Development of a new approach for appraising the aesthetic quality of cities

Environmental psychologists, architects, urban planners, geographers, and others have proposed a number of methods for appraising the aesthetic quality of cities. This dissertation analyzes and evaluates those methods and proposes a new approach for conducting aesthetic appraisals of cities.

Existing approaches to urban aesthetic evaluation may be divided into two broad categories: (1) expert-based, and (2) lay-based. In expert-based appraisal, analysis is carried out by one or more individuals who have special training or experience that qualifies them to judge urban aesthetics. Lay-based appraisals solicit public opinion about the aesthetic quality of the urban environment. The method developed in this research combines these two approaches. A combined public-expert criticism has the advantage of combining the popular aesthetic sense with the more structured views of experts.

This approach is applied to Lubbock as a pilot study. Four sample groups were asked to indicate the most and least visually appealing areas in the city and to give the reasons for their selection. The results were analyzed by content analysis and mapped. Then the twelve highest and lowest ranked areas were subject to a design analysis by the investigator (expert). The results of the lay and expert views were analyzed using triangulation methods.

The results of the research found that the public is generally consistent in the criteria they utilize for appraising cities. They also reveal some design properties that are common to the most or least appealing areas of the city.

Results of the pilot study show that the new method of aesthetic evaluation is consistent, universal in its applicability, easy to use, and useful for identifying areas that have high or low aesthetic appeal and determining the factors by which they are identified. Findings indicate that a construct of aesthetic quality, based on properties of urban form, is sufficient for design analysis, but not for understanding public appraisals. The author suggests an inclusive construct of aesthetic quality of cities that associates properties of urban form with others of social interaction.