In discussing “POPS” (privately owned public spaces) in the latest edition of ArchitectureBoston, Jerold S. Kayden, Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design, outlines the learning curve of acknowledging, mapping, utilizing, critiquing, and potentially celebrating these often overlooked spaces.
The article, “Boston POPS,” recounts the ways in which Boston can learn from New York City, where pioneering urbanist William H. Whyte did essential research on this very topic decades ago.
Kayden promotes a large-scale analysis of these spaces in the city of Boston, saying that “only then can we have the appropriate debate about whether POPS, with their private owners, can ever be truly public spaces.”