KPFui’s introduction to place-based analytics continues with an exploration of the “there” of urban experience. As previously discussed, there relates to a city’s interconnectedness. Livelihood, at both individual and city scales, is dependent on the ability to move from place to place with relative ease and sufficient speed. Movement from here to there is a requisite for urban prosperity and allows people and places to thrive in harmony. Read the first part of the series here.

New Yorkers most commonly travel by a combination of walking and subway rides. KPFui’s “10 Minute Trip” tool creates a comprehensive visualization of everyday movement in New York. By addressing the fundamental differences in pedestrian and subway transit, an insight is offered into the relationship between distance and time.

Fig 1 - A comparison between Grand Central and Queensboro Plaza in Queens shows how transit can almost collapse and expand space.

The Tool Explained

Beginning with a defined starting point, the 10 Minute Trip tool shows every building that is accessible within a 10 minute radius. Color-shading depicts the time required to reach each building, marked in one minute increments. The key differentiator between this and more commonly used walking time analysis tools is that KPFui’s tool integrates walking times with the time required for subway travel. Subway stations in proximity, various train lines, average wait times, and additional stops are all considered. For example, walking to a station, waiting for the train, making a transfer, and walking to a final destination may all occur within a 10 minute timeframe and is imagined with the tool.

KPFui’s analysis yields a nuanced view of the there of any given place. The images depict potential travel distances, the quantity of sites within reach of a given point, and give broad insight into the experiential qualities of travel, which can be seen in changes in density. Bustling hubs of activity contrast with less connected neighborhoods and perpetuate a perception of isolation. The visualizations also show that time and distance are fluid. Destinations farther from the starting point may be reachable within 10 minutes of travel, while closer points are not.

The inner workings of New York and its citizens are highlighted with snapshot comparisons of transit centers throughout the city. The intensity of Grand Central’s statistics and visible density clearly position the terminal as one of the city’s prominent hubs. Considering Atlantic Avenue and Queensboro Plaza side by side, differences exist mostly in daily ridership, suggesting that the Queens station functions mostly as a gateway. Passengers are very likely passing through without disembarking or engaging with the immediate neighborhood.

Fig 3 - Grand Central, Manhattan:Maximum travel distance: 9,171 feetBuildings accessible: 4,157Accessible GFA: 319,232,465 SFDaily ridership: 158,580 — Fig 3 - Grand Central, Manhattan:
Maximum travel distance: 9,171 feet
Buildings accessible: 4,157
Accessible GFA: 319,232,465 SF
Daily ridership: 158,580

Fig 4 - Queensboro Plaza, Queens:Maximum travel distance: 9,318 feetBuildings accessible: 5,024Accessible GFA: 68, 019,605 SFDaily ridership: 23,588 — Fig 4 - Queensboro Plaza, Queens:
Maximum travel distance: 9,318 feet
Buildings accessible: 5,024
Accessible GFA: 68, 019,605 SF
Daily ridership: 23,588

Fig 5 - Atlantic Avenue/Barclays Center, Brooklyn:Maximum travel distance: 9,309 feetBuildings accessible: 7,660Accessible GFA: 90,571,831 SFDaily ridership: 42,711 — Fig 5 - Atlantic Avenue/Barclays Center, Brooklyn:
Maximum travel distance: 9,309 feet
Buildings accessible: 7,660
Accessible GFA: 90,571,831 SF
Daily ridership: 42,711

Fig 6 - Queensboro Plaza in Detail. Accessible places within 10 minutes decrease dramatically the farther away a passenger moves from Manhattan.

The 10 Minute Trip tool can also highlight disparities between less connected areas of the city. The Red Hook neighborhood along the Brooklyn waterfront shows isolation and a lack of interconnectedness to the rest of the city with no immediate subway access, while Sunnyside, Queens shows similar isolation with only a single subway line.

