The area that I decided to analyze for my final student directed field assignment was a square block in downtown Seattle that stretched from Pike to Pine and from 6th to 7th Street. This area was chosen because it is the largest shopping district in the greater Seattle area and one could expect to see an assorted population. Because of this I thought that it would be interesting to see what is done to maintain social order; how the physical environment was built, how structures were built to ensure easy mobilization, and how public safety was maintained.
I found that the built environment did not have a significant effect on the types of people who were attracted to the area. In this area there were businesses such as, Nordstrom, Old Navy, Barns and Noble, Tiffany, Nike Town, Gameworks, Pacific Place, J. Crew, and a couple different Coffee shops. The shopping selection, eating areas, and entertainment shops combine together to attract a wide range of visitors. To accommodate to all of these people that were attracted to these shops, there were two extremely large parking garages close to one another, more than enough space to accommodate the number the people during all times of the day. The population increased at 4:30 to 5:30 when all of the people were getting off from work and it sharply decreased at 9:00 and during both times the parking garage was not full. In the off peak times there were substantially less people walking the streets. I came to believe that it was due to all of the holiday shopping and peoples work schedules colliding. .
All of the different stores attract a wide range of people who could be looking for anything from a new toy form the Sharper Image to a $10,000 from Tiffanies. By this I mean the area is not economically biased. At first one may notice the ritzier shops and the look of the built environment and believe the overall built environment is structured for the wealthy.
