of sitting place, and it has trees to provide shade as well as privacy and “on a good day, there would be a hundred and fifty people sitting, sunbathing, picnicking and schmoozing” (14). I observed this plaza on a nice, warm, Friday afternoon and during what Whyte calls peak time - from noon to a little before two (18), but despite the nice weather there were not many people there. During the peak time the number of people who were using the plaza was consistently around 50 or 60, and after two o’clock it consistently stayed around 30.

Like Whyte said, most of the people on the plazas are “young office workers from nearby buildings” (16). Both men and women dressed in business attire came on the plazas to eat their lunch. Many of the men bought their lunch from the Halal stand right next to the plaza while the women had salads in plastic take out containers or brown bags. Whyte states that “the best used plazas are sociable places, with a higher proportion of couples …and more people in groups” (17), but most of the office workers came on their own or in twos at the most. The largest group I saw on the plaza was about 6 office workers, both male and female, who stopped under the flag pole and chatted for a couple of minutes then went into the building.

The Seagram plaza has everything Whyte deems necessary to be successful. There is plenty of sitting place, and yet many of the younger people like to sit on the steps and block other people from entering the plaza. It also has a couple of trees in a section in the rear right, which seems to be separated from the rest of the plaza since it is so dark and seems claustrophobic. The whole time I was there, I never saw a woman go in that shaded section, there were at most two people in there at once but they were always men and tried to stay far from one another. I also noticed that most of the women liked to sit by the water. My friend and I were also sitting there, and had to lift our feet many times to let women walk across the 1 foot wide ledge to get towards the middle of the pool. Women prefer sitting on that wall because it is high from the street, it is facing the plaza, and most importantly the large pool of water provides protection, so they feel safe yet not alienated from the rest of the plaza.

Although I did not notice any surveillance cameras or security guards patrolling the area, for a brief period of time there were a couple of policemen walking back and forth Park Avenue, right in front of the plaza, but they did not stop anyone and eventually left. I think this plaza as many other popular public spaces are trusted to be patrolled by the people who use them because it is in their own interest to keep the plaza clean and free of crime. Also, I haven’t seen any signs that indicate that certain areas are private, but I’m sure the Seagram Building itself is not a public place.

I did my observation of the plaza immediately after we watched the movie in class so I was a little disappointed not to see the passionate lovers or the girl watchers, Whyte poked fun on. But I immediately recognized certain elements he focused on such as how people enjoy the sense of adventure of walking along the small ledge along the pool, or how some like to sit on the steps and clog walking areas, and how no one really likes to use the vast empty space in the middle of the plaza and either stand by the flag pole or sit on the walls all along the plaza. I felt comfortable there not only because I was with a friend, but also because there was a diverse group of people there from school kids running around, to old men reading or simply watching the street, and young office workers on their lunch break, so no one really feels like they do not belong there.