North Beacon Hill:

Light Rail Station

Emily Heim
Laurene Hillion
Melissa Torres
 The Site

N
Hypotheses before Visiting Space
Transition space
Strictly for transit users
Little to no schmoozing
People are here with intent
Established location
 Process
Independent Visits
Discretely Observed as Secret Outsiders
Took Notes about space
Tallied (Who? Doing What? With Whom?)
Hand Drawn Maps of the space
 Observation focuses
Date, time and weather
Age Group: Child, teen, adult, middle aged, elderly
Gender
Spatial Organization: Single, couples, or group of people
Items: Backpack, suitcase, shopping bags
Activities: Reading, headphones, talking, waiting, lingering, using
phone, purchasing tickets, buying newspaper (one person).
Flow of movement
 Data Grouping

Weekday morning Weekday afternoon Friday rush hour

Gender (binary)
 Items

Backpack Luggage Shopping bag

Weekday Morning 12 5 3

Weekday Afternoon 37 0 2

Friday Rush Hour 14 7 20

 Activities
Reading Headphones Talking Waiting Lingering Using Purchasing Buying
phone tickets newspaper

Weekday 0 16 3 0 0 5 3 0
Morning

Weekday 0 18 4 2 3 4 5 1
Afternoon

Friday 1 20 15 30 3 32 7 0
Rush
Hour
 Exit path

Entry path

Sitting
N
Movement Map
 Thank you!

Works Cited:

Bernard, H. R. "Direct and Indirect Observation", Chapter 14 in Research Methods in Anthropology (5th Edition), AltaMira, Blue Ridge
Summit, PA, USA, 2011.

Jacobs, Jane, The Death and Life of the Great American Cities, Chapter 2 The Uses in Sidewalks: safety, Random House.

William Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Places, Chapter 5, 1980

Zeisel, John, Inquiry By Design (New York: Cambridge University Press), Chapter 8. Also pp.111-136.