Urban environment is increasingly associated with high-rises, traffi c and congestion. City centers consist of tightly packed glass towers, streets are lined with parked cars and
never-ending traffi c. People hop from one interior to the next - from the house to the car,
from the car to the offi ce, from the offi ce to the store, and so on. “The simple act of walking
has been rendered alien and almost obsolete in contemporary landscape.” (Ben Jacks ‘Reimagining walking - four practices’) The reason for this alienation is twofold: our post-industrial capitalistic culture and our built-environment. The two are interconnected - we shape
our built environment and in turn our built environment infl uences our lifestyle and culture.
Therefore it stands to reason that by affecting one we can alter the other. This thesis work will
analyze the development of the urban environment of San Francisco’s downtown and through
the study of movement [speed, fl ow, direction], experience [quality, variety,
choice], and legibility [paths, landmarks, edges, districts, nodes] reconnect isolated/fragmented pedestrian spaces of the City.