Privately owned public spaces : alternative catalyst for public life in cities the case of Verdun street in Beirut.

Abstract

Urban designers concur that well designed and successful open spaces such as city streets, plazas, and gardens are an important element of any sustainable city and its life. Over the past decades, the process of privatization of public spaces has introduced new categories of public spaces, “privately owned open spaces”, meaning spaces that have open- shared use while being owned and managed by private enterprises. Beirut has undoubtedly followed this trend, triggering several urban challenges particularly in the division of publicly and privately held spaces, their organization, cleanliness, accessibility, and uses. In order to explore these changes and reflect on the urban design strategy that can best respond to the imperative of creating successful open spaces in Beirut, this thesis takes Verdun street (Beirut) as a case study. This once residential neighborhood has become Beirut’s main mall artery. Since 1990, at least 10 malls have opened along this street, each with a different configuration of open spaces to support its activities. Verdun street that was once pedestrian friendly with active commercial shops along the street, has now become a through traffic road due to the opening of large scale high end malls that are introverted and do not cohabitate evenly with the streetscape. The thesis first investigates the quality and usage of all open spaces along the artery, including streets, sidewalks, open spaces provided by shopping malls and public spaces. The thesis identifies the criteria of a publicly accessible open space based on the literature and compares it to perception of people of a publicly accessible open space. The aim is to transfer the quality guidelines appreciated by users in privately owned public spaces to the public domain in order for this pedestrian environment to provide a quality connective network that will encourage people to use the different quasi-public spaces around and the sidewalk itself. In addition, the thesis derives guidelines for future large developm