Fig 7 - 46th Street, Sunnyside, Queens: Max Distance 8,810', Buildings Accessible 4,796, GFA Accessible 39,213,553, Daily Ridership 14,335

Fig 8 - Redhook, Brooklyn. Max Distance 2,640', Buildings Accessible 1,105, GFA Accessible 11,667,922, Daily Ridership NA

The 10 Minute Trip tool can be applied across scales, providing a comprehensive view of the varying conditions of connectivity that exist within a single city. Below, the tool is applied to the entire length of Broadway, one of New York's most iconic streets. Running from the northern tip of Manhattan at 220th Street all the way south to Battery Park, the visualization demonstrates both the remarkable intertwining and uneven distribution of the New York City subway system.

TenMinuteTrip from Jason Danforth on Vimeo.

Fig 9 - 10 Minute Trip analysis along Broadway, Manhattan

Any sufficiently robust analysis system carries the potential to become a design tool. Taken together, City Mile and the 10 Minute Trip tools provide new platforms for planners, designers, urbanists, and architects to engage with the many conditions that define the world’s metropolitan places. Compelling visualizations will attract both the committed stakeholder and the casual participant, improving the dialogue that surrounds urbanism, architecture and data.

Architects and urbanists regularly perform data analysis to quantify space. Environmental factors, such as solar radiation and shadow casting, the tectonics of massing, and floor area optimization are just a few examples of the ways that computation informs the design of buildings and cities.

KPFui’s place-based analytics extend data’s traditional role in design, illuminating the more complex, qualitative aspects of place.

The urban experience, especially in a metropolis the size and density of New York City, may be simplified into two types of perspective: “here” and “there.” Here may be considered the relatively stationary aspects of a place, what is visible and felt, the activities partaken in the immediate moment. It consists of a place’s physical characteristics, program, density and aesthetics. There acknowledges that connectivity is the mainstay of any city: movement between places is not only inevitable, but constant and integral to the lives of the urban population. To be effective, place-based analytics must consider the here and there concept both individually and as a binary construct.

Place-based Analytics: Brooklyn Heights, New York City

City Mile

KPFui is developing the “City Mile” tool to gain insight into the conditions and character of the urban here. In the context of a one-mile diameter swath of territory, the built environment is organized into concentric rings. Each ring represents the formation of individual buildings that can be experienced as a person moves away from the center point in one minute increments. Program is illustrated by color coding and the thickness of the ring depicts built density, swelling or thinning as the amount of constructed area fluctuates. A neighborhood’s architectural tapestry, including sizes and proliferation of structures, use, and density, is brought together in an effort to effectively visualize the experience of place.

City Mile Across the Five Boroughs

Comparing City Mile visualizations from each of the city’s boroughs highlights the incredible range of built density in New York. Midtown’s overall built form lies in sharp contrast to the largely residential and mostly suburban quality of Todt Hill on Staten Island. Downtown Brooklyn’s diverse programming is fairly evenly distributed, reflecting the thriving and lively atmosphere the neighborhood is known for.

Downtown Brooklyn in Detail

A closer look provides more detail, revealing the complexity of Downtown Brooklyn’s built environment. Rings closest to the center display large scale developments, including commercial, retail and residential programs, while outer rings show the mixed-use, smaller scale periphery that is typically associated with the neighborhood.

Low Rise

Through analysis and visualization, KPFui is challenging common assumptions regarding neighborhood character and augmenting the design process by introducing layers of information and a deeper understanding of site. A side by side comparison of two vibrant, mixed-use neighborhoods – Greenwich Village in Manhattan, and St. George on Staten Island – quickly illustrates their similarities and differences. Both considered lower density, the ambiguous definition of "low rise" quickly becomes apparent.

Animating the Streets

Larger conditions can be composited with City Mile, providing insight into the characteristics of thoroughfares, entire city squares, and even neighborhood adaptations over time.

The center point of this City Mile animation moves along 42nd Street in Midtown from the Hudson River to the East. While the increasing density and prevalence of office programming is to be expected, the relaxation seen at the edges showcases the kinds of development opportunities that underlie projects like Hudson Yards and Waterline Square.

Along 125th Street in Harlem, the overall density remains relatively consistent, especially in comparison to the monumental shifts in Midtown. In Harlem, however, the trend in building size is reversed, revealing a remarkably tight clustering of smaller structures toward the center of Manhattan with larger, and mostly residential, buildings further east.