Why is the public realm—parks, boulevards, open space—so important in a city or community?
Garvin: This is where we go shopping, where we go to meet people, to play, just to hang out. It’s our living room, and I think we should take care of our living room. The public realm of any city is what people remember. They don’t remember the buildings unless it’s a unique architecture.These are the things that people care about, and it’s what they remember. Zimbabwe: The public realm is the only space that is shared by everyone. In that way, it reaffirms one’s citizenship—not in a legal or documented status, but as a participant in the civic life of a community. My fantasy side-research project is to map the United States by calling a dozen wedding photographers in every city and asking them to list the places where couples request to capture their new union on film: the parks, plazas, doorways, boulevards, [and] lobbies where people want to document forever a public proclamation of their love. These are the most intensified[sites], perhaps, of this “public-ness,” but to varying deg
