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I have seen these aspects quantified. Not that it has to be quantified to have value.

One thing I've learned from reading this site and the comments is from @David C.; the concept of the important of placing value on something you value, like sense of place, thus quantifying it. For instance he recently mentioned in a discussion about the cost of putting power lines underground that the value of trees and aesthetics (and other stuff) that would be saved/improved with underground wires weren't included in the cost analyses of burying the wires.

But where I've seen attributes like "sense of place' quantified has been in surveys where people are asked to describe a neighborhood they'd like to live in or visit and /or are shown photographs of neighborhoods with varying degrees of "sense of place" and then asked to rate them. In these studies walkable neighborhoods with interesting human scale architecture, big trees and safe street traffic always rank high. That is, neighborhoods like historic Shaw and the less restrictive pre-1958 zoning that enabled Shaw to be formed are valued/quantified highly compared to what these 1950 plans would have turned Shaw into.

by Tina on Jul 9, 2012 2:26 pm • link • report