As part of the MSU’s College of Architecture’s Site Planning Course, I created this plan of Starkville’s Cotton District highlighting the elements of the city as defined by Kevin Lynch in The Image of the City.
Paths:
Paths are the channels along which the observer customarily, occasionally, or potentially moves. Paths are the conduits through which we move through and area.
• S Montgomery St.
• Dr Martin Luther King Jr Dr. W
• Russell St.
• University Dr./ Main St.
Edges:
Edges are the boundaries between two phases, linear breaks in continuity. An edge is where one area ends and another begins. Some edges are hard while others are gradually transitionary.
• The railroad
• Highway 12
• Highway 182
• Russell St.
• The Cemetery
Districts:
Districts are the medium-to-large sections of the city, conceived of as having two-dimensional extent, which the observer mentally enters "inside of," and which are recognizable as having some common, identifying character. A district has a few distinct characteristics that would set it apart from others. These characteristics can be physical or social, and are often a combination of both.
• The Cotton District
• Downtown Starkville
• The Bar District
Nodes:
Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which are the
intensive foci to and from which he is traveling. Nodes are a place to stop and chose the next course of action, whether it be continuing along the same coarse or changing direction. If it were a choose-you-own-adventure book, a node would be the text at the end of a chapter that allows several choices of endings.
• University / Maxwell
• Lampkin / Montgomery
• 12 / Russell
• Montgomery / Main
Landmarks
Landmarks are another type of point-reference, but in this case the observer does not enter within them, they are external. Landmarks are easily thought of as physical things that one would use as an aid in wayfinding. “Go down the street and take a left at the water tower.” The water tower would be a landmark.
• The Fountain
• The Mill
• City Hall’s flag
• First Baptist’s Steeple
• The Cemetery
• The Marathon Sign
• Stromboli’s Sign