Street Vitality: A Socio-Spatial Analysis of S Jackson St

Abstract

Vital streets are important to urban environments; they support the various activities that make up the “mixed life” of cities (Francis 2011). In order to understand its significance, this thesis discusses the role of the street as a public space and the concept of “street vitality”. It identifies some built-environmental characteristics that affect street vitality and provides methods to evaluate them, using South Jackson St in Seattle as a case study to demonstrate both real-world observation of street activity and environment, combined with GIS-enabled data analysis. Findings suggest several ways to improve street vitality, such as increasing building façade transparency, adding outdoor extensions and encouraging small and diverse developments. This study does not intend to change street conditions in the near future, but to provide ideas for analysis and design, and to provide inspirations for future development.