Comments on: Elephant Paths

By: J. Philipp Bohn

J. Philipp Bohn — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 19:41:14 +0000

(Let me find out where I read this.) The idea was as outlined in the post. But after they had the paths paved according to how the people chose to walk on the lawn, people started to •shortcut• these, too.

Maybe there was a general problem with pedestrians feeling •patronized•.

By: David Adam Edelstein

David Adam Edelstein — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 00:03:50 +0000

The original location this was tried was, I believe, University of Oregon, detailed in Christopher Alexander’s “The Oregon Experiment”. My experience when I started there was similar to Richard’s — “What the hell, who layed out these pathways?”

But of course they were exactly where the pathways should be, and after a week I stopped noticing them.

By: Richard Smith

Richard Smith — Mon, 19 Jul 2004 01:50:12 +0000

The University of Miami pathways were created in this way – the entire place was planted to grass and then, a year or two later, they paved the paths that were most obvious. You can see this clearly near the library, the student building, and the residences, where there are some diagonal paths that aren’t what you’d expect in a ‘normal’ campus.